Cultivating Archaeological Landscape

The paper proposes an interdisciplinary exploration in order to define a set of strategies and tools oriented at planning/design/management of archaeological landscapes, especially featured by productive layers. The article adopts as a key dimension the “cultivating” approach, which can become a fertile ground for experimentation for developing sustainable and innovative planning methodologies to be applied in layered landscapes. In an extended semantic dimension, the term cultivation can be interpreted as a continuous attitude of taking care of (archaeological) places over time, to preserve and regenerate resources for the future in a holistic vision, also considering economic sustainability and liveability for inhabitants and local fauna. The cultivating approach can preserve heritage places by an active and inventive conservation, also fostering biodiversity and temporal diversity. As a case study, the article proposes the Landscape Masterplan for the Baratti and Populonia Archaeological Park.

Distinct profiles of spatio-temporal brain dynamics along symptoms dimensions in autism

ABSTRACTAutism Spectrum Disorders are accompanied by atypical brain activity and impairments in brain connectivity. In particular, dynamic functional connectivity approaches highlighted aberrant brain fluctuations at rest in individuals with autism compared to a group composed of typically developed individuals, matched in age and gender. However, the characterization of these variations remains unclear. Here, we quantified the spatio-temporal network dynamics using two novel dynamic group-based measures, namely system diversity and spatio-temporal diversity. Using the public database ABIDE 1, we explored the differences between individuals with autism and typically developed individuals. Our results show evidence that individuals with autism have atypical connectivity patterns over time characterized by a lower integration of heterogeneous cognitive processes and unstable functional activity, except for the default mode network presenting its own specific dynamic pattern. Within the autism group, we find this pattern of results to be stronger in more severely affected patients with a predominance of symptoms in the social affect domain. However, patients with prominently restricted and repetitive behaviours demonstrate a more conservative profile of brain dynamics characterized by a lower spatio-temporal diversity of the default mode network.

Riqueza fitoplanctónica en el lago Zempoala del Parque Nacional Lagunas de Zempoala

This study examines the richness of phytoplanktonic species found in one of the aquifers of the Lagunas de Zempoala National Park. The samples were carried out monthly from September 2018 to February 2019. During this period, 26 species integrated in seven divisions, 20 families and seven classes were recognized, among which the Bacillariophyceae class stands out with the greatest diversity (eight species). The species Staurastrum bulbosum was the most frequent throughout the study. In terms of temporal diversity, October presented 15 species and September 13, these variations have to do with changes in abiotic conditions throughout the year. According to previous work, the lake Zempoala can be classified as mesotrophic with periods of eutrophy mainly related to the availability of nutrients and algal blossoming.

The scale dependency of spatial crop species diversity and its relation to temporal diversity

Increasing crop species diversity can enhance agricultural sustainability, but the scale dependency of the processes that shape diversity and of the effects of diversity on agroecosystems is insufficiently understood. We used 30 m spatial resolution crop classification data for the conterminous United States to analyze spatial and temporal crop species diversity and their relationship. We found that the US average temporal (crop rotation) diversity is 2.1 effective number of species and that a crop’s average temporal diversity is lowest for common crops. Spatial diversity monotonically increases with the size of the unit of observation, and it is most strongly associated with temporal diversity when measured for areas of 100 to 400 ha, which is the typical US farm size. The association between diversity in space and time weakens as data are aggregated over larger areas because of the increasing diversity among farms, but at intermediate aggregation levels (counties) it is possible to estimate temporal diversity and farm-scale spatial diversity from aggregated spatial crop diversity data if the effect of beta diversity is considered. For larger areas, the diversity among farms is usually much greater than the diversity within them, and this needs to be considered when analyzing large-area crop diversity data. US agriculture is dominated by a few major annual crops (maize, soybean, wheat) that are mostly grown on fields with a very low temporal diversity. To increase crop species diversity, currently minor crops would have to increase in area at the expense of these major crops.