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Le testimonianze storiche indicano per le isole circumsiciliane la presenza di floridi boschi che sono stati distrutti a seguito dei processi di deforestazione. In alcuni casi, dopo gli interventi di rimboschimento, la vegetazione riesce a ricostituirsi con difficoltà come a Lampedusa mentre in altri casi i processi di recupero sono molto rapidi. Un ruolo non indifferente viene svolto dalla presenza di piante in grado di diffondere propaguli ma anche dalle condizioni climatiche locali determinate sia dalla morfologia delle singole isole come, ad esempio, la presenza di rilievi montuosi, che dal particolare contesto oceanografico. I dati medi riportati dalle stazioni climatiche in termini di piovosità non giustificano in molti casi la presenza di una vegetazione forestale confermando il contributo, al ciclo idrologico, di componenti note come “precipitazioni occulte” (da condensa atmosferica o da nebbia) ed identificate correntemente come “Non-Rainfall-Water” (NRW). A dispetto dell’importanza data a questo fattore sono pochissime le informazioni quantitative, anche in ragione dello scarso grado di standardizzazione dei sistemi di misura dei processi di deposizione dell’acqua atmosferica. Nell’ambito delle indagini condotte su finanziamento del “Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique” francese (CNRS) - “Site d’Étude en Ecologie Globale, Pantelleria” e del programma CNRS-Mob-Île abbiamo avviato una indagine a Pantelleria collocando 8 microstazioni metereologiche lungo un transect ambientale dalla costa alla sommità del più importante rilievo dell’Isola (Montagna Grande, 830 m s.l.m.). La collocazione del sistema di rilevamento (umidità, temperatura, sensori di condensa e micro-lisimetri) ha reso necessaria una fase di messa a punto della strumentazione, che ha implicato anche l’individuazione e la caratterizzazione di sistemi e sensori per il rilievo ed il monitoraggio dei fenomeni di condensa atmosferica secondo approcci diversificati. Anche se ancora in modo non quantitativo, i risultati iniziali (in termini di frequenza e di durata dei fenomeni di deposizione registrati) suggeriscono come la componente NRW possa svolgere a Pantelleria un ruolo determinante nel ciclo idrologico generale, ma ulteriori osservazioni saranno necessarie per caratterizzare i fenomeni di deposizione sulle più importanti componenti del paesaggio dell’isola (vegetazione, muretti a secco, suolo)

The challenges of mitigating and adapting to climate change, achieving inclusive food, water, energy and health security, addressing urban vulnerabilities, and the unequal burdens of nature deterioration, are not only predicaments on their own right. Because they interact, often exacerbating each other, they create new risks and uncertainties for people and nature. It is now evident that the rapid deterioration of nature, including that of the global environmental commons on land, ocean, atmosphere and biosphere, upon which humanity as a whole depends, are interconnected and their cascading effects compromise societal goals and aspirations from local to global levels. Growing efforts to respond to these challenges and awareness of our dependence on nature have opened new opportunities for action and collaboration towards fairer and more sustainable futures.The global assessment on biodiversity and ecosystem services (GA) has been designed to be a comprehensive and ambitious intergovernmental integrated assessment of recent anthropogenic transformations of Earth?s living systems, the roots of such transformations, and their implications to society. In the chapters that follow, our mandate is to critically assess the state of knowledge on recent past (from the 1970s), present and possible future trends in multi-scale interactions between people and nature, taking into consideration different worldviews and knowledge systems, including those representing mainstream natural and social sciences and the humanities, and indigenous and local knowledge systems. In doing so, the GA also assesses where the world stands in relation to several international agreements related to biodiversity and sustainable development. Fil: Brondizio, Eduardo. No especifíca; Fil: Díaz, Sandra Myrna. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; Argentina Fil: Settele, Josef. No especifíca; Fil: Ngo, Hien. No especifíca; Fil: Guèze, Maximilien. No especifíca; Fil: Aumeeruddy-Thomas, Y. No especifíca; Fil: Bai, Xuemei. No especifíca; Fil: Geschke, Arne. No especifíca; Fil: Molnár, Zsolt. No especifíca; Fil: Niamir, Aidin. No especifíca; Fil: Pascual, Unai. No especifíca; Fil: Simcock, Alan. No especifíca; Fil: Jaureguiberry, Pedro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; Argentina Fil: Hien, Ngo,. No especifíca; Fil: Brancalion, Pedro. No especifíca; Fil: Chan, Kai M. A.. No especifíca; Fil: Dubertret, Fabrice. No especifíca; Fil: Hendry, Andrew. No especifíca; Fil: Liu, Jianguo. No especifíca; Fil: Martin, Adrian. No especifíca; Fil: Martín López, Berta. No especifíca; Fil: Midgley, Guy F.. No especifíca; Fil: Obura, David. No especifíca; Fil: Oliver, Tom. No especifíca; Fil: Scheffran, Jürgen. No especifíca; Fil: Seppelt, Ralf. No especifíca; Fil: Strassburg, Bernardo. No especifíca; Fil: Spangenberg, Joachim H.. No especifíca; Fil: Stenseke, Marie. No especifíca; Fil: Turnhout, Esther. No especifíca; Fil: Williams, Meryl J.. No especifíca; Fil: Zayas, Cynthia. No especifíca

