The nations on the shoreline of the Arabian/Persian Gulf are the world's largest users of desalination technologies, which are essential to meet their freshwater needs. Desalinated freshwater production is projected to rapidly increase in future decades. Thus, concerns have been raised that desalination activities may result in non-negligible long-term, basin-wide increases of salinity, which would have widespread detrimental effects on the Gulf marine ecosystems, with ripple effects on fisheries, as well as impacting the desalination activities themselves.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn recent years, the Asian gall wasp Dryocosmus kuriphilus has invaded chestnut trees and significantly affected the Portuguese chestnut production. Studies in other countries, such as Japan or Italy, have shown that the parasitoid Torymus sinensis can successfully achieve biological control of D. kuriphilus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn a previous work we developed a mathematical model to explain the co-occurrence of evergreen and deciduous oak groups in the Mediterranean region, regarded as one of the distinctive features of Mediterranean biodiversity. The mathematical analysis showed that a stabilizing mechanism resulting from niche difference (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA novel technique to lithograph the MoS2 surface is described here. Mechanically exfoliated MoS2 flakes have been patterned with an atomic force microscope tip. After the patterning process, the lithographed areas have been removed by selective chemical etching.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF