Resilience and seismic risk perception at school: a geoethical experiment in Aiello Calabro,southern Italy

The last few years have seen the debate on the geoethics of environmental and climatic protection growing to include resilience as a central idea within this new discipline, which holds many similarities with geography. Resilience analysis often looks at the capacity to re-establish conditions of equilibrium within a system which has been hit by a serious shock, e.g. a natural or man-made disaster. Geoethics works, in tandem with geological analyses and the geography of risk, to inform a population and develop integrated risk management in such a way as to strengthen a community’s resilience. The aim of this work is to study some people’s capacity to overcome what was potentially a disastrous event and, through a process of reconstruction, turn it into an occasion for growth. The experiment, carried out in the primary and middle schools in Aiello Calabro (Calabria, southern Italy), was conducted on the basis of the belief that there is a close relationship between a population’s having a realistic understanding of the risk of such an event, e.g. an earthquake, and high levels of resilience. We also tried to gain an insight into the relationship that may exist between resilience in primary and secondary school children and methods of coping which give an appropriate management of seismic risk. To be more precise, we try to discover whether there is a link between good/appropriate resilience and good/appropriate risk management.

     

Chronology of the Mediterranean sea-level highstand during the Last Interglacial: a critical review of the U/Th-dated deposits

Relative sea-level (RSL) evolution during Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 5 in the Mediterranean basin is still not fully understood despite a plethora of morphological, stratigraphic and geochronological studies carried out on highstand deposits of this area. In this review we assembled a database of 323 U/Th-dated samples (e.g. corals, molluscs, speleothems) which were used to chronologically constrain RSL evolution within MIS 5. The application of strict geochemical criteria to the U/Th samples indicates that only ~33% of data available for the Mediterranean Sea can be considered ‘reliable’. Most of these data (~65%) refer to the MIS 5e highstand, while only ~17% could be related to the MIS 5a. No attribution to MIS 5c can be unequivocally supported. Nevertheless, the resulting framework does not allow us to define a satisfactory RSL trend during the MIS 5e highstand and subsequent MIS 5 substages. Overall, the proposed selection of reliable/unreliable data would be useful for detecting areas where MIS 5 substage attributions are not supported by confident U/Th chronological data and thus the related reconstructions need to be revised. In this regard, the resulting framework calls for a reappraisal and re-examination of the Mediterranean records with advanced geochronological methodologies.     

A novel methodological approach for land subsidence prediction through data assimilation techniques

Computational Geosciences - Anthropogenic land subsidence can be evaluated and predicted by numerical models, which are often built over deterministic analyses. However, uncertainties and...     

Spatial analysis approaches for the evaluation and protection of groundwater resources in large watersheds of the Canadian Shield

This study focuses on the development of two GIS-based approaches that are used jointly to evaluate the groundwater resources associated with granular aquifers in shield environments. The first approach is a multi-criteria analysis (MCA) using an analytical hierarchic process (AHP) based on geological and hydrogeological data for ranking the probability of finding readily available groundwater resources in a specific territory. The second approach relies on GIS-based geometric calculations that were developed for evaluating the extent and volume of aquifers. The approaches are applied on a 100?×?100 m grid in a 185,000-km² area corresponding to watersheds of the James Bay area in Quebec, Canada. The MCA-AHP approach revealed that the unconfined granular aquifers that present the highest aquifer potential (AP) are sparsely distributed and mostly associated with glaciofluvial formations such as the Harricana and Sakami moraines. The geometric calculations approach allowed for estimating that the total volume of groundwater stored in the unconfined granular aquifers reaches approximately 40 km³. When used jointly, the two approaches reveal that the shallow unconfined aquifers that require increased groundwater protection account for approximately 5% of the territory. In areas of confined granular aquifers, the highest APs are located in river valleys and lowlands. A sensitivity analysis conducted on the MCA-AHP approach revealed that the grid size does not significantly affect the results. Therefore, the approach was expanded northward, to a 490,000-km² territory reaching the Ungava Bay area. The proposed method could be adapted and applied in other shield areas.

