Proposals for improvement of Annex I of Directive 92/43/EEC: Central Italy

The main purpose of the 92/43/EEC Habitats Directive is to contribute to the conservation of biodiversity, understood as habitat types and species of the flora and fauna of the European Union. To achieve this goal, natural and semi-natural biodiversity as a whole must be recognized and included in its annexes. As for the conservation of biotopes, named habitat types, Italy is unfortunately lacking as it the Annex I does not include important ecosystems that are typical of its territory, rare for biogeographical reasons or threatened. Therefore, the opportunity to identify a first list of significant habitats for central Italy is discussed here. For each of the new proposed types (new habitats or new subtypes) a sheet has been prepared to highlight their salient characteristics. The new proposals concern seven habitat types and one subtype: sedge and reeds formations (Freshwater large sedge and reed beds), willow shrublands (Shrubby willow formations of river banks and fens), Apennine garrigues (Apennine hilly and montane garrigues), a new subtype of Annex I Habitat 6130 (Communities of herbaceous and dwarf shrub-suffrutescent plants of Italian ultramafic substrates), ancient olive groves ("Centuries-old olive groves" with evergreen Quercus spp. and arborescent matorral), secondary meadows (Italian submontane and montane pastured meadows dominated by Cynosurus cristatus), badlands (Pioneer halophilous and sub-halophilous communities of “calanchi” and “biancane” badlands) and hop-hornbeam woods (Italian-Balkan hop-hornbeam woods).

Optimizing Field Development in South Sultanate of Oman Through Deep Water Disposal Dwd Reclassification

The South Oman clusters A and B have reclassified their Deep-Water Disposal wells (DWD) into water injection (WI) wells. This is a novel concept where the excess treated water will be used in the plantation of additional reed beds (Cluster A) and the farming of palm trees (Cluster B), as well as act as pressure support for nearby fields. This will help solve multiple issues at different levels namely helping the business achieve its objective of sustained oil production, helping local communities with employment and helping the organization care for the environment by reducing carbon footprints. This reclassification covers a huge water volume in Field-A and Field-B where 60,000 m3/day and 40,000 m3/day will be injected respectively in the aquifer. The remaining total excess volume of approx. 200,000m3/d will be used for reed beds and Million Date Palm trees Project. The approach followed for the reclassification and routing of water will: Safeguard the field value (oil reserves) by optimum water injectionMaintain the cap-rock integrity by reduced water injection into the aquifer.Reduce GHG intensity by ±50% as a result of (i) reduced power consumption to run the DWD pumps and (ii) the plantation of trees (reed beds and palm trees).Generate ICV (in-country value) opportunities in the area of operations for the local community to use the excess water at surface for various projects.Figure 1DWD Reclassification benefits Multiple teams (subsurface. Surface, operations), interfaces and systems have been associated to reflect the re-classification project. This was done through collaboration of different teams and sections (i.e. EC, EDM, SAP, Nibras, OFM, etc). Water injection targets and several KPIs have been incorporated in various dashboards for monitoring and compliance purposes. Figure 2Teams Integration and interfaces It offers not only a significant boost to the sustainability of the business, but also pursues PDO's Water Management Strategy to reduce Disposal to Zero by no later than the year 2030 This paper will discuss how the project was managed, explain the evaluation done to understand the extent of the pressure support in nearby fields from DWD and the required disposal rate to maintain the desired pressures. Hence, reclassifying that part of deep-water disposal volume to water injection (WI) which requires a totally different water flood management system to be built around it.

Découverte de Mimumesa wuestneii (Faester, 1951) dans la réserve naturelle nationale du Lac de Grand-Lieu (France, Loire-Atlantique), un site riche en Psenidae (Hymenoptera : Psenidae)

Discovery of Mimumesa wuestneii (Faester, 1951) in the national nature reserve of Lac de Grand-Lieu (Loire-Atlantique, France), a site rich in Psenidae (Hymenoptera: Psenidae). - Mimumesa wuestneii (Faester, 1951), a rare species associated with reed beds, is recorded in France for the first time, in a site which has also been found to be rich in Psenidae (Hymenoptera).

