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New Italian data on the distribution of the Annex I Habitats are reported in this contribution. Specifically, 9 new occurrences in Natura 2000 sites are presented and 34 new cells are added in the EEA 10 km × 10 km reference grid. The new data refer to the Italian administrative regions of Abruzzo, Apulia, Calabria, Latium, Lombardy, Marche, Sardinia, Sicily, Tuscany and Umbria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Italian data on the distribution of 17 Annex I Habitats are reported in this contribution. Specifically, 11 new occurrences in Natura 2000 sites are presented and 30 new cells are added in the EEA 10 km x 10 km reference grid. The new data refer to the Italian administrative regions of Apulia, Campania, Calabria, Lazio, Sardinia, Sicily and Tuscany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent increase of interest in photocatalysis spread to biocatalysis and triggered a rush for the development of light‐dependent enzyme‐mediated or enzyme‐coupled processes. After several years of intense research on photobiocatalysis, it is time to evaluate the state of the field in a structured manner. In this Perspective, we suggest to group photobiocatalysis into distinct disciplines and provide principal guidelines and standards for the reporting of photobiocatalytic research results as well as advice on performing photobiocatalytic reactions. Overall, we assess that the field contributes to the diversity of biocatalytic reactions while offering the selectivity of enzymes to photocatalysis. We foresee that the ongoing excitement for light‐dependent enzymatic processes will lead to the discovery of novel photobiocatalytic mechanisms to complement biocatalysis with new bond‐forming reactions and will provide additional innovative strategies to utilize light as a possible benign energy source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, based on fieldwork and herbaria surveys, new data concerning the presence of 32 native and alien vascular species for Sicily (Italy) are provided. Among the native species, the occurrence of the following taxa is reported for the first time or confirmed after many decades of non-observation: Aira multiculmis, Arum maculatum, Carex flacca subsp. flacca, Mentha longifolia, Oxybasis chenopodioides, Najas minor and Xiphion junceum. Furthermore, we document the presence of three native species (Cornus mas, Juncus foliosus and Limonium avei) that, despite being repeatedly observed in Sicily and reported in the literature, are inexplicably omitted by the most recent authoritative checklists regarding the flora of Italy. Finally, fifteen alien species new to Sicily (including one new to Europe, i.e., Pyrus betulifolia) are reported and seven poorly documented allochthonous taxa are confirmed for the island, and for two of them, a status change is proposed. These new or confirmed records allow us to better define the European and national distribution of the targeted taxa and offer new insights on the native and alien flora of Sicily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The selective hydroxylation of steroids through chemical synthesis is a complex reaction with a high environmental impact. The use of photoautotrophic microorganisms expressing heterologous monooxygenases could overcome this problem by fueling the reaction with electrons and O2 derived from the light-dependent oxidation of water, occurring during photosynthesis. Here, the light-driven selective hydroxylation of testosterone into 15β-hydroxytestosterone was achieved using whole-cells of the unicellular cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 expressing the heterologous CYP450 monooxygenase, CYP110D1. Additionally, the reaction conditions including cell density, aeration, and substrate concentration were optimized, leading to a maximum specific activity of 1 U gCDW−1. This value is about 2-fold higher than the one achieved using the model heterotrophic bacterium, E. coli, in which was necessary to express not only CYP110D1 but also its electron partners, and to use glucose as a sacrificial electron donor. Altogether, the results obtained here demonstrate the higher efficiency and sustainability (94% atom economy) of testosterone hydroxylation using our engineered Synechocystis chassis, compared to biocatalysis with heterotrophic microorganisms or chemical synthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acacia salignais a phanerophyte native to Australia; it was introduced in the 1950s in Sardinia (Italy) for afforestation mainly in coastal areas and at present it is considered naturalized, becoming invasive in sand dune habitats. Seed biology is one of the most important factors contributing to the invasion success of Australian acacias, for this reason the germination ability is an important issue when trying to clarify the invasion dynamics ofA. saligna. Germination tests were conducted at the BG-SAR, testing the effect of different temperatures and percentages of NaCl, on seeds belonging to five accessions from four populations of two coastal habitat types. The optimal temperature range for seed germination was 15–20°C; the increase of salt caused a decrease in the final germination percentages. At 1% of NaCl concentration, germination fell at 25–30°C and at 2% it was relatively low (below 40%) and occurred almost only at 15°C. This work represents a contribution to the knowledge of the seed ecology and germination behaviour of the species, providing new data on the interpopulation and interannual variability, and relating them to the invasion dynamics ofA. salignain the coastal Mediterranean habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evaluation of the intrinsic complexity of a supervised domain plays an important role in devising classification systems. Typically, the metrics used for this purpose produce an overall evaluation of the domain, without localizing the sources of complexity. In this work we propose a method for partitioning the feature space into subsets of different complexity. The most important outcome of the method is the possibility of preliminarily identifying hard and easy regions of the feature space. This possibility opens interesting theoretical and pragmatic scenarios, including the analysis of the classification error and the implementation of robust classification systems. A first group of experiments has been performed on synthetic datasets, devised to separately highlight specific and recurrent problems often found in real-world domains. In particular, the focus has been on class boundaries, noise, and density of samples. A second group of experiments, performed on selected real-world datasets, confirm the validity of the proposed method. The ultimate goal of our research is to devise a method for estimating the classification difficulty of a dataset. The proposed method makes a significant step in this direction, as it is able to partition a given dataset according to the inherent complexity of the samples contained therein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on a pair of Red-rumped Swallows living in a sea cave in Sardinia, Italy. It is noted that the birds, with the scientific name Cecropis daurica, were nesting inside the cave and had a minimum of two baby birds. A pair of Barn Swallows was also seen nearby. It is asserted that this specie of swallow live in various types of areas such as cracks and holes.

