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Thursday 28 April 2016

April 27

April 27



1509 Pope Julius II excommunicates the Italian state of Venice.


Volume 67, August 2016, Pages 451–457

Assessment of the ecological quality (EcoQ) of the Venice lagoon using the structure and biodiversity of the meiofaunal assemblages



Highlights

The EcoQ in the TE of Venice ranged from bad to moderate.
Richness, diversity, Ne:Co ratio were the best meiofaunal descriptors.
Structure of the meiofaunal assemblage seemed not to discriminate the pollution gradient.
Porto Marghera zone showed the lowest EcoQ in the TE of Venice.

Abstract

Transitional Environments (TEs) have been deeply modified to meet human requirements, and for this reason are currently ranked among the most endangered aquatic ecosystems. The Adriatic basin hosts a large number of TEs of which the Lagoon of Venice is the largest one, but information on its meiofauna are very dated or focused to localized areas. The present study is the first to document the spatial distribution of meiofauna in the whole Venice lagoon. Furthermore, the health status of the TE of Venice has been assessed by means of several faunal parameters (richness, diversity indices, structure of the entire meiofaunal assemblage and only rare taxa). All the univariate meiofaunal parameters (i.e. richness, diversity indices, Ne:Co ratio) were consistent in highlighting the worst ecological quality of the Porto Marghera district. Instead, the structure of the entire meiofaunal assemblage as well as that of rare taxa seemed to detect variations not directly related to pollution and likely due to the different hydrodynamic conditions of Lido and Malamocco inlets. On the basis of our results, we have also critically discussed the usefulness of the various faunal parameters in the monitoring assessment of the TEs.

Keywords

  • Meiofauna;
  • Environmental monitoring;
  • Anthropogenic disturbance;
  • Water framework directive;
  • Transitional environments;
  • Venice
Corresponding author at: Dipartimento di Scienze Biomolecolari (DiSB), University of Urbino, Campus Scientifico, loc. Crocicchia, 61029 Urbino, Italy. Tel.: +39 0722304248.
1813 American forces capture York (present-day Toronto), the seat of government in Ontario.
1861 President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
1861 West Virginia secedes from Virginia after Virginia secedes from the Union.



1941 The Greek army capitulates to the invading Germans.
1950 South Africa passes the Group Areas Act, formally segregating races.
1961 The United Kingdom grants Sierra Leone independence.
1

Born on April 27
1737 Edward Gibbon, historian (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire).
1791 Samuel F.B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph and the code.
1822 Ulysses S. Grant, Union general during the American Civil War, 18th President of the United States (1869-1877).



1900 Walter Lantz, cartoonist, creator of Woody Woodpecker.



Via @NPR: Woody The Acorn (Not Pileated) Woodpecker http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101665227

1927 Coretta Scott King, civil rights activist, wife of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.


April 28
1789 The crew of the HMS Bounty mutinies against Captain William Bligh.



A volume in Woodhead Publishing Series in Food Science, Technology and Nutrition
2011, Pages 54–64, 65e–66e

Abstract:

The ackee (Blighia sapida), a tropical fruit belonging to the Sapindaceae family, has its origin in West Africa but has traversed the Atlantic Ocean, making the Caribbean (where it grows wildly and is also cultivated) its home. The colloquial name Ackee is derived from the terms ‘anke’ and ‘akye-fufuo’, which are used to describe the fruit in West Africa. It was named Blighia sapida in honour of the infamous Captain William Bligh who transported the fruit from Jamaica to England in 1793. Although Ackee fruit was first known for its poisonous properties, it is nowadays considered one of the major fruits consumed in Jamaica and is an ingredient of the national dish Ackee Saltfish. Extensive literature exists on hypoglycin A, the toxic compound of unripe Ackee, while no referenced data are readily available on its physiology and reports are very limited on its biochemistry. The aim of this chapter is to fill this gap moderately, and give an overview on the fruit as fresh and commercial produce.

Key words

  • Blighia sapida;
  • ackee;
  • maturity;
  • biochemistry;
  • composition
1902 Revolution breaks out in the Dominican Republic.
1920 Azerbaijan joins the Soviet Union.
1932 A yellow fever vaccine for humans is announced.
1947 Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl and five others set out in a balsa wood craft known as Kon Tiki to prove that Peruvian Indians could have settled in Polynesia.
1965 The U.S. Army and Marines invade the Dominican Republic.
1967 Muhammad Ali refuses induction into the U.S. Army and is stripped of his boxing title.
1969 Charles de Gaulle resigns as president of France.

1926 April 28 Harper Lee, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist (To Kill a Mockingbird).