The olive tree is one of the most important crops in the world, but even more, one of the most identitarian plant for the countries of the Mediterranean basin. In this article, the vast consultation of scientific literature, archaeological, historical and anecdotal sources, allowed to outline a global reasoned vision on the olive origin, its spread during early history and how olive fruit fly may represent as proxy for tracing its early diffusion. The reconstruction of the first forms of exploitation, propagation and trade routes yielded a chronologically coherent westward emergence of integrated olive-oil economies and cultures throughout the Mediterranean Basin, with the exception of some independent cultivation events tied to the widespread diffusion of the wild olive tree from the end of the last Glacial Period. Written sources, iconography, and archaeological installations further anchor this spatio-temporal narrative, leading to the transition from -wild- olives gatherers to olive growers.
Understanding the species composition and structural dynamics of both common and rare species in forest communities is fundamental to comprehending forest ecosystem functioning. The intake area of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, recognized as an ecologically sensitive region, harbors forest communities that play a pivotal role in water resource conservation and regional environmental stability. A thorough investigation into the species composition and distributional patterns of common and rare species within this area provides critical scientific insights into biodiversity conservation and community assembly mechanisms. To address these questions, we established 36 permanent plots of 20 × 20 m in the intake area of Nanyang City, Henan Province. Within each plot, we systematically surveyed all woody species and subsequently analyzed their species composition, diameter- and height-class structure, as well as the sexual system composition of both common and rare species. Our results revealed that: (1) A total of 2, 210 woody individuals were recorded in the intake area, belonging to 26 families, 33 genera, and 39 species. Common species exhibited absolute dominance in both individual abundance and importance value. (2) Species accumulation curves showed a sharp increase in species number when plot counts were below 20, followed by a marked deceleration thereafter. (3) Common species dominated across all diameter and height classes, while rare species were largely confined to diameter class II (5 cm ≤ DBH < 10 cm) and height class III (6 m ≤ H < 9 m), indicating a conspicuous growth-stage bottleneck. (4) Common species were predominantly monoecious plant, whereas hermaphroditic species occurred mainly as rare species. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that common and rare species jointly underpin the stand structural integrity, species diversity, and long-term successional potential of the forest community in intake area.
Coastal social-ecological systems face climate change, resource exploitation, and fragmented governance. Hazard-specific assessments cannot fully represent their capacity to cope with uncertain disturbances, while connections between nationally consistent screening and fine-scale local diagnosis remain limited. Drawing on general resilience theory, we developed a three-tier, ten-attribute framework linking a national baseline with a nested assessment in Rongcheng. Coastal land and marine subsystems were evaluated using a nominal 2025 temporal window that incorporated the closest reliable products for slowly updated variables. The analysis included indicator standardization, scale-specific weighting, composite assessment, Jenks natural breaks classification, and spatial autocorrelation analysis. The mean general resilience capacity indices were 0.359 for national coastal land and 0.470 for national coastal waters. Low and relatively low classes accounted for 39.75% of national coastal land, whereas moderate and relatively high classes accounted for 65.48% of national coastal waters. In Rongcheng, moderate and relatively low classes jointly represented 68.30% of coastal land. Relatively low and relatively high classes accounted for 56.33% of coastal waters, with a coefficient of variation of 0.282, indicating pronounced intra-bay heterogeneity. The national assessment provides a consistent baseline for broad-scale screening, whereas the Rongcheng assessment identifies bay- and shoreline-scale units for future field verification. Because the assessments differ in indicators, weights, and spatial supports, their results should be interpreted within their respective scales rather than compared directly. Scale-matched monitoring and governance feedback can connect national screening with local diagnosis.
The Danshui River drains metropolitan Taipei, where two decades of expanding sewer connection and riparian constructed wetlands have targeted river pollution. Using a continuous monthly record of 1,921 samples from 11 Ministry of Environment stations (2010–2026), we assessed trends and change-points in six measured water-quality variables and the River Pollution Index (RPI), a composite index calculated from four of them, through a multi-method non-parametric design: the Mann–Kendall and seasonal Mann–Kendall tests, a variance-corrected modified test, Theil–Sen slopes, the Pettitt and sequential-Mann–Kendall change-point tests, Innovative Trend Analysis, and a synchronized-permutation Monte Carlo test of field significance. Suspended solids, ammonia, and five-day biochemical oxygen demand declined at 9, 8, and 6 of 11 stations, each field-significant (Monte Carlo p ≤ 0.006); the basin-mean River Pollution Index fell from 3.83 to 3.20 and the severely polluted sample fraction from 11.1% to 2.5% between the early (2010–2012) and late (2023–2025) sub-periods, the incomplete 2026 record excluded. These declines persisted on the 8 complete-record stations, so they are not an artifact of network turnover. Dissolved oxygen did not improve, even as water temperature rose significantly (+0.15 °C yr - ¹), so oxygen conditions merely held against a warming that lowers solubility. Against this improvement, the coliform group rose at most stations, its change-points scattered across 2013–2024 rather than forming a single step; the largest treatment plant’s effluent-coliform log-removal collapsed after 2024, and river coliform was not associated with rainfall, implicating under-disinfected point-source effluent. The basin’s management priority has shifted from organic and nutrient control toward microbial risk and disinfection.
