ponedeljek, 6. maj 2024 Mathieu Denoël: Effects of fish introductions on newts in ponds and lakes, with a focus on diversity loss in the Balkans
V sredo, 8. maja 2024, bo izveden seminar z naslovom Effects of fish introductions on newts in ponds and lakes, with a focus on diversity loss in the Balkans.
ČAS IN PROSTOR: Predavanje bo potekalo v Livadah 1.0 (Livade 6, Izola), predavalnica Epsilon (pritličje), od 13.30 ure.
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Predavatelj: Mathieu Denoël
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Summary: Newts used to be among the natural typical aquatic predators of ponds and lakes across Europe. In Southern Europe and particularly in the Balkans, they express two alternative developmental pathways: metamorphosis and paedomorphosis (retention of gills at the adult stage). However, multiple fish introductions, including species as diverse as goldfish, mosquitofish or trouts were introduced in their habitats. By exerting both direct and indirect effects on newt populations, these fish caused their decline and for paedomorphs and several subspecies their extinction. There is yet some hope as management efforts can allow the resilience of newt diversity.
Mathieu Denoël is a Research Director of Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique at the University of Liege (Belgium). He is passionate about amphibian conservation and Balkans where he focuses now most of his research.
torek, 27. februar 2024 Pietro Giovacchini: From threats to resilience for a multi-scalar approach to the "Natura 2000" Network the article 6.3 of the Directive 92/43/EC
V sredo, 6. marca 2024, bo izveden prvi seminar o kopenskih vsebinah.
ČAS IN PROSTOR: Predavanje bo potekalo v Livadah 1.0 (Livade 6, Izola), predavalnica Epsilon (pritličje), od 12. do 13. ure.
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Predavatelj: Pietro Giovacchini
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Pietro Giovacchini attained his Master's degree in Natural Science in 1997) and his Professional Master program in Biomonitoring and Management of the Coastal Zone in 2004, in both cases at the University of Siena. Currently, he is doing his PhD at the Department of Environmental, Geological and Polar Sciences and Technologies at the University of Siena University, his PhD thesis Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the management of Protected Areas through the Use of objective indicators: An Application to a system of zones wetlands of the Tyrrhenian coast. Apart from his PhD, he works as an officer of the public authority “Regione Toscana”, where he mainly deals with natural resources and management of the Natura 2000 network.
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NASLOV: From threats to resilience for a multi-scalar approach to the "Natura 2000" Network the article 6.3 of the Directive 92/43/EC
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Satisfactory management of Natura 2000 sites”: is it always necessary a more detailed approach in the analysis of the project? For example, environmental fragmentation can be measured particularly where the impact shows different effects on the biotic group across a more detailed scale. For other reasons, the rock quarries abandoned for over 10 years, where up to seven breeding or wintering bird rock species included in the Red Lists have been found, constitute an example of resilience over a large territory. Article 6.3 of the "Habitats" Directive evaluates the main effects that the project may have on the site concerned. However, the authorization process envisaged by the same article of the Directive is often indicative in the document of an inadequate cultural formation which implies a multi-scalar approach, for example, due to the lack of an evaluation of cumulative effects or planning strategies. If the environmental interference with the Natura 2000 network is out of this area, in a scenario with anthropic threats in which value taxa coexist (e.g. Discoglossus sardus, annexes II and IV of Directive 92/43/EEC), the analysis of the ecological system and the elements of the landscape unit equally aim to verify the impact on the species, especially if compared to an adequate reference scale for the critical issues inherent in a meta-population.
ponedeljek, 12. februar 2024 SILVIA CASTRO:There is nothing permanent except change: assessing reproductive shifts across the entire Mediterranean basin
V torek, 13. februarja 2024, bo izveden seminar o kopenskih vsebinah.
ČAS IN PROSTOR: Predavanje bo potekalo od 9:15-10:00, Izola, Livade.
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Predavateljica: SILVIA CASTRO
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Biological invasions pose a major threat to biodiversity, having ecological and evolutionary consequences both for species and communities being invaded and for invasive species themselves. Understanding invasive plants colonization strategies enable to develop habitat restoration actions more efficiently and contribute to the conservation of threatened plant species. The Bermuda buttercup (Oxalis pes-caprae L.) is a tristylous polyploid plant native to South Africa, having become invasive in Mediterranean regions globally. In its native habitat, populations are isoplethic having three flower morphs and sexual reproduction, while in most invaded areas, populations are dominated by the pentaploid short-styled morph that reproduce asexually. Nevertheless, new forms have been discovered in western Mediterranean basin, introducing new reproductive strategies and, consequently, new invasion contexts. We aimed at understand the current distribution of floral morphs and cytotypes within the wider region of the Mediterranean Basin, as well as patterns and changes in sexual fitness and possible breakdowns in the heterostylous syndrome. For that, within the COST Action ConservePlants we have gathered the 'Finding Bermuda buttercup' team that sampled floral morph composition, fresh leaves and fitness variables in invasive populations across the Mediterranean basin. Ploidy was determined using flow cytometry on fresh leaves, and floral morphometric analyses and quantification of pollen loads were analysed in ethanol presenved flowers. This large-scale sampling provides novel insights into the distribution of ploidy and floral morphs and reveals two distinct reproductive strategies, one through uniparental reproduction and the other throught the re-establishment of sexuality. Our finding highlight the dynamic nature of invasion processes, emphasizing that ecological and genetic constraints inherent in the invasion process can lead to unique reproductive strategies, ultimately influencing the probability of invasion success.
