scholarly journals Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of San Marino

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabrizio Rigato ◽  
James K. Wetterer

A recent catalog of the ants of Europe and surrounding areas listed no ants recorded from San Marino. One afternoon of collecting in urban sites of San Marino yielded 23 ant species: Aphaenogaster subterranea, Camponotus aethiops, Camponotus fallax, Camponotus lateralis, Camponotus piceus, Crematogaster scutellaris, Formica cunicularia, Formica gagates, Hypoponera eduardi, Lasius emarginatus, Lasius lasioides, Lasius paralienus, Messor structor, Pheidole pallidula, Plagiolepis pygmaea, Tapinoma nigerrimum s.l., Temnothorax angustulus, Temnothorax flavicornis, Temnothorax italicus, Temnothorax lichtensteini, Temnothorax tergestinus, Temnothorax unifasciatus, and Tetramorium caespitum. Surprisingly, despite collecting in heavily disturbed urban sites, none of the ants known so far from San Marino are exotic to Europe.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. 6395-6405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Tang ◽  
Jiang Zhu ◽  
ZiFa Wang ◽  
Alex Gbaguidi ◽  
CaiYan Lin ◽  
...  

Abstract. This study investigates a cross-variable ozone data assimilation (DA) method based on an ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) that has been used in the companion study to improve ozone forecasts over Beijing and surrounding areas. The main purpose is to delve into the impacts of the cross-variable adjustment of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions on the nitrogen dioxide (NO2) forecasts over this region during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. A mixed effect on the NO2 forecasts was observed through application of the cross-variable assimilation approach in the real-data assimilation (RDA) experiments. The method improved the NO2 forecasts over almost half of the urban sites with reductions of the root mean square errors (RMSEs) by 15–36 % in contrast to big increases of the RMSEs over other urban stations by 56–239 %. Over the urban stations with negative DA impacts, improvement of the NO2 forecasts (with 7 % reduction of the RMSEs) was noticed at night and in the morning versus significant deterioration during daytime (with 190 % increase of the RMSEs), suggesting that the negative data assimilation impacts mainly occurred during daytime. Ideal-data assimilation (IDA) experiments with a box model and the same cross-variable assimilation method confirmed the mixed effects found in the RDA experiments. In the same way, NOx emission estimation was improved at night and in the morning even under large biases in the prior emission, while it deteriorated during daytime (except for the case of minor errors in the prior emission). The mixed effects observed in the cross-variable data assimilation, i.e., positive data assimilation impacts on NO2 forecasts over some urban sites, negative data assimilation impacts over the other urban sites, and weak data assimilation impacts over suburban sites, highlighted the limitations of the EnKF under strong nonlinear relationships between chemical variables. Under strong nonlinearity between daytime ozone concentrations and NOx emissions uncertainties (with large biases in the a priori emission), the EnKF may come up with inefficient or wrong adjustments to NOx emissions. The present findings reveal that bias correction is essential for the application of the EnKF in dealing with the data assimilation problem over strong nonlinear system.



2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (22) ◽  
pp. 8813-8823 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Tang ◽  
X. Li ◽  
Y. Wang ◽  
J. Xin ◽  
X. Ren

Abstract. Beijing is a megacity situated in the rapidly developing Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region of northern China. In this study, we analyze data on ozone and nitrogen oxide levels obtained at six urban sites in Beijing between the months of July and September. Our goal is to investigate average trends and interpretations over the 2001–2006 period. Average concentrations of NOx (NOx=NO+NO2), O3, and Ox (Ox=O3+NO2) were 49.2±5.9 ppbv, 26.6±2.8 ppbv, and 60.3±1.9 ppbv, respectively. NOx concentrations decreased linearly at a rate of 3.9±0.5 ppbv/yr after 2002, while ozone concentrations increased at a rate of 1.1±0.5 ppbv/yr during 2001–2006, and Ox concentrations remained nearly constant. The reduction of NOx emissions and elevated non-methane hydrocarbon (NMHCs) emissions may have contributed to the increased O3 concentrations in Beijing. When the contributions from Beijing's urban and surrounding areas were disaggregated via trajectory cluster analysis, daily maximum and average Ox concentrations attributable to Beijing's local emissions increased linearly at rates of 1.3±0.6 ppbv/yr and 0.8±0.6 ppbv/yr, while the Ox concentrations attributable to regional areas decreased linearly at rates of 0.6±0.3 ppbv/yr and 0.5±0.3 ppbv/yr, respectively. The decrease in Ox concentrations of the surrounding areas was found to counteract increasing Beijing urban Ox production, leading to nearly constant Ox concentrations in the Beijing region over the study period. Our results may be helpful for redefining government strategies to control the photochemical formation of air pollutants in the Beijing region. Our conclusions have relevance for developing megacities worldwide.



