The decline of ground-nesting birds in the agrarian landscape of Italy

Authors summarize the historical and current status of some granivorous birds linked to agri-environments in Italy, namely Skylark (Alauda arvensis), Woodlark (Lullula arborea), Crested Lark (Galerida cristata), Calandra Lark (Melanocorypha calandra), Short-toed Lark (Calandrella brachydactyla) and Corn Bunting (Emberiza calandra), pointing out that the most declining species are Calandra Lark (sedentary) and Short-toed Lark (transaharian migrant), less Skylark (sedentary and short-distance migrant), more or less stable Crested Lark (sedentary), Woodlark and Corn Bunting (both sedentary and short-distance migrants); all of them are mainly associated with “extensive” agriculture, which is practised in wide farmlands, but actually with “intensive” methods, that authors consider the main cause of depletion of these birds. The rural development reforms planned for the 2007-2013 period appear to be an opportunity to resolve some environmentally harmful effects arisen from the measure application in the previous period; agri-environment measures, rewarding farmers improving farmland with land able to provide food, shelter and nesting sites for wildlife, should be more competitively funded and paid in accordance with the importance of the environmental benefits provided

On the Rock Partridge in the painting "Saint Jerome in the study" by Antonello da Messina.

Pictorial work of Antonello da Messina during the Sicilian period (1455-60) is considered less fruitful and less mature than during his stay in Venice (ca 1474-1476). While some art critics consider the painting "Saint Jerome in the study" a work of the first period, others believe that it was produced during the Venice period. The Authors analysed the plumage characters of the Rock Partridge, Alectoris graeca, depicted with symbolic significance in the painting, to try the identification of the population which the subject used as model could belong to. However, they conclude that the identification as a Sicilian as well as an Alpine Rock Partridge is doubtful and in this case the plumage of the bird depicted does not help to resolve the controversy of painting dating

Le déclin des oiseaux terrestres dans les paysages agricoles d’Italie

Authors summarize the historical and current status of some granivorous birds linked to agri-environments in Italy, namely Skylark (Alauda arvensis), Woodlark (Lullula arborea), Crested Lark (Galerida cristata), Calandra Lark (Melanocorypha calandra), Short-toed Lark (Calandrella brachydactyla) and Corn Bunting (Emberiza calandra), pointing out that the most declining species are Calandra Lark (sedentary) and Short-toed Lark (transaharian migrant), less Skylark (sedentary and short-distance migrant), more or less stable Crested Lark (sedentary), Woodlark and Corn Bunting (both sedentary and shortdistance migrants); all of them are mainly associated with “extensive” agriculture, which is practised in wide farmlands, but actually with “intensive” methods, that authors consider the main cause of depletion of these birds. The rural development reforms planned for the 2007-2013 period appear to be an opportunity to resolve some environmentally harmful effects arisen from the measure application in the previous period; agri-environment measures, rewarding farmers improving farmland with land able to provide food, shelter and nesting sites for wildlife, should be more competitively funded and paid in accordance with the importance of the environmental benefits providedLes auteurs résument le statut historique et actuel de quelques oiseaux granivores liés à l'environnement agricole en Italie, en l'occurrence l'Alouette des champs (Alauda arvensis), l'Alouette lulu (Lullula arborea), le Cochevis huppé (Galerida cristata), l'Alouette calandre (Melanocorypha calandra), l'Alouette calandrelle (Calandrella brachydactyla) et le Bruant proyer (Emberiza calandra). Ils soulignent que l'Alouette calandre (sédentaire) et l'Alouette calandrelle (migratrice transaharienne) sont les espèces qui déclinent le plus, l'Alouette des champs (à la fois sédentaire et migratrice partielle) décline moins tandis que le Cochevis huppé (sédentaire), l'Alouette lulu et le Bruant proyer (tous deux à la fois sédentaires et migrateurs partiels) sont plus ou moins stables. Toutes ces espèces sont essentiellement associées à l'agriculture «extensive» pratiquée sur de grandes surfaces mais qui, en réalité, l'est de manière «intensive», ce que les auteurs tiennent pour être la raison principale du déclin de ces oiseaux. Les réformes de développement planifiées pour la période 2007-2013 apparaissent comme une opportunité à saisir pour résoudre quelques effets dangereux dus aux mesures appliquées dans la période précédente. Les mesures agro-environnementales encourageant les agriculteurs à améliorer leurs terres de manière à fournir à la faune sauvage de la nourriture, des abris et des sites de reproduction, devraient être mieux subventionnées en accord avec l'importance des bénéfices offerts à l'environnement

