Abstract:The present study provides an assessment of the climate variability at a subnational scale, focusing on the case of the Apulia region, in Southeastern Italy. The variables considered for the purpose of a trend analysis were the minimum, maximum, and mean temperatures, and reference evapotranspiration. These are very important in an urban-rural planning context. The study was based on 38 monitoring stations and consisted in the application of the nonparametric Mann-Kendall test and a progressive trend analysis, both used to detect the changes. The 1950-2003 period was investigated on seasonal and annual scales. The results generally showed a warming process and an acceleration of the atmospheric evaporative demand which took place especially since the mid-1970s. The latter had a significant positive trend, while the period before the break point of the 70s had a cooling effect. Finally, the warming effect was more pronounced for minimum temperatures.
Sustainability of food systems and diets is not simply related to health concerns as it also involves environmental impacts. In fact, diets are major players in biodiversity erosion, natural resources degradation, climate change, etc.. The paper aims at analysing the main environmental impacts of the Mediterranean food consumption patterns on land and water resources and biodiversity. It provides a review on water and land resources and biodiversity in the Mediterranean and an analysis of the livestock sector impacts on ecosystem services. The most recent FAO food consumption statistics and standard impact data from different sources (e.g., Water Footprint Network; Mekonnen & Hoekstra, 2010; Ewing et al., 2010) were used to calculate and discuss environmental impacts, i.e., water, carbon and ecological footprints. Mediterranean diets promote biodiversity use, conservation and sustainable natural resources management. They are more respectful of ecosystems and have lower environmental impacts than Northern Europe and American diets.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.