scholarly journals First GPS measurements across the Central-Western Mediterranean area

1999 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Anzidei ◽  
P. Baldi ◽  
G. Casula ◽  
A. Galvani ◽  
S. Kahlouche ◽  
...  

This paper concerns the displacement field of the central-western part of the Mediterranean basin estimated by the analysis of three repeated GPS surveys (1995, 1996 and 1997) consisting of 8 sites of a network. This network includes for the first time the stations of Algiers and Arzew, located in Northern Algeria, an area not yet investigated by regional GPS surveys. Lampedusa station is located in the Sicily Straits rifting area while the other five stations of Cagliari, Wettzell, Madrid, Matera and Noto belong to the IGS permanent tracking network. The statistical analysis of 1995, 1996 and 1997 data show significant displacements at five stations. The displacement vectors of the African sites show a convergence between the African and the Eurasian plates at a rate of 0.8 ± 0.4 cm within a two year time span. A comparison between the displacements estimated in the present work and the ITRF96 determinations for the five permanent stations allow us to evaluate the motion of Lampedusa, Algiers and Arzew in the IERS Terrestrial Reference System.

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Pasini ◽  
Alessandro Garassino ◽  
Marco Sami

An assemblage of axiidean and brachyuran decapods is reported from the late Miocene pre-evaporitic (early-middle Messinian) limestone of Cò di Sasso, nearby Brisighella (Ravenna, Emilia- Romagna), located in Romagna Apennines (NE Italy). Except Monodaeus bortolottii Delle Cave, 1988 (Xanthidae MacLeay, 1838), which is reported here for the first time in Miocene, all the other specimens have been assigned to species previously known in the Italian Miocene (Messinian s.l.), but never reported in this area. The report of Galathea cf. G. weinfurteri Bachmayer, 1950 (Galatheidae Samouelle, 1819) and Medorippe ampla Garassino, De Angeli, Gallo and Pasini, 2004 (Dorippidae MacLeay, 1838) enlarges the stratigraphic range of these Miocene species. This report enlarges our limited knowledge on the composition and distribution of the axiidean, anomuran, and brachyuran decapods during the early-middle Messinian before the evaporitic event in the Mediterranean Basin.


1982 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen L. Dyson

The aim of this article is to describe and discuss the use of archaeological survey in the Mediterranean area during recent decades. Emphasis will be placed on research conducted since World War II, and I will concentrate primarily on Greece and the Western Mediterranean. In this context, surveys centering on later prehistoric and historic periods will receive most attention. Note that even within these areas of concentration, this article cannot claim to be exhaustive. It is my intention to discuss the highlights of this rapidly developing field.


Author(s):  
Temani R

Uppermost Miocene stratigraphic sections have been sampled in Sicily and eastern Tunisia. Some of the stratigraphic levels contained in them are related to the continentalization phase (“Lago Mare”) of the Mediterranean Basin, which occurred at the end of the Messinian Salinity Crisis. Within these levels, ostracod associations reflecting fresh or brackish water environments are reported here for the first time. Species considered to be Paratethyan in affinity lived in these environments. The discovery, both in Sicily and Tunisia, of species such as C agrigentina, A propinqua, and M. punctate, suggests that the Sicilian Channel did not prevent the migration of the non-marine fauna from NW to SE in the Paleomediterranean area during the Post Evaporitic Phase


Author(s):  
Joshua M. White

This book offers a comprehensive examination of the shape and impact of piracy in the eastern half of the Mediterranean and the Ottoman Empire’s administrative, legal, and diplomatic response. In the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, piracy had a tremendous effect on the formation of international law, the conduct of diplomacy, the articulation of Ottoman imperial and Islamic law, and their application in Ottoman courts. Piracy and Law draws on research in archives and libraries in Istanbul, Venice, Crete, London, and Paris to bring the Ottoman state and Ottoman victims into the story for the first time. It explains why piracy exploded after the 1570s and why the Ottoman state was largely unable to marshal an effective military solution even as it responded dynamically in the spheres of law and diplomacy. By focusing on the Ottoman victims, jurists, and officials who had to contend most with the consequences of piracy, Piracy and Law reveals a broader range of piratical practitioners than the Muslim and Catholic corsairs who have typically been the focus of study and considers their consequences for the Ottoman state and those who traveled through Ottoman waters. This book argues that what made the eastern half of the Mediterranean basin the Ottoman Mediterranean, more than sovereignty or naval supremacy—which was ephemeral—was that it was a legal space. The challenge of piracy helped to define its contours.


Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 678
Author(s):  
Kamel Atrouz ◽  
Ratiba Bousba ◽  
Francesco Paolo Marra ◽  
Annalisa Marchese ◽  
Francesca Luisa Conforti ◽  
...  

Olive tree with its main final product, olive oil, is an important element of Mediterranean history, considered the emblematic fruit of a civilization. Despite its wide diffusion and economic and cultural importance, its evolutionary and phylogenetic history is still difficult to clarify. As part of the Mediterranean basin, Algeria was indicated as a secondary diversification center. However, genetic characterization studies from Maghreb area, are currently underrepresented. In this context, we characterized 119 endemic Algerian accessions by using 12 microsatellite markers with the main goal to evaluate the genetic diversity and population structure. In order to provide new insights about the history of olive diversification events in the Central-Western Mediterranean basin, we included and analyzed a sample of 103 Italian accessions from Sicily and, a set of molecular profiles of cultivars from the Central-Western Mediterranean area. The phylogenetic investigation let us to evaluate genetic relationships among Central-Mediterranean basin olive germplasm, highlight new synonymy cases to support the importance of vegetative propagation in the cultivated olive diffusion and consolidate the hypothesis of more recent admixture events occurrence. This work provided new information about Algerian germplasm biodiversity and contributed to clarify olive diversification process.


Viruses ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Golender ◽  
Avi Eldar ◽  
Marcelo Ehrlich ◽  
Yevgeny Khinich ◽  
Gabriel Kenigswald ◽  
...  

Reassortment contributes to the evolution of RNA viruses with segmented genomes, including Bluetongue virus (BTV). Recently, co-circulation of natural and vaccine BTV variants in Europe, and their ensuing reassortment, were proposed to promote appearance of novel European BTV strains, with potential implications for pathogenicity, spread and vaccination policies. Similarly, the geographical features of the Mediterranean basin, which spans over portions of three continents, may facilitate the appearance of clinically relevant reassortants via co-circulation of BTV strains of African, Asian and European origins. In August–October 2017, BTV serotype 6 (BTV-6) was identified in young animals exhibiting classical clinical signs of Bluetongue (BT) at Israeli sheep and cattle farms. Sequencing and pairwise analysis of this Israeli BTV-6 isolate revealed the closest sequence homology of its serotype-defining Segment 2 was with that of South African reference BTV-6 strain 5011 (93.88% identity). In contrast, the other viral segments showed highest homology (97.0%–99.47% identity) with BTV-3, -4 and -9 of Mediterranean and African origins. Specifically, four viral segments were nearly identical (99.13%–99.47%), with Tunisian and Italian BTV-3 strains (TUN2016 and SAD2018, correspondingly). Together, our data suggest that Mediterranean co-circulation and reassortment of BTV-3 and BTV-6 drove the emergence of a novel and virulent BTV-6 strain


2000 ◽  
Vol 51 (7) ◽  
pp. 891 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Villegas ◽  
N. Aparicio ◽  
M.M. Nachit ◽  
J. L. Araus ◽  
C. Royo

The relationships between various morphophysiological traits and yield were studied in durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) grown in Mediterranean conditions. Two sets of 22 genotypes were used. One was developed for semi-humid environments (TA-genotypes) and was cultivated in 22 trials around the Mediterranean basin with a mean yield across genotypes and environments of 4925 kg/ha. The other set was developed for drier conditions (CA-genotypes) and was cultivated in 15 trials, with a mean yield of 3501 kg/ha. Morphophysiological traits for each set were evaluated in 2 trials with contrasting water regimes conducted in north-eastern Spain: Lleida-rainfed (LR) and Lleida-irrigation (LI). Two kinds of traits were evaluated: developmental traits, including early vigour, plant height, and phenology (days from planting to heading and to maturity); and traits related to photosynthetic performance such as canopy temperature and chlorophyll content of the flag leaf, both measured during grain filling, and carbon isotope discrimination of mature grains. All the traits, measured in both Lleida trials, were related to the mean yield of the same genotypes across all the sites where they were cultivated. Yield measured at either of the 2 environments at Lleida was a much poorer predictor of genotype differences in mean yield than most of the traits. Nevertheless, the kind of environment where the morphophysiological traits were evaluated affected the performance of these traits as yield predictors. The combination of significant traits measured in the better environment (LI) explained 71% and 55% of genotype variability in yield within TA- and CA-genotypes, respectively, but only 56% and 27% when they were evaluated at LR. On the other hand, growing conditions of the yield trials was the main factor determining the best combination of traits. For TA-genotypes, larger yields were associated with shorter plants and higher carbon isotope discrimination (Δ) of grains, and to a lesser extent with higher early vigour and lower canopy temperature, whereas phenological traits made no contribution to explaining genotype differences in yield. For the CA-genotypes, higher yields were related to an earlier heading date or alternatively to a higher chlorophyll content during grain filling. A higher Δ in mature kernels also seems to be a positive trait.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 3687-3732 ◽  
Author(s):  
U. Dayan ◽  
K. M. Nissen ◽  
U. Ulbrich