Gli uccelli delle isole circumsiciliane

Gli autori sintetizzano tutte le informazioni bibliografiche e inedite sulle specie che sino al 30 agosto 2015 sono state contattate almeno una volta nelle 14 isole circumsiciliane (Eolie, Ustica, Egadi, Pantelleria e Pelagie), confrontando alla fine la lista complessiva con quella delle isole Maltesi. In totale sono ad oggi note 434 specie (isole Maltesi incluse); molte di esse hanno mostrato nel corso dei secoli una notevole capacità di colonizzazione, fluttuando nel tempo o addirittura estinguendosi e ricolonizzando alcune isole. Questi piccoli territori in mezzo al mare rappresentano ottimi siti di controllo dell’andamento delle migrazioni nel corso dei decenni; alcune specie hanno chiaramente cambiato il loro status rispetto al passato, aumentando o diminuendo. Nel corso di circa 15 anni in alcune di queste isole (Ustica, Marettimo, Lampedusa e Linosa) sono stati condotti dei campi di inanellamento sia primaverili sia autunnali che hanno permesso di inanellare 102.208 uccelli, in gran parte Passeriformes; ciò ha consentito di raccogliere una notevole mole di dati sulle strategie migratorie, che vengono qui brevemente presentati. Le piccole isole sono davvero importanti per gli uccelli migratori transahariani, che devono sostare durante i loro lunghi viaggi per recuperare energie; la disponibilità di risorse sotto forma di frutti selvatici o di insetti (a seconda delle specie) consente a queste masse di migratori di continuare il loro viaggio. La conservazione degli uccelli è dettata dalla Direttiva Uccelli e l’istituzione delle Zone di Protezione Speciale ha proprio lo scopo di salvaguardare alcune specie in determinati territori. Questo è un impegno preso da parte di tutti i Paesi dell’Unione Europea, proprio perché le popolazioni di uccelli non conoscono confini amministrativi e la loro tutela va al di là delle competenze e degli interessi di un singolo Paese. Per quanto riguarda le specie nidificanti, è risultata un’elevata correlazione negativa (r=-0,746), altamente significativa (P=0,002) tra la capacità dispersiva media delle specie e la superficie in km2 delle isole. Le specie con minore capacità dispersiva hanno colonizzato le isole di maggiori dimensioni, ma non quelle più piccole; questo con molta probabilità dipende dalla eterogeneità ambientale, a sua volta legata alla dimensione delle isole ed alla loro posizione geografica. Nel caso delle isole circumsiciliane, sembra che non sia tanto la distanza dalla costa a determinare il numero di specie, quanto le condizioni ambientali e la posizione geografica; indubbiamente la posizione tirrenica delle isole settentrionali rappresenta un vantaggio per la presenza di habitat differenziati e la conseguente colonizzazione di specie ad essi legate, mentre la posizione meridionale, influenzata dall’aridità africana, riduce alcune possibilità colonizzatrici da parte di alcune specie di uccelli e rende altresì problematica la stessa esistenza di habitat diversificati. Il numero delle specie nidificanti in un’isola è variabile nel tempo, essendovi specie che vi nidificano in modo irregolare. La correlazione area/N° specie nelle isole circumsiciliane è pari a 0,58, ma se si esclude l’isola di Pantelleria, sale a 0,86; essa è pari a 0,92 per le sole isole settentrionali (Eolie, Ustica ed Egadi), mentre risulta 0,99 per le sole tre isole meridionali del Canale di Sicilia.Authors summarize all bibliographic and unpublished information on bird species that have been detected at least one time up to 30th August 2015 in the 14 circum-sicilian islands (Eolian, Ustica, Egadi, Pantelleria and Pelagian Is.). The Appendix 1 compares overall lists with that of the Maltese Is., also lying in the Sicilian waters. On the whole, 434 species are known till now (Maltese Is. included); many of them showed a high colonizing capacity along the centuries, fluctuating or even becoming extinct and re-colonising some islands. These small territories in the middle of the Mediterranean sea are very good check-control sites of long-term migration trend; compared to the past, some species changed their status, increasing or declining. Additionally, during the last 15 years in some of these islands (Ustica, Marettimo, Lampedusa and Linosa) bird ringing activity has been carried out, both in spring and in autumn; it allowed to ring 102,208 birds, mainly Passeriformes; this opportunity allowed to collect a remarkable amount of data on migration strategy, here presented. The small islands are very important stop-over sites for transsaharan migratory birds, that must rest during their long journey to recover fuel in the form of fat; the availability of natural resources, such as wild fruits or insects, allows these masses of migrant birds to continue their trip. The conservation of birds has been established by the Bird Directive and the institution of Zones of Special Protection has the aim to safeguard some species in some territories. This agreement was signed by all countries of the EU, because bird populations do not know administrative borders and their conservation lies beyond the interests and authorities of a single country. Concerning breeding birds, a high negative correlation (r=-0.746, P=0.002) has been found between the average dispersal power of species and the area in km2 of islands. Species with minor dispersal power colonized the biggest but not the smallest islands; this, very probably depended on habitat heterogeneity of islands, in turn linked to the size of them and to the geographical position, more than to the distance from the continental land. Tyrrhenian position of northern islands is certainly an advantage for the presence of diversified habitats and birds inhabiting them, whereas southern position of Pantelleria and Pelagian Is., as well as Maltese Is., affected by African dryness, decreases colonizing probabilities of some bird species and the same existence of diversified habitats. The number of breeding species in each island varied along the time and some species bred irregularly. The correlation area/No. species in the islands surrounding Sicily resulted to be 0.58, but if we exclude Pantelleria Is., it grows to 0.86; besides, it grows to 0.92 if we consider only northern islands (Eolian, Ustica and Egadi Is.), and to 0.99 if we consider only southern islands

