Academic literature on the topic 'Appia antica (Gallery : Rome, Italy)'

Alexandrine parakeet sightings have repeatedly occurred in the city of Rome, Italy in the Caffarella valley, within the ‘Regional Park of Appia Antica’ starting from March 2010. Several other sightings have been made since December 2014 onwards. Until now, nesting has not been proven, but it is believed that this may have already occurred.

The first inventory of the flora of Appia Antica Regional Park (Italy), one of the largest protected urban areas in Europe (4580 ha), its biological, ecological and biogeographical composition, and notes of the vegetation physiognomies and landscape are presented; physical characteristics of the territory (geomorphology, lithotypes, and phytoclimate) are also given. The landscape is defined by an agricultural matrix with natural and seminatural areas as patches, and riparian vegetation communities as corridors. The vegetation physiognomies are represented by types linked to the Mediterranean climate (mixed, Mediterranean, and riparian forests; scrubby, rocky, aquatic, and helophytic vegetation; anthropogenic communities). The floristic list includes 714 taxa (104 families and 403 genera). Therophytes prevail over hemicryptophytes; woody flora comprises about 30% of alien species. As regards chorotypes, together with a considerable number of Mediterranean species, there are many exotic species with wide distribution areas testifying to a long-lasting anthropic impact. Floristic novelties (european, national, and regional levels) for 21 taxa are reported. The extraordinary species diversity discovered (43% of flora of Rome and 20% of regional flora) is linked to the landscape heterogeneity, the characteristics of which are: (1) persistence of residual natural patches, (2) occurrence of quite well-preserved aquatic habitats and humid meadows, (3) a rich anthropogenic flora, (4) an interesting flora of archeological sites, (5) occurrence of species not common in Latium, (6) occurrence of populations of aliens in crops (which cause economic impact), (7) presence of aliens on archeological ruins (which cause economic-social impacts). The extensive set of data provided represents a general base framework for guiding future research efforts and landscape action plans consistent with environmental sustainability.

From September 2020 to April 2021 a mosquito monitoring activity was carried out in the Caffarella Valley within the Appia Antica Regional Park in Rome, a very popular urban park completely surrounded by densely populated neighborhoods. During this entomological survey, we collected 798 mosquito larvae that were identified by morphology and by molecular tools. Out of these samples, eight taxa have been identified morphologically or molecularly in case of complex of species, belonging to five genera: Culex pipiens (49.1%, n=392), Culiseta annulata (16%, n=128), Culiseta longiareolata (13.1%, n=105), Anopheles claviger (11.5%, n=92), Aedes albopictus (5.5%, n=44), Anopheles maculipennis s.s. (2%, n=16), Culex theileri (0.7%, n=6), Uranotaenia unguiculata (1.8%, n=15). The noteworthy datum of this survey is the finding of Cx. theileri, a very common species in ponds and marshes in natural and rural environments, but never recorded before in Rome, and also the record of Ur. unguiculata, previously reported in Rome but never observed in this park. Caffarella Valley confirms its high degree of naturalness and high biodiversity in terms of mosquito species together to its particular location as a very popular urban park, completely surrounded by densely populated neighborhoods. Key Words: mosquitoes, Culex theileri, Rome, Italy

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> The documentation of built heritage involves tangible and intangible features. Several morphological and metric aspects of architectural structures are acquired throughout a massive data capture system, such as the Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) and the Structure from Motion (SfM) technique. They produce models that give information about the skin of architectural organism. Infrared Thermography (IRT) is one of the techniques used to investigate what is beyond the external layer. This technology is particularly significant in the diagnostics and conservation of the built heritage. In archaeology, the integration of data acquired through different sensors improves the analysis and the interpretation of findings that are incomplete or transformed.</p> <p>Starting from a topographic and photogrammetric survey, the procedure here proposed aims to combine the bidimensional IRT data together with the 3D point cloud. This system helps to overcome the Field of View (FoV) of each IRT image and provides a three-dimensional reading of the thermal behaviour of the object. This approach is based on the geometric constraints of the pair of RGB-IR images coming from two different sensors mounted inside a bi-camera commercial device. Knowing the approximate distance between the two sensors, and making the necessary simplifications allowed by the low resolution of the thermal sensor, we projected the colour of the IR images to the RGB point cloud. The procedure was applied is the so-called Nymphaeum of Egeria, an archaeological structure in the Caffarella Park (Rome, Italy), which is currently part of the Appia Antica Regional Park.</p>

