Science and nature in a changing Mediterranean world

2020 ◽  
pp. 323-358
Author(s):  
John D. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Nature Conservation ◽  
Plant Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Potential ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
The Mediterranean

The Mediterranean world is changing, perhaps faster than we realize and faster than it ever has before. As scientists, our role here is to provide information to help integrate such changes into political decision for nature conservation. This chapter is focused on issues and approaches that allow us to perform this role and bring science and nature conservation together, and promote this venture to enhanced political will to preserve the capacity for species to evolve. The historical triptych of factors that have conditioned plant evolution in the Mediterranean presented in previous chapters is replaced here by a triad of ecological interdependencies that ultimately provide a framework to develop an ecological solidarity to conserve evolutionary potential. The chapter leads to the conclusion of this book that it is in the construction of this ecological solidarity that our true responsibility as scientists can be revealed.

Conservation in the crossroads of history

2020 ◽  
pp. 263-311
Author(s):  
John D. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Plant Evolution ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Evolutionary Potential ◽  
Mediterranean Flora ◽  
Complementary Approach ◽  
Dispersal Agents ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Major Target

The first six chapters of this book describe the range of historical and contemporary processes that underlie the wealth, diversity, and divergence of natural populations and species in the Mediterranean flora. The processes of species divergence, adaptive trait variation along ecological transitions, interactions with pollinators and dispersal agents, and ongoing hybridization are, however, barely treated in conservation policy and action. After a presentation of the traditional approach to conservation based on rare species protection and the identification and conservation management of protected areas, this chapter presents arguments for a complementary approach based on the processes of plant evolution. Its primary proposal is that preventing further loss of evolutionary potential should become a major target of contemporary conservation strategies for the Mediterranean flora.

Crossing the Pomerium

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Koortbojian
Keyword(s):  
Social Practices ◽  
Civic Life ◽  
Public Monuments ◽  
Religion And Law ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Military ◽  
The City

The ancient Romans famously distinguished between civic life in Rome and military matters outside the city—a division marked by the pomerium, an abstract religious and legal boundary that was central to the myth of the city's foundation. This book explores, by means of images and texts, how the Romans used social practices and public monuments to assert their capital's distinction from its growing empire, to delimit the proper realms of religion and law from those of war and conquest, and to establish and disseminate so many fundamental Roman institutions across three centuries of imperial rule. The book probes such topics as the appearance in the city of Romans in armor, whether in representation or in life, the role of religious rites on the battlefield, and the military image of Constantine on the arch built in his name. Throughout, the book reveals how, in these instances and others, the ancient ideology of crossing the pomerium reflects the efforts of Romans not only to live up to the ideals they had inherited, but also to reconceive their past and to validate contemporary practices during a time when Rome enjoyed growing dominance in the Mediterranean world. The book explores a problem faced by generations of Romans—how to leave and return to hallowed city ground in the course of building an empire.

Diachronic trends in the evolution of civilizations in the Nile valley

2018 ◽  
pp. 37-49
Author(s):  
Элеонора Кормышева ◽  
Eleonora Kormysheva
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social History ◽  
Contact Zone ◽  
Scientific Discourse ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
The Mediterranean

The diachronic trends in socio-economic and cultural development of the societies in the Nile valley are revealed based on the materials from Giza necropolis (the 3rd millennium BC) and the settlement of Abu Erteila (1st century AD). The research made it possible to trace the typological similarities in the evolution of the studied societies in cultural and historical contexts. The main fields of the research were epigraphy, iconography, social history, and material culture. Many previously unknown monuments discovered by Russian archaeologists in Egypt and Sudan were introduced into scientific discourse. The basis was created for studying the Nile valley as a contact zone between the Mediterranean world and Africa.

America and the Mediterranean World, 1776-1882

1970 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 163
Author(s):  
William Stinchcombe ◽  
James A. Field
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean World ◽  
The Mediterranean

Medieval Transculturality in the Mediterranean from a Literary-Historical Perspective. The Case of Rudolf von Ems’ Der guote Gêrhart (ca. 1220–1225)

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-160
Author(s):  
Albrecht Classen
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Mediterranean Studies ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Middle Ages

Abstract Most scholars working on the concept of transculturality consider it a modern phenomenon, but we can discover forms of transculturality already in the Middle Ages, and this in terms of political, scholarly, artistic, medical and literary exchanges. Within the framework of Mediterranean Studies, this article examines the extraordinary case of Rudolf von Ems’ Der guote Gêrhart (ca. 1220–1225) which illustrates how much the Mediterranean world proved to be a highly useful backdrop for the description of transcultural exchanges between the protagonist and a Moroccan castellan, Stranmûr. The verse narrative is based on the experiences of a wealthy Cologne merchant who proves to be extraordinarily open to other cultures, languages and religions and encounters an equally minded Muslim lord. We would not be far off by describing the poet’s projections as a case of medieval tolerance.

scholarly journals Mediterranean Heathland as a Key Habitat for Fire Adaptations: Evidence from an Experimental Approach

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 748
Author(s):  
Susana Gómez-González ◽  
Maria Paniw ◽  
Mario Durán ◽  
Sergio Picó ◽  
Irene Martín-Rodríguez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Shock ◽  
Seed Size ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Fire Ecology ◽  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Plant Evolution ◽  
Fire Adaptations ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

Some fire ecology studies that have focused on garrigue-like vegetation suggest a weak selective pressure of fire in the Mediterranean Basin compared to other Mediterranean-type regions. However, fire-prone Mediterranean heathland from the western end of the Mediterranean Basin has been frequently ignored in the fire ecology literature despite its high proportion of pyrogenic species. Here, we explore the evolutionary ecology of seed traits in the generalist rockrose Cistus salviifolius L. (Cistaceae) aiming to ascertain the role of the Mediterranean heathland for fire adaptations in the Mediterranean Region. We performed a germination experiment to compare the relationship of seed size to (i) heat-stimulated germination, (ii) dormancy strength, and (iii) heat survival in plants from ‘high-fire’ heathland vs. ‘low-fire’ coastal shrubland. Germination after heat-shock treatment was higher in large seeds of both ‘high-fire’ and ‘low-fire’ habitats. However, dormancy was weaker in small seeds from ‘low-fire’ habitats. Finally, seed survival to heat shock was positively related to seed size. Our results support that seed size is an adaptive trait to fire in C. salviifolius, since larger seeds had stronger dormancy, higher heat-stimulated germination and were more resistant to heat shock. This seed size–fire relationship was tighter in ‘high-fire’ Mediterranean heathland than ‘low-fire’ coastal shrubland, indicating the existence of differential fire pressures and evolutionary trends at the landscape scale. These findings highlight the Mediterranean heathland as a relevant habitat for fire-driven evolution, thus contributing to better understand the role of fire in plant evolution within the Mediterranean region.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document