We share many of the views of de Groot et al. on the relevance of ecosystem services (ES) and the constructive role they have played in highlighting the importance of nature to people. Here we aim to further clarify how the concept of Nature’s Contribution to People (NCP) contributes to science and policy.It was not the aim of our article to review the literature on ecosystem services (ES). The point of our article was to explain the concept of NCP not to review the extensive ES literature. We are in full agreement that the influence of ES has been long and rich, from its first mention in the peer-reviewed literature (1) to the present. As explicitly stated in our articles (2, 3) and further clarified in our figure S1, the IPBES approach owes much to the influence of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) (4). The NCP framing has a number of elements that were present in the MA, as well as new elements.Ecosystem services are a subset of NCP, but there is more to NCP than ES. Beyond apparent similarities in definitions (e.g. services = contributions in some cases), the ES and NCP framings are different, with NCP being epistemologically, ontologically and methodologically more pluralistic. ES are part of NCP, that is, the ES approach represents an important subset of ways to understand nature’s diverse contributions to people.

Daniel Faith makes several very good points. We deal with only one of them in this short response, the role of biodiversity as a source of options for people now and in the future. We agree with Faith that biodiversity at all scales, from local to global, is critically important for humans in the face of the unknown, and for the future production of nature’s contributions to people (NCP). We also agree that NCP in the face of the unknown should include both those associated with particular components of biodiversity, and those related to the continued existence of the variety of life. One of our categories of NCP indeed addresses these two aspects. “Maintenance of options” (NCP 18 within the generalizing perspective, Table S1) refers to the capacity of ecosystems, habitats, species or genotypes to keep options open in order to support a good quality of life. This includes the future benefits or threats derived from particular genes, organisms, groups of organisms or ecosystems, be they still unknown or already known but their future uses as yet undiscovered. NCP 18 also includes the contributions of all species, populations and genotypes to processes for coping with environmental uncertainty, such as the resilience and resistance of ecosystems in the face of environmental change and variability. Finally, it recognises future benefits or threats that may be anticipated from ongoing biological evolution, including rapid contemporary evolution. Using the eloquent metaphor of Faith et al., the existing global variety of life is a “storehouse”, and the on-going evolutionary process is a “factory” of new benefits and threats; both are included in the NCP framework. The NCP approach also seeks to integrate the various ways in which nature keeps our options open through the lens of other knowledge systems (context-specific perspective), from contributing to food autonomy at the household and local levels, to mutual enhancement of regional crop diversity and social networks, to the deliberate dispersal along “song-lines” of nutritious non-cultivated species enhancing the liveability of forests for future generations.