Urbanisation is a rapidly growing global phenomenon leading to habitat destruction, fragmentation and degradation. However, urban areas can offer opportunities for conservation, particularly through the presence of green spaces which can even provide important habitats for imperilled species. Spiders, which play crucial roles in ecosystem functioning, include many species that can successfully exploit urban environments. Placed in the middle of the Mediterranean global biodiversity hotspot, Italy possesses an exceptionally rich spider fauna, yet comprehensive data on urban spider communities are still limited. More information on urban spiders in Italy would be extremely beneficial to support conservation efforts, especially in central and southern Italy, where knowledge on the spider fauna is largely incomplete. The current study focused on the spider diversity of a large protected area (Appia Antica Regional Park) in urban Rome, Italy. A total of 120 spider species belonging to 83 genera and 28 families were identified, with 70 species being new records to the Province of Rome, 39 to the Latium Region and two (Pelecopsis digitulus Bosmans & Abrous, 1992 and Palliduphantes arenicola (Denis, 1964)) to Italy. Forty-one species were recorded during autumn/winter sampling and 107 in spring/summer. The spider fauna recorded from the study area included about 37% of the total spider fauna known from the Province of Rome, 28% of that of the Latium Region and 7% of the entire Italian territory. The most represented families in terms of species richness were Gnaphosidae and Linyphiidae, which accounted for more than 40% of the sampled fauna. Lycosidae were the most abundant family (29% of captured individuals), followed by Zodariidae (16% of captured individuals), Linyphiidae (13% of captured individuals) and Gnaphosidae (7.5% of captured individuals). From a biogeographical point of view, most of the collected species belonged to chorotypes that extend for large areas across Europe and the Mediterranean. The research highlights the role of urban green spaces as refuges for spiders and the importance of arachnological research in urban areas as sources of information on spider biodiversity at larger scales.

As concrete jungles, urban areas may be considered extreme environments for most animal groups. Yet, cities host unexpected high values of biodiversity, sometimes also in the most urbanized sectors. Several works have investigated the impact of urbanization on carabids using urban-rural gradients. However, most research has been done in north-western and central Europe, whereas urban communities in the Mediterranean region remain largely unexplored. Also, due to the high fragmentation of green spaces in urban areas, studies on the urban-rural gradient typically used data collected from several green spaces along the gradient, not from a single large area, which complicates interpretation because of the many confounding factors associated with inter-site variability. Aim of this research was to investigate the response of carabid populations to urbanization by analysing how their activity density varied along an urban-rural gradient within a single, large green space. The study was conducted in Rome (Italy), in the Appia Antica Regional Park, an urban park of 3,500 ha, which extends for some 16 km from the city centre to the rural environments out of the city. Carabids were sampled by pitfall traps from nine sites along the entire urban-rural gradient. We calculated the total carabid activity density, number of carabids/total Coleoptera (CAR/COL), and number of carabids/total insects (CAR/INS). As already observed for various organisms in urban environments, we found that carabid acitivity density peacked in the middle of the gradient, where it was more than six times higher than in the city centre and about three time higher than in the rural sites. This supports the intermediate disturbance hypothesis, according to which moderate urbanization may favour diversity by increasing habitat heterogeneity. CAR/COL and CAR/INS also peacked in the middle of the gradient, which indicates that carabids are the insect taxon most favoured by intermediate urbanization.