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Naslov: There is nothing permanent exce: assessing reproductive shifts across the entire Mediterranean basin
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torek, 6. februar 2024 Andrea Pieroni: Could ethnobotany be a tool for proposing sustainable use of plant resources?
V ponedeljek, 12. februarja 2024, bo izveden seminar o kopenskih vsebinah.
ČAS IN PROSTOR: Predavanje bo potekalo od 12. 2. 2024, 9:30-10:15, Izola, Livade.
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Predavatelj: Andrea Pieroni
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Trained in medical botany at the University of Pisa, Andrea Pieroni earned his doctorate in 1998 from the University of Bonn in Germany. He has worked as a Research Assistant at the School of Pharmacy, University of London (2000-2003) and as a tenured Lecturer and, later, Senior Lecturer at the School of Life Sciences at the University of Bradford, UK (2003-2009). From January 2009 he has been hired as an associate professor at the University of Pollenzo (www.unisg.it) and from 2016 he is Full Professor of Ethnobotany and from October 2017 Rector of the same university. Professor Pieroni has served as the Vice-President and President of the International Society of Ethnobiology (2008-2010), he is the founder and Chief Editor of the J Ethnobiol Ethnomed (www.ethnobiomed.com) and sits on the editorial boards of diverse international ethnoscientific journals. His reserach focuses on cross-cultural ethnobotany and traditional food in the Balkans and the Middle East and especially among mountain pastoralists and ethnic and religious minorities and diasporas.
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NASLOV: Could ethnobotany be a tool for proposing sustainable use of plant resources?
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Although ethnobotanical studies have exponentially increased in the past decade, there is still a scarse knowledge of the essence and "philosophy" of local, community-centred plant practices and their sustainability. With the help of some concrete examples/case studies we will show that many cultural keystone species in many communities of the Mediterranean and the Near East are very common plants that are not threatened. The rare cases in which conservation concerns have to loudly raised refer normally to species, which are remarkably traded in recent times only and whose end use is often unknown by the local communities. This reflection proposes therefore to use community-centred ethnobotanical data as preliminary datasets for sustainable use of local plant resources.
sreda, 10. januar 2024 Ilona Rac: Težave z uporabo pojma ekosistemskih storitev za potrebe oblikovanja politik
V sredo, 17. januarja 2024, bo izveden drugi seminar o kopenskih vsebinah.
ČAS IN PROSTOR: Predavanje bo potekalo prek ZOOM povezave, od 12. do 13. ure.
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Predavateljica: Ilona Rac
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The primary background of Ilona Rac is Law and Agronomy; she has recently acquired her PhD in the field of Economics of natural resources. Her work mainly consists of agricultural policy analysis and advice with regard to environmental issues. She has worked in several EU and national projects dealing with agriculture and its related environmental issues, including ecosystem services, as well as projects dealing with the issue of food waste. In this seminar, she will present her experience with research projects aiming to assess ecosystem services in order to provide support for evidence-based policymaking.
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NASLOV: Težave z uporabo pojma ekosistemskih storitev za potrebe oblikovanja politik
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The seminar talk will focus on issues around implementing the concept of ecosystem services in policy and practice. While ecosystem services have been hailed as a promising concept to reconcile different interests in the uses of nature, actually implementing them in practice has proven to be trickier. The talk will include a brief overview of the concept of ecosystem services, state of the art on its implementation and personal research experience, especially with regard to the inclusion of stakeholders.
torek, 9. januar 2024 Vladimir Ivović: Toxoplasma gondii - od mačk do norosti
V sredo, 10. januarja 2024, bo izveden prvi seminar o kopenskih vsebinah.
ČAS IN PROSTOR: Predavanje bo potekalo v Livadah 1.0 (Livade 6, Izola), predavalnica Epsilon (pritličje), od 12. do 13. ure in prek ZOOM povezave.
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Predavatelj: Vladimir Ivović
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Vladimir Ivović, Associate Professor of Research (field: Medical Entomology and Parasitology) is a member of the Department of Biodiversity at the UP FAMNIT since 2012. Dr. Ivović completed bachelor's and master's degrees at the Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade. Doctoral studies on identification, laboratory rearing, and molecular phylogeny of phlebotomine sandflies were conducted at the WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Mediterranean Zoonoses, Heraklion, University of Crete, Greece. He completed part of his postdoctoral studies on South American sandfly species identification, conservation and mounting techniques at Yale University, School of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases in the Dr. Leonard E. Munstermann Laboratory, New Haven, USA. Vladimir has 25 years of experience in research on sandflies, mosquitoes and ticks, especially in monitoring, control and laboratory rearing of sandflies and molecular detection of the pathogens they transmit (Leishmania and viruses).
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NASLOV: Toxoplasma gondii - od mačk do norosti
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Toxoplasma gondii is a parasitic protozoan that can infect a variety of warm-blooded animals, including humans. Toxoplasmosis is the disease caused by this parasite, which is usually transmitted through ingestion of contaminated food or water or contact with infected cat feces. While many people infected with Toxoplasma experience mild or no symptoms, the parasite can pose a serious health risk to people with weakened immune systems, pregnant women and fetuses, and can occasionally cause flu-like symptoms in healthy people. T. gondii has been linked to possible changes in human behavior. Some studies suggest that chronic infections with this parasite may affect neurological processes and lead to subtle changes in personality and behavior. While the exact mechanisms are not yet fully understood, research suggests that Toxoplasma gondii may be associated with increased risk-taking and cognitive effects, which could have implications for the psychological well-being of infected individuals. However, it is important to note that the extent and significance of these behavioral changes in humans remain the subject of ongoing scientific investigation and debate.