[No abstract available]

This book has been published by Allenvi (French National Alliance for Environmental Research) to coincide with the 22nd Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22) in Marrakesh. It is the outcome of work by academic researchers on both sides of the Mediterranean and provides a remarkable scientific review of the mechanisms of climate change and its impacts on the environment, the economy, health and Mediterranean societies. It will also be valuable in developing responses that draw on “scientific evidence” to address the issues of adaptation, resource conservation, solutions and risk prevention. Reflecting the full complexity of the Mediterranean environment, the book is a major scientific contribution to the climate issue, where various scientific considerations converge to break down the boundaries between disciplines., Cet ouvrage, publié par l’Alliance nationale de recherche sur l’environnement (Allenvi) à l’occasion de la 22e Conférence des Parties de la Convention Cadre des Nations unies sur le changement climatique (COP22) de Marrakech, est le fruit de la mobilisation de chercheurs et d’universitaires des deux rives de la Méditerranée. Il constitue une synthèse scientifique exceptionnelle sur les mécanismes du changement climatique, ses impacts sur l’environnement, l’économie, la santé et les sociétés de la Méditerranée. Il représente par ailleurs un précieux outil pour élaborer des réponses, fondées sur l’ « évidence scientifique », en matière d’adaptation, de conservation des ressources, de solutions ou de prévention des risques. Mettant en exergue toute la complexité de l’environnement méditerranéen, cet ouvrage est une contribution scientifique majeure à la question climatique, au croisement des questionnements scientifiques dans une perspective de décloisonnement disciplinaire.

International audience

Cet ouvrage, publié par l'Alliance nationale de recherche sur l'environnement (Allenvi) à l'occasion de la 22e Conférence des Parties de la Convention Cadre des Nations unies sur le changement climatique (COP22) de Marrakech, est le fruit de la mobilisation de chercheurs et d'universitaires des deux rives de la Méditerranée. Il constitue une synthèse scientifique exceptionnelle sur les mécanismes du changement climatique, ses impacts sur l'environnement, l'économie, la santé et les sociétés de la Méditerranée. Il représente par ailleurs un précieux outil pour élaborer des réponses, fondées sur l' « évidence scientifique », en matière d'adaptation, de conservation des ressources, de solutions ou de prévention des risques. Mettant en exergue toute la complexité de l'environnement méditerranéen, cet ouvrage est une contribution scientifique majeure à la question climatique, au croisement des questionnements scientifiques dans une perspective de décloisonnement disciplinaire.

En cherchant à requalifier la domestication des abeilles à partir de pratiques plus holistes et plus ancrées dans le territoire, le propos de cet article est d'interroger la manière dont les apiculteurs du Sud-Ouest marocain (D'Essaouira à Tan Tan) intègrent idéologiquement et techniquement les abeilles jaunes sahariennes dans leur monde. Les savoir-faire des apiculteurs de ces régions reposent en partie sur la manipulation de différents types d'espaces agraires, et l'apiculture est partie intégrante de l'agro-écosystème global. Bien que sédentaire, l'apiculture dans le sud du Maroc implique une grande diversité d'espaces, comprenant les falaises à chutes d'eau, les champs de céréales et d'arganiers, les zones arboricoles fermées, les zones de monoculture de figuiers de barbarie, les parcours dominés par les euphorbes et les arganiers. Chaque unité spatiale du territoire rural est le support d'un certain degré de domestication des abeilles : capture des essaims sauvages, acclimatation des ruches, production de miel, reproduction des essaims. Les savoir-faire des apiculteurs s'illustrent par la connaissance sur le comportement des abeilles (comportement alimentaire, temporalité des préférences de matières apicoles), leur métabolisme (vertus des plantes sur la vie des abeilles, leur capacité à essaimer, leur capacité à nettoyer la ruche), et la pollinisation qu'elles permettent. Les apiculteurs du Sud-Ouest marocain jouent ainsi sur la pluralité des espaces de cultures et des espèces qui y poussent pour intégrer l'abeille dans le territoire rural de manière holiste. Plus encore, par l'emplacement dans l'espace de la ruche, l'apiculteur exerce un contrôle direct sur la reproduction de l'animal et la maîtrise des rythmes physiologiques liés à son alimentation, condition sine qua non à sa domestication. La domestication se réalise ainsi par l'intermédiaire du territoire, car l'apiculteur joue sur la multifonctionnalité des espaces en termes de cortège végétal pour maîtriser le cycle de vie et de production de l'abeille. La domestication de l'abeille saharienne résulte donc autant de gestes techniques appréciables sur le moment, que de longs processus d'aménagement du territoire et de sélection des espèces en tenant compte de la variable apicole.