Fishing Across the Centuries: What Prospects for the Venice Lagoon?

Fishing has always been an important activity for those Venetians who live near the Lagoon, and it still enjoys an important economic and social role in the region. Over the last few years, however, the fishing industry has been subject to a profound transformation both in the reduction of the variety and the abundance of the species found in the lagoon, and in the change from a complex and well-structured type of activity to one which has become monospecialist, that is based principally on the fishing of the bivalve Tapes philippinarum (Adam & Reeve). The widespread diffusion of this bivalve and its considerable commercial value have resulted in an increased harvest, initially carried out by hand but now by more sophisticated methods which are capable of obtaining much higher yields. The social, economic and environmental problems resulting from this automated fishing have stimulated research into alternative strategies to manage the alieutic resources of the lagoon which will allow fishing to become a sustainable activity without inflicting long-term environmental damage. This present work will try and prepare the foundations for a system of eco-compatible management, based on an analysis of the functioning of the lagoon’s eco-system, defined as a paralic model, the observation of the traditional forms of fishing practiced over the centuries, a technical analysis of the present typology of lagoon fishing (fishing with fyke nets, “vallicoltura” and fishing of fish fry for rearing, clam fishing (Tapes philippinarum), mussel culture) with particular reference to the species fished, the distribution of the activity throughout the year and the technology employed, to the productivity of the various fishing methods.Venice Lagoon, Fyke nets, Clam Fishing management, Fish Farming

A pilot study on the e-kayak system: A wireless DAQ suited for performance analysis in flatwater sprint kayaks

Nowadays, in modern elite sport, the identification of the best training strategies which are useful in obtaining improvements during competitions requires an accurate measure of the physiologic and biomechanical parameters that affect performance. The goal of this pilot study was to investigate the capabilities of the e-Kayak system, a multichannel digital acquisition system specifically tailored for flatwater sprint kayaking application. e-Kayak allows the synchronous measure of all the parameters involved in kayak propulsion, both dynamic (including forces acting on the paddle and footrest) and kinematic (including stroke frequency, displacement, velocity, acceleration, roll, yaw, and pitch of the boat). After a detailed description of the system, we investigate its capability in supporting coaches to evaluate the performance of elite athletes\u2019 trough-specific measurements. This approach allows for a better understanding of the paddler\u2019s motion and the relevant effects on kayak behavior. The system allows the coach to carry out a wide study of kayak propulsion highlighting, and, at the same time, the occurrences of specific technical flaws in the paddling technique. In order to evaluate the correctness of the measurement results acquired in this pilot study, these results were compared with others which are available in the literature and which were obtained from subjects with similar characteristics

Albarella future – zero carbon emission

Climate warming is setting requirements on research also in the agronomic and forest fields. The soil and vegetation are available as carbon sinks. Ecosystems under high exploitation lost part of their carbon. It is possible to recover this carbon from the air with natural processes and to return it to the land. Besides, global warming requires a change in mentality that moves into the replacement of fossil fuels with other energy sources. In this perspective, the island of Albarella, with its environment and economic activities, represents an attractive miniature model of the planet Earth. For this design, we estimated (Vensim simulation) the emissions and storage of CO2 equivalent of the whole island. Then, with the idea of acting on natural ecosystems to make them more active in carbon storage, we analyzed two vegetation series from the forest to the sea, one located in the nearby natural reserve of Porto Caleri, and one on the island of Albarella. The investigation concerns the soil carbon storage and the quality and quantity of populations of arthropods, bacteria, and fungi as well. The biodiversity of artificial environments resulted in higher than that of natural habitats, opening a debate. Acting in different ways on the substitution of fuels, we obtained scenarios with decreasing emissions, from consumerist without substitution of fuels, realistic with 15% of replacement by solar energy, and sustainable with zero use of fossil energy and all the island electricity produced through photovoltaic panels

Jets, Stickiness and Anomalous Transport

Dynamical and statistical properties of the vortex and passive particle advection in chaotic flows generated by four and sixteen point vortices are investigated. General transport properties of these flows are found anomalous and exhibit a superdiffusive behavior with typical second moment exponent (\mu \sim 1.75). The origin of this anomaly is traced back to the presence of coherent structures within the flow, the vortex cores and the region far from where vortices are located. In the vicinity of these regions stickiness is observed and the motion of tracers is quasi-ballistic. The chaotic nature of the underlying flow dictates the choice for thorough analysis of transport properties. Passive tracer motion is analyzed by measuring the mutual relative evolution of two nearby tracers. Some tracers travel in each other vicinity for relatively large times. This is related to an hidden order for the tracers which we call jets. Jets are localized and found in sticky regions. Their structure is analyzed and found to be formed of a nested sets of jets within jets. The analysis of the jet trapping time statistics shows a quantitative agreement with the observed transport exponent.Comment: 17 pages, 17 figure

On the economic valuation of cultural ecosystem services: A tale of myths, vine and wine

The paper proposes a qualitative valuation method for cultural ecosystem services (CES) based on the analysis of myths, which are interpreted as returns generated by the interaction between natural and human capital (in time and space). Those returns become investments that add up, contribute to form, eventually become, and are accounted as cultural capital. The myths, therefore, are CES indicators (of the time and place where and when they were produced) and can be interpreted as measures of the CES flows. Moreover, some myths eventually survive and add up to a society present cultural capital that produces both cultural and economic value. In this perspective, the methodology aims at scrutinizing the content of the myths in terms of (1) socio-economic milieu and ecosystems that have produced the myth, (2) main messages displayed by the myth (3) key identification elements of the myths and (4) influence and bequest in cultural capital and culture formation and current cultural attitude towards the ecosystem service. This allows to qualitatively analyse the features, the rates of depletion and accumulation of the cultural capital, eventually produced by ecosystems. The methodology is applied to the cultural services provided by vine and wine. We analyse myths from 5000 b.C to 100 a.C., told in the fertile Triangle of the Vine (Eurasia, including India) to the Mediterranean basin. Results show that myths are an expression of human and natural capital of the time and space, when and where they were generated. However, they convey cultural values, related to the vine and wine, that are still existing and can be identified and accounted as cultural capital. In this perspective, the CES, through the myths, tell a story of small prehistoric wild vine shoots that were able to create long-lasting civility and culture still affecting several dimensions of current cultural capital, like attitude to wine consumptions, figurative arts, intellectual thinking, among selected aspects