A new procedure for an effective management of geo-hydrological risks across the "Sentiero Verde-Azzurro" trail, Cinque Terre National Park, Liguria (North-Western Italy)

In recent years, Cinque Terre National Park, one of the most famous UNESCO sites in Italy, experienced a significant increase in tourist visits. This unique landscape is the result of the rough morphology of a small coastal basin with a very steep slope and a long-term human impact, mainly represented by anthropic terraces. This setting promotes the activation of numerous geo-hydrological instabilities, primarily related to heavy rainfall events that often affect this area. Currently, the main challenge for the administrators of Cinque Terre National Park is the correct maintenance of this environment along with the functional management of the hiking trail to ensure the safety of tourists. The definition of a methodology for effective management is mandatory for the sustainable administration of this unique site. We implement a new codified procedure based on the combined use of the Operative Monography and the Survey Form, focusing on the "Sentiero Verde-Azzurro" trail, for a proper description of the known landslides affecting the trail and the identification of damage and/or landslides activated by critical meteorological events. This guarantees effective geo-hydrological risk management, which is also applicable to other similar sites in a unique environmental and cultural heritage site such as Cinque Terre Park

The Seabed Makes the Dolphins: Physiographic Features Shape the Size and Structure of the Bottlenose Dolphin Geographical Units

The common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) is a cosmopolitan delphinid, regularly present in the Mediterranean Sea. According to previous studies, this dolphin tends to form resident geographical units scattered on the continental shelf. We investigated how the physiographic characteristics of the area of residence, with special reference to the size and shape of the continental shelf, affect the home range and the group size of the local units. We analysed and compared data collected between 2004-2016 by 15 research groups operating in different study areas of the Mediterranean Sea: the Alboran Sea, in the South-Western Mediterranean, the Gulf of Lion and the Pelagos Sanctuary for the marine mammals, in the North-Western Mediterranean, and the Gulf of Ambracia, in the North-Central Mediterranean Sea. We have found that in areas characterised by a wide continental platform, dolphins have wider home ranges and aggregate into larger groups. In areas characterized by a narrow continental platform, dolphins show much smaller home ranges and aggregate into smaller groups. The results obtained from this collective research effort highlight the importance of data sharing to improve our scientific knowledge in the field of cetaceans and beyond

Costruzioni e paesaggi d’alpeggio delle Alpi liguri: conoscenza per una tutela possibile /Constructions and mountain pasture landscapes in the Ligurian Alps: the knowledge for potential preservation

A quote superiori ai 1500 metri s.l.m., sulle Alpi liguri, si trovano manufatti del tutto particolari strettamente legati, per collocazione e funzione, alla vita d’alpeggio. Si tratta di selle (o sèle) destinate al deposito dei formaggi e dei derivati del latte, durante i mesi di alpeggio, di giàss ossia ripari stagionali dei malgari, di caselle, piccoli ricoveri temporanei per pastori e malgari, di balme cioè ripari ricavati sotto grossi massi erratici. In contesti ambientali unici, lontani dai principali percorsi turistico-economici, tali manufatti godono della lunga durata del loro uso, tanto che spesso sono arrivati fino a noi in buone condizioni di manutenzione, ma scontano la fragilità di costruzioni non monumentali difficilmente riconosciute come beni della collettività e dunque più facilmente soggette a modifica. Il contributo propone alcune riflessioni sulla tutela di tale patrimonio che ha non solo una valenza storico-costruttiva ed etnoantropologica ma anche evocativa e esplicativa rispetto al territorio e al suo uso nel tempo. At altitudes above 1,500 meters a.s.l., on the Ligurian Alps, there are very special structures linked to the life of pasture. These are selle (or sèle) intended for storage of cheeses and dairy products, during the months of summer pasture, giàss that is seasonal shelters of the herdsmen, caselle, small temporary shelters for shepherds and herdsmen, balme that is shelters made under large erratic rocks. In unique environmental contexts, away from the main tourist and economic paths, these buildings enjoy the long life of their use so that often came up to us in good condition maintenance but serving the fragility of no monumental buildings hardly recognized as heritage of the community and therefore more easily subject to change. The paper proposes some thoughts on the protection of this heritage that has not only a significant historical, constructive and ethnoanthropological but also evocative and explicative compared to territory and its use through time

Guida alla manutenzione e al recupero dell'architettura rurale intelvese

IL volume costituisce unoi delgi esiti di una ricerca finanziata all'interno del Programma Europeo INTERREG III _A, di cui l'autore \ue8 stato coordinatore locale dell'Unit\ue0 di Ricerca dell'Universit\ue0 degli Studi di Genova, con capofila il Politecnico di Milano

Assessing geographical variation on whistle acoustic structure of three Mediterranean populations of common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)

Whistles are acoustic signals produced particularly during social interactions. Here, we compare whistles by bottlenose dolphins from three Mediterranean areas (Croatia, Sicily and Sardinia) to investigate the presence of acoustic divergence and to discuss the possible causes of variability. Whistle parameters differ significantly between populations, but PCA highlights that the majority of variability is due to a limited number of frequency parameters. Cluster and DFA show that the Croatian population is acoustically divergent from the western populations of Sicily and Sardinia. This divergence could be consistent with geographical isolation, and a possible genetic differentiation between populations, and/or an adaptation to the acoustic environment. Moreover, in a comparison of whistle parameters of different Mediterranean populations with those of previously published Atlantic populations, it was revealed that the Sicilian population was acoustically closer to Atlantic populations. Our results represent a contribution to identifying acoustically differentiated populations of bottlenose dolphins in the Mediterranean

Cetaceans in the Mediterranean Sea: Encounter Rate, Dominant Species, and Diversity Hotspots

We investigated the presence and diversity of cetaceans in the Mediterranean Sea, analysing the data collected by 32 different research units, over a period of 15 years (2004–2018), and shared on the common web-GIS platform named Intercet. We used the encounter rate, the species prevalence, and the Shannon diversity index as parameters for data analysis. The results show that cetacean diversity, in the context of the Mediterranean basin, is generally quite low when compared with the eastern Atlantic, as few species, namely the striped dolphin, the bottlenose dolphin, the fin whale, and the sperm whale, dominate over all the others. However, some areas, such as the Alboran Sea or the north-western Mediterranean Sea, which includes the Pelagos Sanctuary (the Specially Protected Area of Mediterranean Interest located in the northern portion of the western basin), show higher levels of diversity and should be considered hotspots to be preserved. Primary production and seabed profile seem to be the two main drivers influencing the presence and distribution of cetaceans, with the highest levels of diversity observed in areas characterized by high levels of primary production and high bathymetric variability and gradient. This collective work underlines the importance of data sharing to deepen our knowledge on marine fauna at the scale of the whole Mediterranean Sea and encourages greater efforts in the networking process, also to accomplish the requirements of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, with particular reference to Descriptor 1: biological diversity is maintained