The Gelsari and Lentini marshes, in east-central Sicily, are wetland under heavy anthropogenic pressure. This area is regularly subjected to water withdrawals and agriculture is practiced. Periodic bird census activit...The Gelsari and Lentini marshes, in east-central Sicily, are wetland under heavy anthropogenic pressure. This area is regularly subjected to water withdrawals and agriculture is practiced. Periodic bird census activities had been conducted in this area between 2016 and 2022 with collected data being supplemented with the data from a previous survey conducted between 2010 and 2016. During the censuses, numerous photographs were collected, which were later used for counts. In total, 121 surveys were carried out, with visits occurring approximately 20 times per year, covering all seasons. The data collected, both from bibliography and unpublished observations, were organised in table. 120 species and subspecies have been reported, 41 of which are in Annex I of the Birds Directive. Between 2021 and 2022, a water column measurement was taken in a central area of the Lentini marsh and compared with rainfall data in the area. It was found that water removal, occurring in both marshes in different modes, produced different effects on habitat conservation. Of the two marshes, Lentini is the one in which the existing favorable conditions in its most depressed areas, located below sea level, have allowed for the adequate conservation of the wetland. This environmental improvement having occurred with respect to the previous period has restored to the marsh its historically recognized possibility of not drying up completely during the summer period, allowing permanence of numerous birds. The obtained results suggest total elimination of agriculture and discontinuation of water withdrawals in the Lentini marsh as well as regulation of withdrawals in the Gelsari marsh.展开更多
Through an analysis of the accounts of English travellers in Naples between 1816 and 1841, the objective of this paper is to attempt to identify an image of the city and its inhabitants without following the direction...Through an analysis of the accounts of English travellers in Naples between 1816 and 1841, the objective of this paper is to attempt to identify an image of the city and its inhabitants without following the direction of the usual negative stereotypes common to much of the literature associated with the ＂Grand Tourist＂, a literature to which scholars and readers from the 16th to the 19th century were used. The research also aims to demonstrate through previously unknown and unheeded sources that there were not only those English travellers on their Grand Tour of the post-Restoration Bourbon Mezzogiorno （southern Italy） looking for an opportunity of comparing their own civilization （which was considered far superior） to a more fragile reality. There were also other British people who had identified, with a critical eye and spirit of observation, the existence of a Naples and a south Italy which did not merely represent the sum of stereotypes and fallacies handed down through the centuries, and thus refusing the obvious, predictable and false approach given by their own countrymen.展开更多
Rock fragments from the deepest parts of a buried hydrothermal system belonging to the Mesozoic Tethys Ocean entered as xenoliths in a Miocenic diatreme,hence brought to the surface,in the Hyblean Plateau(Sicily).Some...Rock fragments from the deepest parts of a buried hydrothermal system belonging to the Mesozoic Tethys Ocean entered as xenoliths in a Miocenic diatreme,hence brought to the surface,in the Hyblean Plateau(Sicily).Some xenoliths consist of strongly serpentinized ultramafic rocks bearing blebs of abiotic organic matter,where clusters of amorphous carbon nanoparticles,including nanodiamonds,are immersed.Such an occurrence conjures up established hypotheses that diamond surfaces are suitable catalytic platforms stimulating the assemblage of complex bio-organic molecules relevant to the emergence of life on Earth.The appearance of bio-organic molecules under primitive Earth conditions is one of the major unsolved questions on the origin of life.Here we report new micro-Raman spectra on blebs of abiotic organic matter from a selected xenolith.Diamond bands were related to hydrogenated nanocrystalline diamonds,with size of nearly 1-1.6 nm,formed from organics at low pressures and temperatures.In particular,diamond surfaces can give rise to crystalline interfacial water layers that may have played a fundamental role in the early biosphere evolution as a good medium for rapidly transporting positive charges in the form of hydrated protons.Nowadays,proton gradients in alkaline hydrothermal vents along oceanic ridges are generally viewed as key pre-biotic factors.In general,serpentinites span the entire geological record,including prebiotic times.These hydrous ultramafic rocks often display evidence of abiotic carbon species,both organic and inorganic,including nanodiamonds,being also capable to give rise to chemiosmotic processes and proton gradients necessary to the organisms,such as the"Last Universal Common Ancestor"(LUCA),in the prebiotic Earth.展开更多
Sedimentary heterogeneity conditions of Catania Plain quaternary aquifer (CPQA), the wider alluvial multi-aquifer system of Sicily, were rebuilt to simulate and quantify groundwater flow. Transition probabilities base...Sedimentary heterogeneity conditions of Catania Plain quaternary aquifer (CPQA), the wider alluvial multi-aquifer system of Sicily, were rebuilt to simulate and quantify groundwater flow. Transition probabilities based on a Markov Chain (MC) and Sequential Indicator Simulation (SIS) are the structure-imitating simulators utilized for generating stochastic distributions of hydraulic conductivity fields of CPQA, basing on borehole data: plausible equiprobable solutions of the complex geological structure of the CPQA were simulated. This study highlights that the choice of geostatistical simulation method plays a fundamental role in predictive scenarios for groundwater resources managing of CPQA. Indeed, simulated characteristics of the sedimentary heterogeneity constituted the basis of finite difference models for simulating the groundwater flow of CPQA. In heterogeneous systems such as CPQA, SIS may be inadequate for reproducing the macrostructures. Instead, MC adequately reproduced spatial connection of lithofacies, representing a more realistic solution dealing to the proposed geological model of CPQA. MC and SIS models were utilized to both assess the uncertainty of the generated hydraulic conductivity fields of CPQA and predictions about its behavior under normal stress conditions induced by urbanization. The calibration of CPQA groundwater flow models based on MC and SIS simulations allowed to achieve a realistic feedback about the quality of the geostatistical reconstructions of the geological heterogeneity field.展开更多