Alien plants colonization, due to the fast spreading of highly invasive taxa, is more and more a serious source of concerns for habitat and species conservation. Apart direct in situ intervention, it is of major importance to acquire the best and up to date knowledge about alien taxa that currently threaten the integrity of wild and valuable environments. In this light, here is presented the update to the checklist of alien vascular flora of the island of Sardinia (Italy) on the basis of the new findings, nomenclatural adjustments, and revision of diffusion status of alien taxa. The checklist at present, consists of 541 taxa (84 doubtful) which represent 17% of the whole flora of the island; 22 taxa are new to the island and 7 of them for Italy. Neophytes represent the majority of the whole alien flora (301, 66% of the total) and, in confront to archaeophytes, gather nearly all invasive taxa (54 vs 4). The new findings are all neophytes. Phanerophytes (42%) are the most representative biological form and Americas represents the region that mostly contributes to the Sardinian alien flora (33%). Further analysis highlights that, in terms of number of taxa, highly anthropically impacted environments such as synanthropic (36%) and agricultural (23%) are the eligible habitats for most of the alien species in Sardinia while coastal areas and wetlands, beyond hosting a lower number of taxa, are characterized by the relative highest number of invasives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Thirty-four seed morphometric and colorimetric features of the five taxa belonging to the Lavatera triloba aggregate were measured using an image analysis system. Data were statistically analysed using a Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), which provided evidence to reassess the taxonomic position of some neglected or doubtful taxa. The results confirm the differentiation of the insular endemics L. agrigentina, L. triloba ssp. pallescens and L. triloba ssp. minoricensis. Moreover, the Sardinian populations of L. triloba ssp. triloba are clearly differentiated from their Iberian counterparts, but on the other hand, the seed morpho-colorimetric variation between L. triloba ssp. triloba and L. flava is not easy to interpret. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Despite the wide amount of scientific contributions published on alien plant species, their diffusion dynamics, and their interactions with native taxa, it is increasingly difficult to slow down their spreading and their negative impact on habitats. Last recent years, in fact, a sharp rise in the number of new alien plant taxa introduced in Italy and Europe has been recorded. The aim of this work is to investigate most of the Italian territory in order to verify whether this alarming trend is still underway. Specimen collections and/or observations of alien plants have been performed in as many as 12 Italian regions. All the collected specimens are stored in public or private herbaria. Taxa have been identified according to the literature from the countries of origin of the investigated taxa, while the nomenclature followed the current international references. Updates on 106 taxa are reported. In particular, among 117 new records, 89 are first records, 27 are changes to status and there is 1 extinction. Seven new taxa for Italian alien flora are reported, two of which are new to Europe. The administrative regions with the highest number of records are Calabria (48), Sardegna (17) and Sicilia (15). Five of the surveyed taxa, for the first time, have been considered invasive aliens to Italian territory. The unfrequent amount of original results provided by this work, over the simple importance of data itself, proves how floristic investigation, still today, represents one of the most effective tools in broadening the current knowledge about alien taxa and their dynamics.

Astaxanthin is a ketocarotenoid produced by photosynthetic microalgae. It is a pigment of high industrial interest in acquaculture, cosmetics, and nutraceutics due to its strong antioxidant power. Haematococcus pluvialis, a fresh-water microalga, accumulates high levels of astaxanthin upon oxidative stress, reaching values up to 5% per dry weight. H. pluvialis accumulates astaxanthin in oil droplets in the cytoplasm, while the chloroplast volume is reduced. In this work, we investigate the biochemical and spectroscopic properties of the H. pluvialis pigment binding complexes responsible for light harvesting and energy conversion. Our findings demonstrate that the main features of chlorophyll and carotenoid binding complexes previously reported for higher plants or Chlamydomonas reinhardtii are preserved under control conditions. Transition to astaxanthin rich cysts however leads to destabilization of the Photosystems. Surprisingly, astaxanthin was found to be bound to both Photosystem I and II, partially substituting β-carotene, and thus demonstrating possible astaxanthin biosynthesis in the plastids or transport from the cytoplasm to the chloroplast. Astaxanthin binding to Photosystems does not however improve their photoprotection, but rather reduces the efficiency of excitation energy transfer to the reaction centers. We thus propose that astaxanthin binding partially destabilizes Photosystem I and II.