Mediterranean Identities Environment, Society, Culture

About this book

This edited collection contains several chapters of interest to biologists and naturalists, describing marine biodiversity and the impact of invasive species, deep-sea biodiversity in the Aegean Sea, exotic plant species, and the herpetofauna of the Mediterranean.

What is the Mediterranean? The perception of the Mediterranean leans equally on the nature, culture, history, lifestyle, and landscape. To approach the question of identity, it seems that we have to give importance to all of these. There is no Mediterranean identity, but Mediterranean identities. Mediterranean is not about the homogeneity and uniformity, but about the unity that comes from diversities, contacts, and interconnections.

This book embraces the environment, society, and culture of the Mediterranean in their multiple and unique interconnections over the millennia, contributing to the better understanding of the essential human-environmental interrelations. The choice of 17 chapters of the book, written by a number of prominent scholars, clearly shows the necessity of the interdisciplinary approach to the Mediterranean identity issues. Mediterranean Identities stresses the most serious concerns of the Mediterranean today – threats to biodiversity, risks, and hazards – mostly the increasing wildfires and finally depletion of traditional Mediterranean practices and landscapes, as constituent parts of the Mediterranean heritage.

Contents

Chapter 1   The Mediterranean: The Asian and African Roots of the Cradle of Civilization by Helena Trindade Lopes and Isabel Almeida
Chapter 2   A Living Force of Continuity in a Declining Mediterranean: The Hospitaller Order of St John in Early Modern Times by Victor Mallia-Milanes
Chapter 3   Nutrient Cycling in the Mediterranean Sea: The Key to Understanding How the Unique Marine Ecosystem Functions and Responds to Anthropogenic Pressures by Helen R. Powley, Philippe Van Cappellen and Michael D. Krom
Chapter 4   How Landscapes Make Science: Italian National Narrative, The Great Mediterranean, and Giuseppe Sergi’s Biological Myth by Fedra A. Pizzato
Chapter 5   The Marine Biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea in a Changing Climate: The Impact of Biological Invasions by Anna M. Mannino, Paolo Balistreri and Alan Deidun
Chapter 6   Biodiversity in Central Mediterranean Sea by Nunziacarla Spanò and Emilio De Domenico
Chapter 7   Deep-Sea Biodiversity in the Aegean Sea by Onur Gönülal and Cem Dalyan
Chapter 8   Exotic Plant Species in the Mediterranean Biome: A Reflection of Cultural and Historical Relationships by Irene Martín-Forés
Chapter 9   Amphibians and Reptiles of the Mediterranean Basin by Kerim Çiçek and Ogzukan Cumhuriyet
Chapter 10   Vulnerability of Soil and Water in Mediterranean Agro-Forestry Systems by António Canatário Duarte
Chapter 11   Resilience of Mediterranean Forests to Climate Change by Sferlazza Sebastiano, Maetzke Federico Guglielmo, Miozzo Marcello and La Mela Veca Donato Salvatore
Chapter 12   Drought-Forest Fire Relationships by Tugrul Varol, Mertol Ertugrul and Halil Baris Özel
Chapter 13   The Fire in the Mediterranean Region: A Case Study of Forest Fires in Portugal by Ana Cristina Gonçalves and Adélia M.O. Sousa
Chapter 14   A Common Approach to Foster Prevention and Recovery of Forest Fires in Mediterranean Europe by Sandra Oliveira, Giovanni Laneve, Lorenzo Fusilli, Georgios Eftychidis, Adélia Nunes, Luciano Lourenço and Ana Sebastián- López
Chapter 15   Climate and Urban Morphology in the City of Barcelona: The Role of Vegetation by Gilkauris Rojas-Cortorreal, Francesc Navés Viñas, Julio Peña, Jaime Roset and Carlos López-Ordóñez
Chapter 16   Wheat: A Crop in the Bottom of the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid by Conxita Royo, Jose Miguel Soriano and Fanny Alvaro
Chapter 17   Mediterranean Diet beyond the Mediterranean Basin: Chronic Disease Prevention and Treatment by Guadalupe Echeverría, Catalina Dussaillant, Emma McGee, Inés Urquiaga, Nicolás Velasco and Attilio Rigotti

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