2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2580
Author(s):  
Luis Ricardo Fernandes da Costa ◽  
Vládia Pinto Vidal de Oliveira ◽  
Jader De Oliveira Santos

O presente artigo trata da dinâmica dos sistemas ambientais e discute a aplicação de modelos de fragilidade ambiental em áreas de entorno de sítios urbanos. A metodologia do trabalho, pautada nos estudos integrados, procura estabelecer a relação de variáveis físico-ambientais e definir o mosaico para o estudo dos sistemas ambientais. A abordagem procedida possibilitou, a partir de uma análise interdisciplinar, visualizar a dinâmica dos sítios urbanos através da aplicação de quatro modelos de fragilidade ambiental. Os resultados demonstraram a importância da aplicação de diferentes modelos de fragilidade ambiental (potencial e emergente), com apoio de análises estatísticas, o que demonstrou, em diferentes situações, os elevados graus de degradação nas áreas de entorno dos sítios urbanos. Environmental fragility in the context of an urban site in the basin of the banabuiú river – Ceará A B S T R A C TThis article deals with the dynamics of environmental systems and discusses the application of models of environmental fragility in areas surrounding urban sites. The work methodology, based on the integrated studies, seeks to establish the relationship of physical-environmental variables and to define the mosaic for the study of environmental systems. Based on an interdisciplinary analysis, the approach made possible to visualize the dynamics of the urban sites through the application of four models of environmental fragility. The results demonstrated the importance of the application of different models of environmental fragility (potential and emergent), with the support of statistical analysis, which demonstrated, in different situations, the high degrees of degradation in the surrounding areas of urban sites.Keywords: Integrated analysis. Environmental systems. Urban site.



2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 8159-8185 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Tang ◽  
X. Li ◽  
Y. Wang ◽  
J. Xin ◽  
X. Ren

Abstract. Beijing is a megacity situated in the rapidly developing Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region of northern China. In this study, we analyze data on ozone and nitrogen oxide levels obtained at six urban sites in Beijing between the months of July and September. Our goal is to investigate average trends and interpretations over the 2001–2006 period. Average concentrations of NOx (NOx=NO+NO2), O3, and Ox (Ox=O3+NO2) were 49.2±5.9 ppbv, 26.6±2.8 ppbv, and 60.3±1.9 ppbv, respectively. NOx concentrations decreased linearly at a rate of 3.9±0.5 ppbv/yr after 2002, while ozone concentrations increased at a rate of 1.1±0.5 ppbv/yr in a two-year cycle during 2001–2006, and Ox concentrations remained nearly constant. The reduction of NOx emissions and elevated non-methane hydrocarbon (NMHCs) emissions may have contributed to the increased O3 concentrations in Beijing. When the contributions from Beijings urban and surrounding areas were disaggregated via trajectory cluster analysis, daily maximum and average Ox concentrations attributable to Beijing local emissions increased linearly at rates of 1.3±0.6 ppbv/yr and 0.8±0.6 ppbv/yr, while the Ox concentrations attributable to regional areas decreased linearly at rates of 0.6±0.3 ppbv/yr and 0.5±0.3 ppbv/yr, respectively. The decrease in Ox concentrations of surrounding areas was found to counteract increasing Beijing urban Ox production, leading to nearly constant Ox concentrations in the Beijing region over the study period. Our results may be helpful for redefining government strategies to control the photochemical formation of air pollutants in the Beijing region. Our conclusions have relevance for developing megacities worldwide.



2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 7811-7849 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. Tang ◽  
J. Zhu ◽  
Z. F. Wang ◽  
A. Gbaguidi

Abstract. We performed ozone data assimilation by simultaneously adjusting the ozone initial conditions, precursor initial conditions and emissions based on the Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) and assessed its impacts on ozone modeling and forecasting in Beijing and nearby regions. A high-resolution regional air quality model and a newly established regional monitoring network covering Beijing and its surrounding areas were employed. At each assimilation cycle, the forecast error covariance was sampled from a set of forecast ensembles that were generated by perturbing ozone precursor initial conditions, emissions, photolysis rates and deposition velocity. A model-error module and a local analysis scheme have been introduced to reduce the impact of filter divergence and spurious correlation that accompanied with EnKF. The results showed significant improvement of 1-hour ozone forecast in Beijing and its surrounding areas through separately adjusting ozone initial conditions, precursor initial conditions and emissions with ozone observations. However, adjustment of precursor initial conditions and emissions had minor effect on the 1-hour ozone forecast in suburban area. The best ozone forecast skill was obtained through jointly adjusting ozone initial conditions, NOx and VOC initial conditions and emissions. The root mean square errors of 1-hour ozone forecast at urban sites and suburban sites decreased by 54% and 59% respectively compared with those in free run. Furthermore, the specific impacts of observations from urban and suburban sites on ozone data assimilation were evaluated by implementing sensitivity experiments. Both urban and suburban sites were found to be very important for the improvement of regional ozone forecast. The importance of observational data at urban sites was particularly highlighted through its role in constraining the uncertainty of precursor initial conditions and emission rates. Further improvement of regional ozone forecast might therefore be expected with more routine regional air pollution monitoring stations.