文摘The Gelsari and Lentini marshes, in east-central Sicily, are wetland under heavy anthropogenic pressure. This area is regularly subjected to water withdrawals and agriculture is practiced. Periodic bird census activities had been conducted in this area between 2016 and 2022 with collected data being supplemented with the data from a previous survey conducted between 2010 and 2016. During the censuses, numerous photographs were collected, which were later used for counts. In total, 121 surveys were carried out, with visits occurring approximately 20 times per year, covering all seasons. The data collected, both from bibliography and unpublished observations, were organised in table. 120 species and subspecies have been reported, 41 of which are in Annex I of the Birds Directive. Between 2021 and 2022, a water column measurement was taken in a central area of the Lentini marsh and compared with rainfall data in the area. It was found that water removal, occurring in both marshes in different modes, produced different effects on habitat conservation. Of the two marshes, Lentini is the one in which the existing favorable conditions in its most depressed areas, located below sea level, have allowed for the adequate conservation of the wetland. This environmental improvement having occurred with respect to the previous period has restored to the marsh its historically recognized possibility of not drying up completely during the summer period, allowing permanence of numerous birds. The obtained results suggest total elimination of agriculture and discontinuation of water withdrawals in the Lentini marsh as well as regulation of withdrawals in the Gelsari marsh.
文摘Through an analysis of the accounts of English travellers in Naples between 1816 and 1841, the objective of this paper is to attempt to identify an image of the city and its inhabitants without following the direction of the usual negative stereotypes common to much of the literature associated with the ＂Grand Tourist＂, a literature to which scholars and readers from the 16th to the 19th century were used. The research also aims to demonstrate through previously unknown and unheeded sources that there were not only those English travellers on their Grand Tour of the post-Restoration Bourbon Mezzogiorno （southern Italy） looking for an opportunity of comparing their own civilization （which was considered far superior） to a more fragile reality. There were also other British people who had identified, with a critical eye and spirit of observation, the existence of a Naples and a south Italy which did not merely represent the sum of stereotypes and fallacies handed down through the centuries, and thus refusing the obvious, predictable and false approach given by their own countrymen.
文摘Rock fragments from the deepest parts of a buried hydrothermal system belonging to the Mesozoic Tethys Ocean entered as xenoliths in a Miocenic diatreme,hence brought to the surface,in the Hyblean Plateau(Sicily).Some xenoliths consist of strongly serpentinized ultramafic rocks bearing blebs of abiotic organic matter,where clusters of amorphous carbon nanoparticles,including nanodiamonds,are immersed.Such an occurrence conjures up established hypotheses that diamond surfaces are suitable catalytic platforms stimulating the assemblage of complex bio-organic molecules relevant to the emergence of life on Earth.The appearance of bio-organic molecules under primitive Earth conditions is one of the major unsolved questions on the origin of life.Here we report new micro-Raman spectra on blebs of abiotic organic matter from a selected xenolith.Diamond bands were related to hydrogenated nanocrystalline diamonds,with size of nearly 1-1.6 nm,formed from organics at low pressures and temperatures.In particular,diamond surfaces can give rise to crystalline interfacial water layers that may have played a fundamental role in the early biosphere evolution as a good medium for rapidly transporting positive charges in the form of hydrated protons.Nowadays,proton gradients in alkaline hydrothermal vents along oceanic ridges are generally viewed as key pre-biotic factors.In general,serpentinites span the entire geological record,including prebiotic times.These hydrous ultramafic rocks often display evidence of abiotic carbon species,both organic and inorganic,including nanodiamonds,being also capable to give rise to chemiosmotic processes and proton gradients necessary to the organisms,such as the"Last Universal Common Ancestor"(LUCA),in the prebiotic Earth.
文摘Sedimentary heterogeneity conditions of Catania Plain quaternary aquifer (CPQA), the wider alluvial multi-aquifer system of Sicily, were rebuilt to simulate and quantify groundwater flow. Transition probabilities based on a Markov Chain (MC) and Sequential Indicator Simulation (SIS) are the structure-imitating simulators utilized for generating stochastic distributions of hydraulic conductivity fields of CPQA, basing on borehole data: plausible equiprobable solutions of the complex geological structure of the CPQA were simulated. This study highlights that the choice of geostatistical simulation method plays a fundamental role in predictive scenarios for groundwater resources managing of CPQA. Indeed, simulated characteristics of the sedimentary heterogeneity constituted the basis of finite difference models for simulating the groundwater flow of CPQA. In heterogeneous systems such as CPQA, SIS may be inadequate for reproducing the macrostructures. Instead, MC adequately reproduced spatial connection of lithofacies, representing a more realistic solution dealing to the proposed geological model of CPQA. MC and SIS models were utilized to both assess the uncertainty of the generated hydraulic conductivity fields of CPQA and predictions about its behavior under normal stress conditions induced by urbanization. The calibration of CPQA groundwater flow models based on MC and SIS simulations allowed to achieve a realistic feedback about the quality of the geostatistical reconstructions of the geological heterogeneity field.