COMMAND PROCEDURES FOR THE EPIC MOS CAMERA SYSTEM (EMCS) AT S/C LEVEL

This document provides both the Command Procedures and the Building Blocks for the EPIC MOS activities at S/C level. The scope of this document is to outline all the activities to be performed during the XMM Commissioning and CPV Phases

Vertebrate-mediated seed rain and artificial perches contribute to overcome seed dispersal limitation in a Mediterranean old field

Natural regeneration of vegetation is a frequent outcome of land abandonment, although the rate and diversity of such regeneration may be severely restricted by seed dispersal limitation, among other factors. In spite of this, studies aiming to quantify seed rain and test methods to enhance it, such as artificial perches, are still underrepresented in the Mediterranean. In our study, we quantified seed rain density and richness and tested the effects of artificial perches on such rain over a distance gradient on seven Mediterranean island old fields. In each of the seven sites, we positioned three sampling stations, each consisting of 1 seed trap under an artificial perch and 1 as a control on the ground, distributed at 30, 60, and 90 m from natural vegetation remnant. All traps received seeds, suggesting no overall dispersal limitation. Of the 11 seed species found, 10 were fleshy-fruited and dispersed by vertebrates. Seed traps under perches received significantly higher seed rain of fleshy-fruited species dispersed by birds, while ground traps received significantly more seeds of the species also dispersed by mammals, especially Rubus ulmifolius. The distance from the seed source was nonsignificant in all cases. Our study demonstrates the key role of vertebrate-mediated seed dispersal services to overcome dispersal limitation in old fields, as well as the effective contribution of even small artificial perches in contrasting such limitation. The lack of differences over the distance gradient reveal that the upper spatial limit of dispersal limitation was not achieved

The OPTX Project IV: How Reliable is [OIII] as a Measure of AGN Activity?

We compare optical and hard X-ray identifications of AGNs using a uniformly selected (above a flux limit of f_2-8 keV = 3.5e-15 erg/cm2/s) and highly optically spectroscopically complete ( > 80% for f_2-8 keV > 1e-14 erg/cm2/s and > 60% below) 2-8 keV sample observed in three Chandra fields (CLANS, CLASXS, and the CDF-N). We find that empirical emission-line ratio diagnostic diagrams misidentify 20-50% of the X-ray selected AGNs that can be put on these diagrams as star formers, depending on which division is used. We confirm that there is a large (2 orders in magnitude) dispersion in the log ratio of the [OIII]5007A to hard X-ray luminosities for the non-broad line AGNs, even after applying reddening corrections to the [OIII] luminosities. We find that the dispersion is similar for the broad-line AGNs, where there is not expected to be much X-ray absorption from an obscuring torus around the AGN nor much obscuration from the galaxy along the line-of-sight if the AGN is aligned with the galaxy. We postulate that the X-ray selected AGNs that are misidentified by the diagnostic diagrams have low [OIII] luminosities due to the complexity of the structure of the narrow-line region, which causes many ionizing photons from the AGN not to be absorbed. This would mean that the [OIII] luminosity can only be used to predict the X-ray luminosity to within a factor of ~3 (one sigma). Despite selection effects, we show that the shapes and normalizations of the [OIII] and transformed hard X-ray luminosity functions show reasonable agreement, suggesting that the [OIII] samples are not finding substantially more AGNs at low redshifts than hard X-ray samples.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. 11 pages, 10 figure

ESPANSIONE DELLA RONDINE MONTANA PTYONOPROGNE RUPESTRIS (SCOPOLI) IN SICILIA (Aves Hirundinidae)

Expansion of the Eurasian Crag Martin Ptyonoprogne rupestris (Scopoli) in Sicily (Aves Hirun dinidae). Data collected during the last fifteen years on the distribution of the Eurasian Crag Martin in Sicily and the comparison with those recorded in literature show an expansion trend for this species. While in the newly colonized areas the nesting sites have been observed mainly on natural habitats, where its occurrence was previously recorded the species shows and adaptation to exploit also anthropogenic habitats, such as buildings or other infrastructures

DNA Extraction From Orthoptera Museum Specimens

We describe a procedure for rapid purification of high quality DNA from either fresh or dry Orthoptera, suitable for the PCR amplification of DNA regions more than 800 bp long (even from oldest specimens), which allows genetic analyses on animals from collections without the complete specimen disruption