     

Enzymatic activity in the rhizosphere of Spartina maritima: potential contribution for phytoremediation of metals

Extracellular enzymatic activity (EEA) of five enzymes (peroxidase, phenol oxidase, beta-glucosidase, beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase and acid phosphatase) was analysed in sediments colonised by Spartina maritima in two salt marshes (Rosário and Pancas) of the Tagus estuary (Portugal) with different characteristics such as sediment parameters and metal contaminant levels. Our aim was a better understanding of the influence of the halophyte on microbial activity in the rhizosphere under different site conditions, and its potential consequences for metal cycling and phytoremediation in salt marshes. Acid phosphatase and beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase presented significantly higher EEA in Rosário than in Pancas, whereas the opposite occurred for peroxidase. This was mainly attributed to differences in organic matter between the two sites. A positive correlation between root biomass and EEA of hydrolases (beta-glucosidase, beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase and acid phosphatase) was found, indicating a possible influence of the halophyte in sediment microbial function. This would potentially affect metal cycling in the rhizosphere through microbial reactions.     

Area usage estimation and spatiotemporal variability in distribution patterns of southern right whales,Eubalaena australis,of southern Brazil

Southern right whales—Eubalaena australis (Desmoulins, 1822)—migrate seasonally from high‐latitude feeding grounds to coastal breeding and calving grounds at lower latitudes such as the southern coast of Brazil. Understanding how these whales are distributed along the coast is important for monitoring their postwhaling recovery and defining management strategies. In this study, we applied Kernel density estimators to aerial survey data to determine main occurrence and concentration areas of right whales in southern Brazil and investigate inter‐ and intra‐annual distribution patterns between 2003 and 2012. Our results show considerable variation in area usage within and among years, and changes in the general distribution pattern of right whales in the last years of the study. Intra‐annually, higher concentration area tended to expand from July to September and decrease in November. Some areas stood out as high‐density areas for right whales: Ribanceira/Ibiraquera, Itapirubá Sul/Sol, and from Arroio to Gaivota. Some evidences also suggest preferential areas for mother–calf pairs. The higher concentration area of right whales in southern Brazil was estimated at 52,541 km² and the occurrence area was 682.69 km², which is the whole study area. As right whale distribution in the region is likely expanding due to this population's current recovery, our study provides essential information for management plan of the Right Whale Environmental Protection Area.     

Eight luminous early-type galaxies in nearby pairs and sparse groups. I. Stellar populations spatially analysed

We present a detailed spatial analysis of stellar populations based on long-slit optical spectra in a sample of eight luminous early-type galaxies selected from nearby sparse groups and pairs, three of them may have interaction with another galaxy of similar mass. We have spatially measured luminosity-weighted averages of age, [M/H], [Fe/H], and [\(\alpha /\mbox{Fe}\)] in the sample galaxies to add empirical data relative to the influence of galaxy mass, environment, interaction, and AGN feedback in their formation and evolution. The stellar population of the individual galaxies were determined through the well-established stellar population synthesis code starlight using semi-empirical simple stellar population models. Radial variations of luminosity- weighted means of age, [M/H], [Fe/H], and [\(\alpha /\mbox{Fe}\)] were quantified up to half of the effective radius of each galaxy. We found trends between representative values of age, [M/H], [\(\alpha /\mbox{Fe}\)], and the nuclear stellar velocity dispersion. There are also relations between the metallicity/age gradients and the velocity dispersion. Contributions of 1–4 Gyr old stellar populations were quantified in IC?5328 and NGC?6758 as well as 4–8 Gyr old ones in NGC?5812. Extended gas is present in IC?5328, NGC?1052, NGC?1209, and NGC?6758, and the presence of a LINER is identified in all these galaxies. The regions up to one effective radius of all galaxies are basically dominated by \(\alpha \)-enhanced metal-rich old stellar populations likely due to rapid star formation episodes that induced efficient chemical enrichment. On average, the age and [\(\alpha /\mbox{Fe}\)] gradients are null and the [M/H] gradients are negative, although discordant cases were found. We found no correlation between the stellar population properties and the LINER presence as well as between the stellar properties and environment or gravitational interaction, suggesting that the influence of progenitor mass cannot be discarded in the formation and evolution of early-type galaxies.     

The particle background of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">X-IFU</Emphasis> instrument

In this paper we are going to review the latest estimates for the particle background expected on the X-IFU instrument onboard of the ATHENA mission. The particle background is induced by two different particle populations: the so called “soft protons” and the Cosmic rays. The first component is composed of low energy particles (< 100s keV) that get funnelled by the mirrors towards the focal plane, losing part of their energy inside the filters and inducing background counts inside the instrument sensitivity band. The latter component is induced by high energy particles (> 100 MeV) that possess enough energy to cross the spacecraft and reach the detector from any direction, depositing a small fraction of their energy inside the instrument. Both these components are estimated using Monte Carlo simulations and the latest results are presented here.