The Ecosystems of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve state-of the-art

Taking into account the morphologic-hydrographic configuration of natural ecosystems or ecosystems partly modified by man the area, its flora and fauna communities and the long-term human impact, the two main categories of Danube Delta ecosystems associated with Razim-Sinoie lake complex, coastal marine waters and the Danube flood plain between Isaccea and Tulcea, as part of Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, have been delimited: natural ecosystems or ecosystems partly modified by man; anthropic ecosystems. To identify and characterize ecosystems, there have been analysed the data on hydrography, morphology, biodiversity, human settlements, types of land use, spatial changes through the construction of agricultural, fisheries, forestry polders, modification of the network of channels and canals with consequences on the water circulation system inside the delta. The first category, of natural and partly modified by man ecosystems comprises 23 types (water bodies: running waters-Danube and its main branches, channels and canals; standing freshwater-lakes; standing brackish and salt waters-coastal lagoons, coastal, marine zones; wetlands: water fringe vegetation-flooded reed beds, floating reed beds , riparian willow formations, frequently flooded river levees; forests, shrubs and herbaceous vegetation: temperate riverine forests-mixed oak woods, shrubs and herbaceous vegetation, steppe meadows, meadows on low marine levees; dunes, beaches).The second category, of anthropic ecosystems includes 7 types (agricultural lands, forest areas-plantation on the river banks, fish farms, settlements-villages, towns). With the establishment of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve in 1990, with the statutory provisions on the protection and conservation of biodiversity, the deltaic landscape, some of the previous pressures were reduced, but the pollution of the Danube waters less consolidated beaches (Sulina, Sfântu Gheorghe, Chituc) and related with touristic activities, on ecosystems as a whole. The tourism activities also must represent not only a positive and dynamic development factor but also a practical solution to keeping the environment unaltered. These aspects were mentioned in the characterization of the ecosystems presented in this article.

The effect of reed beds distributions on the Ecohydraulic dynamics of wetlands and lowlands: experimental analyses and simulations

<p>The interplay between riparian vegetation and water flow in vegetated water bodies has a key role in the dynamic evolution of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems in wetlands and lowlands. The present study analyzes the effects of the spatial distribution of reed (<em>Phragmites australis</em> (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud.) beds, an invasive riparian species extremely widespread in wetland and lowlands worldwide, on the main hydraulic and hydrodynamic properties of an abandoned vegetated reclamation channel located in Northern Tuscany, Italy. A field campaign was carried out to obtain Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) of reed beds through both ground-based and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) methodologies, and to correlate them to the channel’s flow dynamic and water quality main features. Then, Hydrodynamic simulations of the vegetated reclamation channel were performed and validated based on the experimental measurements of the hydraulic and vegetational parameters acquired in the field to build up a robust model to be employed also in future Ecohydraulic researches. The evidences of this study constitute useful insights in the quantitative analysis of the correlation between the spatial distribution of riparian vegetation stands in natural and manmade vegetated water bodies and their hydrodynamic and water quality main features.</p>

From dust till drowned: the Holocene landscape development at Norderney, East Frisian Islands

Within the multidisciplinary WASA project, 160 cores up to 5 m long have been obtained from the back-barrier area and off the coast of the East Frisian island of Norderney. Thirty-seven contained basal peats on top of Pleistocene sands of the former Geest and 10 of them also had intercalated peats. Based on 100 acclerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C dates and analyses of botanical as well as zoological remains from the peats, lagoonal sediments and the underlying sands, a variety of distinct habitats have been reconstructed. On the relatively steep slopes north of the present island, a swampy vegetation fringe several kilometres wide with carrs of alder (Alnus glutinosa) moved in front of the rising sea upwards of the Geest as it existed then until roughly 6 ka, when the sea level reached the current back-barrier region of Norderney at around −6 m NHN (German ordnance datum). From then on for nearly 4000 years a changing landscape with a mosaic of freshwater lakes and fens existed within this area. It was characterised by various stands of Cladium mariscus (fen sedge), alternating with brackish reed beds with Phragmites australis (common reed) and salt meadows with Aster tripolium (sea aster), Triglochin maritima (sea arrowgrass), Juncus gerardii (saltmarsh rush) as well as mudflats with Salicornia europaea (common glasswort). As far as shown by our cores, this highly diverse, and for humans potentially attractive landscape was at least some 4 km wide and followed the coast for about 10 km. Before the rising sea caused diversification of habitats, wet heath as well as dry and dusty sand areas existed. In the course of time, parts of the wet heath turned into raised Sphagnum bogs under an oceanic precipitation regime before this diverse landscape was drowned by the rising sea and finally covered by marine sediments, while the earlier sediments and peats were partly eroded and redeposited.