The diversity and abundance of wild bees ensures the delivery of pollination services and the maintenance of ecosystem diversity. As previous studies carried out in Central Europe and the US have shown, bee diversity and abundance is influenced by the structure and the composition of the surrounding landscape. Comparable studies have so far not been carried out in the Mediterranean region. The present study examines the influence of Mediterranean landscape context on the diversity and abundance of wild bees. To do this, we sampled bees in 13 sites in olive groves on Lesvos Island, Greece.

Land use and land cover change (LUCC) models frequently employ different accessibility measures as a proxy for human influence on land change processes. Here, we simulate deforestation in Peruvian Amazonia and evaluate different accessibility measures as LUCC model inputs. We demonstrate how the selection, and different combinations, of accessibility measures impact simulation results. Out of the individual measures, time distance to market center catches the essential aspects of accessibility in our study area.

Soil contamination by heavy metals has become a widespread dangerous problem in many parts of the world, including the Mediterranean environments. This is closely related to the increase irrigation by waste waters, to the uncontrolled application of sewage sludge, industrial effluents, pesticides and fertilizers, to the rapid urbanization, to the atmospheric deposition of dust and aerosols, to the vehicular emissions and to many other negative human activities.

Regional climate is influenced by land surface processes through energy exchange between land and atmosphere at various scales. The performance of climate model simulation is largely influenced by land cover parameterization, especially over areas that experience rapid change of land surface characterization. Accurate land cover datasets suited for climate modeling are urgently needed to improve model parameterization for better simulation.

While diverse, native riparian vegetation provides important functions, it remains unclear to what extent these assemblages can persist in urban areas, and under what conditions. We characterized forested riparian vegetation communities across an urbanizing metropolitan area and examined their relationships with surrounding land cover. We hypothesized that native and hydrophilic species assemblages would correlate with forest cover in the landscape.

To preserve land quality and mitigating land degradation represent an important task for regional planning and environmental management of the Mediterranean region. Since land cover dynamics directly affect the landscape characteristics, remote sensing represents an effective tool for land quality assessment at large scale.

Nutrient transport and loss in farmlands are affected by factors such as land cover, fertilization, soil type, rainfall, and management practices. We investigated the temporal and spatial changes in macronutrient transport and loss after fertilization and precipitation in manure-fertilized eggplant farmland in an alluvial plain. Upon adding topical fertilizer, concentrations of most nutrients in runoff and groundwater increased, and nitrogen runoff increased from 22.11 to 35.81 kg/ha, although eggplant yield did not increase correspondingly.

Land-use and vegetation cover have been linked to the nutrient levels (nitrogen, phosphorus) of surface waters in several countries. However, the links generally relate to streams and rivers, or to specific types of standing water, for example shallow lakes in a geologically defined region.

Air temperature was monitored at 13 sites across the urban perimeter of a Brazilian midsize city in winter 2011. In this study, we show that the urban heat island (UHI) develops only at night and under certain weather conditions, and its intensity depends not only on the site's land cover but also on the meteorological setting. The urban heat island intensity was largest (6.6� °C) under lingering high-pressure conditions, milder (3.0� °C) under cold anticyclones and almost vanished (1.0� °C) during the passage of cold fronts.

Endocrine-disrupting contaminant (EDC) loads in rivers, and the associated risk to wildlife, may be linked to different anthropogenic stressors occupying river catchments. The aims of this study were to evaluate seasonal and spatial variation in steroid estrogen loads, and (anti)estrogenic and (anti)androgenic activity in a river catchment (upper Olifants River, South Africa), subject to a diversity of anthropogenic impacts. In addition, Mozambique tilapia, Oreochromis mossambicus, was applied as African-endemic sentinel and source of in vivo biomarkers.

Remote sensing is a useful technology for monitoring the spatial distribution and expansion of built-up and bare land areas. One effective approach, known as the normalized difference built-up index (NDBI), has been promoted for identifying built-up areas based on Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM)/Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) data.

Climate change is causing range shifts in many species, and impacts are predicted to be highest in mountain regions. The effectiveness of protected areas in preserving suitable habitats for target species in the face of climate change is particularly concerning, as many protected sites may lose suitable conditions for those species. We investigate the potential effect of temperature increase on the regional distribution of pygmy and boreal owl, mountain forest specialists in the Italian Alps, and the relative effectiveness of the Natura 2000 network at the regional level.