Abstract. This review discusses published studies of heavy rainfall events over the Mediterranean Basin, combining them in a more general picture of the dynamic and thermodynamic factors and processes producing heavy rain storms. It distinguishes the Western and Eastern Mediterranean in order to point at specific regional peculiarities. The crucial moisture for developing intensive convection over these regions can be originated not only from the adjacent Mediterranean Sea but also from distant upwind sources. Transport from remote sources is usually in the mid-tropospheric layers and associated with specific features and patterns of the larger scale circulations. The synoptic systems (tropical and extra-tropical) accounting for most of the major extreme precipitation events and the coupling of circulation and extreme rainfall patterns are presented. Heavy rainfall over the Mediterranean Basin is caused at times in concert by several atmospheric processes working at different atmospheric scales, such as local convection, upper-level synoptic-scale troughs, and meso-scale convective systems. Under tropical air mass intrusions, convection generated by static instability seems to play a more important role than synoptic-scale vertical motions. Locally, the occurrence of torrential rains and their intensity is dependent on factors such as temperature profiles and implied instability, atmospheric moisture, and lower-level convergence.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Joan Pinar Gil ◽  
Jaime Vizcaíno Sánchez

Abstract During the 6th and 7th c. CE, Carthago Spartaria (modern Cartagena) became one of the most important cities in the Byzantine province of Spania. Recent archaeological excavations at Cerro del Molinete have significantly increased our knowledge of the ancient city, enabling the exploration of an early Byzantine neighborhood built over the Roman Forum district. A cast bronze ewer of type Werner A2 was found in a pit dug over the temple that presided over the Forum. The associated materials, mainly pottery and glass vessels, are compatible with a deposition between 580/90 and 650/60 CE. This assemblage improves our understanding of the trade networks interconnecting the Mediterranean basin during the 6th and 7th c. CE. In this context, we argue that the unknown production center of the A2 ewers was located in the northern Adriatic, probably in Ravenna.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Vogel

<p>The ecosystems of the Mediterranean Basin are particularly prone to climate change and related alterations in climatic anomalies. The seasonal timing of climatic anomalies is crucial for the assessment of the corresponding ecosystem impacts; however, the incorporation of seasonality is neglected in many studies. We quantify ecosystem vulnerability by investigating deviations of the climatic drivers temperature and soil moisture during phases of low ecosystem productivity for each month of the year over the period 1999 – 2019. The fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR) is used as a proxy for ecosystem productivity. Air temperature is obtained from the reanalysis data set ERA5 Land and soil moisture and FAPAR satellite products are retrieved from ESA CCI and Copernicus Global Land Service, respectively. Our results show that Mediterranean ecosystems are vulnerable to three soil moisture regimes during the course of the year. A phase of vulnerability to hot and dry conditions during late spring to midsummer is followed by a period of vulnerability to cold and dry conditions in autumn. The third phase is characterized by cold and wet conditions coinciding with low ecosystem productivity in winter and early spring. These phases illustrate well the shift between a soil moisture-limited regime in summer and an energy-limited regime in winter in the Mediterranean Basin. Notably, the vulnerability to hot and dry conditions during the course of the year is prolonged by several months in the Eastern Mediterranean compared to the Western Mediterranean. Our approach facilitates a better understanding of ecosystem vulnerability at certain stages during the year and is easily transferable to other study areas and ecoclimatological variables.</p>


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