2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (3SI) ◽  
pp. 411
Author(s):  
N. H. Quyet ◽  
Le Hong Khiem ◽  
V. D. Quan ◽  
T. T. T. My ◽  
M. V. Frontasieva ◽  
...  

The aim of this paper was the application of statistical analysis including principal component analysis to evaluate heavy metal pollution obtained by moss technique in the air of Ha Noi and its surrounding areas and to evaluate potential pollution sources. The concentrations of 33 heavy metal elements in 27 samples of Barbula Indica moss in the investigated region collected in December of 2016 in the investigated area have been examined using multivariate statistical analysis. Five factors explaining 80% of the total variance were identified and their potential sources have been discussed.



2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 127
Author(s):  
Purnama Hidayat ◽  
Denny Bintoro ◽  
Lia Nurulalia ◽  
Muhammad Basri

Species identification, host range, and identification key of whiteflies of Bogor and surrounding area. Whitefly (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is a group of insects that are small, white, soft-bodied, and easily found on various agricultural crops. Whitefly is a phytophagous insect; some species are important pests in agricultural crops that can cause direct damage and can become vectors of viral diseases. The last few years the damage caused by whitefly in Indonesia has increased. Unfortunately, information about their species and host plants in Indonesia, including in Bogor, is still limited. Kalshoven, in his book entitled Pest of Crops in Indonesia, published in the 1980s reported that there were 9 species of whitefly in Indonesia. The information on the book should be reconfirmed. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine whitefly species and its host plants in Bogor and its surroundings. Whiteflies is identified based on the ‘puparia’ (the last instar of the nymph) collected from various agricultural plants, ornamental plants, weeds, and forest plants. A total of 35 species of whiteflies were collected from 74 species and 29 families of plants. The collwcted whiteflies consist of four species belong to Subfamily Aleurodicinae and 31 species of Subfamily Aleyrodinae. The most often found whitefly species were Aleurodicus dispersus, A. dugesii, and Bemisia tabaci. A dichotomous identification key of whiteflies was completed based on morphological character of 35 collected species. The number of whitefly species in Bogor and surrounding areas were far exceeded the number of species reported previously by Kalshoven from all regions in Indonesia.



2018 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-79
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Nikorowicz-Zatorska

Abstract The present paper focuses on spatial management regulations in order to carry out investment in the field of airport facilities. The construction, upgrades, and maintenance of airports falls within the area of responsibility of local authorities. This task poses a great challenge in terms of organisation and finances. On the one hand, an active airport is a municipal landmark and drives local economic, social and cultural development, and on the other, the scale of investment often exceeds the capabilities of local authorities. The immediate environment of the airport determines its final use and prosperity. The objective of the paper is to review legislation that affects airports and the surrounding communities. The process of urban planning in Lodz and surrounding areas will be presented as a background to the problem of land use management in the vicinity of the airport. This paper seeks to address the following questions: if and how airports have affected urban planning in Lodz, does the land use around the airport prevent the development of Lodz Airport, and how has the situation changed over the time? It can be assumed that as a result of lack of experience, land resources and size of investments on one hand and legislative dissonance and peculiar practices on the other, aviation infrastructure in Lodz is designed to meet temporary needs and is characterised by achieving short-term goals. Cyclical problems are solved in an intermittent manner and involve all the municipal resources, so there’s little left to secure long-term investments.



2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 369-384

Many Public Aquaria have been designed and constructed all over the world during the last three decades. The serial arrangement of relatively small, rectangular, concrete tanks has been replaced by fewer large, irregularly shaped tanks, replicating habitats. The “taxonomic concept” of displaying specimens in the old aquaria has now been succeeded by the more ecological, “community concept” type of display. At the same time most of the “old aquaria” have been renovated. Aquarium missions have also been broadened nowadays including research, conservation and education. Aquaria are ideal places for research on husbandry, life cycles, reproduction, behavior, autoecology and fish pathology. Collaboration with Universities and Research Centers increases the research potential in scientific disciplines such as ecology, genetics, physiology and biochemistry. Collaboration also provides mutual benefits in both infrastructure and personnel: The research background in aquaria also forms a sound platform to materialize conservation projects, focusing either on the ex-situ conservation of animals in the aquaria or on environmental protection of surrounding areas and reintroduction of endangered species. In addition to formal educational opportunities, non formal education to visitors, schools and undergraduates seems to become a major mission of aquaria. Aquarium tank displays, preserved biological material, film projections, seminars / lectures and book magazine publications enhance environmental awareness, encouraging people to adopt Environmentally Responsible Behavior. All these missions are feasible because most public aquaria are making a good profit mainly due to their high popularity. There are also benefits for the community in the area; aquaria have enlivened declining water front areas and increased the income of tourist resorts mainly by “stretching out” the tourist season. In the present work the objectives of a public aquarium are reviewed and the main infrastructure subsystems and operational procedures are described; Know how on aquarium systems can also be applied in research laboratories of academic institutions if live organisms have to be kept for experimentation. Aquarium missions on research, conservation and education are discussed.



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