Education for sustainable development of the Mediterranean: the missing link

The author surveys some of the principal amendments to the Barcelona system adopted at the Ninth Ordinary Meeting of Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention in June 1995 and underlines the new national responsibilities for the implementation of the policy, legal and institutional changes in the direction of sustainable development. Emphasis is placed on the types of human resources that will be needed to facilitate implementation and render the regime effective at both national and regional levels. The author advocates a role for Mediterranean universities to assist regional regime-building through the development of relevant marine affairs education programmes in support of the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP). A catalytic role for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)/MAP Coordinating Unit in mobilizing inter-university cooperation is also identified.     

Fragmentation during Rock Falls: Two Italian Case Studies of Hard and Soft Rocks

In recent years, rock fall phenomena in Italy have received considerable attention for risk mitigation through in situ observations and experimental data. This paper reports the study conducted at Camaldoli Hill, in the urban area of Naples, and at Monte Pellegrino, Palermo, Italy. The rocks involved are volcanic Neapolitan yellow tuff (NYT) in the former area and dolomitic limestone in the latter. Both rocks, even though with different strength characteristics, have shown a significant tendency towards rock fragmentation during run out. This behavior was first investigated by comparing the volumes of removable blocks on the cliff faces (V ₀) and fallen blocks on the slopes (V _f). It was assumed that the ratio V _f/V ₀ decreases with the distance (x _f) from the detachment area by an empirical law, which depends on a coefficient α, correlated with the geotechnical properties of the materials involved in the rock fall. Finally, this law was validated by observation of well-documented natural rock falls (Palermo) and by in situ full-scale tests (Naples). From the engineering perspective, consideration of fragmentation processes in rock fall modeling provides a means for designing low-cost mitigation measures.     

A cross-border regional earthquake early warning system: PRESTo@CE3RN

Since 2002 the Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS) in Udine (Italy), the Agencija Republike Slovenije za Okolje (ARSO) in Ljubljana (Slovenia) and the Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik (ZAMG) in Vienna (Austria), are collecting, analyzing, archiving and exchanging seismic data in real time, initially in the framework of the EU Interreg IIIa Italia-Austria project “Trans-national seismological networks in the South-Eastern Alps”. As outcome of the successful cooperation, in the 2013 OGS, ARSO and ZAMG decided to officially merge their seismic monitoring efforts into the “Central and Eastern European Earthquake Research Network—CE³RN”. This work reports the results of a nine-month real-time test of the earthquake early warning (EEW) algorithm probabilistic and evolutionary early warning system carried out at the CE³RN. The study allowed identifying the actions to be implemented in order to let the CE³RN become in the next future an efficient cross-border EEW system.

     

Multidisciplinary inferences on a newly recognized active east‐dipping extensional system in Central Italy

We use a multidisciplinary approach to gather preliminary evidence for a Quaternary east‐dipping extensional detachment in Central Italy. This structure crops out in the Sabini‐Eastern Simbruini (SES) and would be hidden at mid‐crustal depths beneath the L'Aquila 2009 (M_w6.3) epicentral area. The SES geometry is reconstructed through geological mapping, structural analysis and seismic line interpretation. The geometry of the mid‐crustal segment, referred to as the Ocre Segment (OS), is interpreted through seismological analyses of the largest aftershock (M_w5.4) of the L'Aquila 2009 sequence. The kinematic compatibility between the SES and the OS under a common SW–NE tensional field is tested through stress inversion of both geological and seismological data. The reliability of OS activation is tested through slip tendency analysis. Like other Italian cases, the SES and the OS are preliminarily interpreted as expressions at different depths of the same unknown east‐dipping extensional detachment, characterized by a ramp–flat–ramp geometry.     

A biogenic-silica δO record of climatic change during the last glacial–interglacial transition in southwestern Alaska

Despite growing evidence for environmental oscillations during the last glacial–interglacial transition from high latitude, terrestrial sites of the North Pacific rim, oxygen-isotopic records of these oscillations remain sparse. The lack of data is due partially to the paucity of lakes that contain carbonate sediment suitable for oxygen-isotopic analysis. We report here the first record of oxygen-isotopic composition in diatom silica (δ¹⁸O_Si) from a lake in that region. δ¹⁸O_Si increases gradually from 19.0 to 23.5‰ between 12,340 and 11,000 ¹⁴C yr B.P., reflecting marked climatic warming at the end of the last glaciation. Around 11,000 ¹⁴C yr B.P., δ¹⁸O_Si decreases by 1.7‰, suggesting a temperature decrease of 3.5–8.9 °C at the onset of the Younger Dryas (YD) in southwestern Alaska. Climatic recovery began ca. 10,740 ¹⁴C yr B.P., as inferred from the increase of δ¹⁸O_Si to a maximum of 23.9‰ near the end of the YD. Our data reveal that a YD climatic reversal in southwestern coastal areas of Alaska occurred, but the YD climate did not return to full-glacial conditions.     

Carbon and nitrogen utilization in two species of Red Sea corals along a depth gradient: Insights from stable isotope analysis of total organic material and lipids

We examined the utilization of carbon and nitrogen in two common Red Sea coral species (Stylophora pistillata and Favia favus), differing in colony morphology and polyp size, along a depth gradient down to 60 m. We describe the changes in C/N ratios and in the stable isotope composition of carbon and nitrogen of coral’s tissue and algal symbionts. We also measured the carbon isotopic composition of the lipid fraction extracted from both coral tissue and algal symbionts in order to reveal the changes in the carbon source utilized by the host coral for lipid synthesis.The results show that for both species, δ¹³C decreases by 7–8‰ in animal tissue, algal symbionts and in the lipid fractions as depth increases. However, in contrast to previous reports, the difference between δ¹³C values of coral tissue and algal symbionts does not increase with depth. δ¹⁵N values of coral tissue and algal symbionts in both species do not correlate with depth suggesting that the heterotrophic capacity of these corals does not increase with depth. δ¹³C values of tissue lipids were depleted by an average of 3.5‰ compared to δ¹³C of the entire tissue at all depths. δ¹³C values of algal lipids were depleted by an average of 2‰ compared to δ¹³C of the entire zooxanthellae at all depths, indicating high efficiency of carbon recycling between the two symbiotic partners along the entire gradient. The depletion of lipids is attributed to the fractionation mechanism during lipid synthesis. In addition, for both species, δ¹³C values of algal lipids were enriched compared with δ¹³C of tissue lipids. In S. pistillata, the difference between δ¹³C values of tissue lipids and algal lipids increased linearly with depth, indicating a change in the sources of carbon utilized by the coral for lipid synthesis below 20 m from an autotrophic to a heterotrophic source. However, in F. favus, this average difference was 4 times larger compared to shallow S. pistillata and was constant along the entire depth gradient, suggesting that F. favus uses heterotrophically-acquired carbon for lipid synthesis regardless of depth. Overall, F. favus exhibited enriched δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values compared to S. pistillata along the entire gradient. We attribute these differences to both morphological differences (i.e. colony morphology, tissue thickness and polyp size) between the two species and to a higher heterotrophy/autotrophy ratio in F. favus at all depths. The C/N ratio in S. pistillata tissue decreased with increasing water depth whereas in F. favus it remained constant. This reflects a higher heterotrophic capacity in the large polyped F. favus, at all depths.