MEDITERRANEAN IDENTITIES ENVIRONMENT, SOCIETY, CULTURE

Edited by Borna Fuerst-Bjeliš

MEDITERRANEAN IDENTITIES ENVIRONMENT, SOCIETY, CULTURE

Edited by Borna Fuerst-Bjeliš

Borna Fuerst-Bjeliš is a senior scientist and full time professor at the University of Zagreb, Croatia. She was awarded by the Feder-ico Grisogono award for the scientific achievement and outstand-ing contribution to the development of geography in Croatia. Her

field of expertise is environmental history and landscape change, spatially focused mainly on Mediterranean karst area, including the development of methodologies of research (historical cartography), borderland areas, spatial perceptions, and spa-tial (regional) identities. She is the coauthor of the book Historical Geography of Croatia (University of Split, Croatia) and the editor of the Croatian editions of What is Environmental History by D. Hughes (Disput) and The Global Environmental Histo-ry by I. G. Simmons (Disput). She is the member of a number of international and na-tional scientific organizations. Currently, she is the vice-president of the European Society for Environmental History and a member of the Steering Committee of the Specialty Commission of the International Geographical Union on Marginalization, Globalization, and Regional and Local Responses.

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. The book tends to embrace the environment, so-ciety, and culture of the Mediterranean in their multiple and unique interconnec-tions 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. The book 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 con-stituent parts of the Mediterranean heritage.

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Edited by Borna Fuerst-Bjeliš

MEDITERRANEANIDENTITIES -

ENVIRONMENT, SOCIETY,CULTURE

Edited by Borna Fuerst-Bjeliš

Mediterranean Identities — Environment, Society, Culturehttp://dx.doi.org/10.5772/66587Edited by Borna Fuerst-Bjeliš

Contributors

Kerim Çiçek, Oğuzkan Cumhuriyet, Helena Trindade Lopes, Isabel Almeida, Irene Martín-Forés, António CanatárioDuarte, Victor Mallia-Milanes, Nunziacarla Spanó, Emilio De Domenico, Michael Krom, Helen Powley, Phillippe VanCappellen, Tugrul Varol, Mertol Ertuğrul, Halil Barış Özel, Conxita Royo, Jose Miguel Soriano, Fanny Alvaro, SebastianoSferlazza, Federico Guglielmo Maetzke, Donato Salvatore La Mela Veca, Marcello Miozzo, Ana Cristina Gonçalves,Adélia Sousa, Sandra Oliveira, Giovanni Laneve, Lorenzo Fusilli, Georgios Eftychidis, Luciano Lourenço, Adélia Nunes,Ana Sebastián-López, Fedra Alessandra Pizzato, Anna Maria Mannino, Paolo Balistreri, Alan Deidun, Gilkauris MaríaRojas Cortorreal, Francesc Navés Viñas, Julio Peña, Jaime Roset Calzada, Carlos Fernando López Ordóñez, AttilioRigotti, Guadalupe Echeverría, Catalina Dussaillant, Emma McGee, Inés Urquiaga, Nicolás Velasco, Onur Gönülal, CemDalyan

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BOOKCITATION

INDEX

CLAR

IVATE ANALYTICS

IN D E X E D

Contents

Preface IX

Section 1 Rethinking the Mediterranean 1

Chapter 1 The Mediterranean: The Asian and African Roots of the Cradleof Civilization 3Helena Trindade Lopes and Isabel Almeida

Chapter 2 A Living Force of Continuity in a Declining Mediterranean: TheHospitaller Order of St John in Early Modern Times 27Victor Mallia‐Milanes

Chapter 3 Nutrient Cycling in the Mediterranean Sea: The Key toUnderstanding How the Unique Marine Ecosystem Functionsand Responds to Anthropogenic Pressures1 47Helen R. Powley, Philippe Van Cappellen and Michael D. Krom

Chapter 4 How Landscapes Make Science: Italian National Narrative, TheGreat Mediterranean, and Giuseppe Sergi’sBiological Myth 79Fedra A. Pizzato

Section 2 Biodiversity: Nature at the Crossroads 99

Chapter 5 The Marine Biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea in aChanging Climate: The Impact of Biological Invasions 101Anna M. Mannino, Paolo Balistreri and Alan Deidun

Chapter 6 Biodiversity in Central Mediterranean Sea 129Nunziacarla Spanò and Emilio De Domenico

Chapter 7 Deep-Sea Biodiversity in the Aegean Sea 149Onur Gönülal and Cem Dalyan

Chapter 8 Exotic Plant Species in the Mediterranean Biome: A Reflectionof Cultural and Historical Relationships 179Irene Martín‐Forés

Chapter 9 Amphibians and Reptiles of the Mediterranean Basin 203Kerim Çiçek and Oğzukan Cumhuriyet

Section 3 Risks and Hazards 239

Chapter 10 Vulnerability of Soil and Water in MediterraneanAgro-Forestry Systems 241António Canatário Duarte

Chapter 11 Resilience of Mediterranean Forests to Climate Change 263Sferlazza Sebastiano, Maetzke Federico Guglielmo, MiozzoMarcello and La Mela Veca Donato Salvatore

Chapter 12 Drought-Forest Fire Relationships 283Tuğrul Varol, Mertol Ertuğrul and Halil Barış Özel

Chapter 13 The Fire in the Mediterranean Region: A Case Study of ForestFires in Portugal 305Ana Cristina Gonçalves and Adélia M.O. Sousa

Chapter 14 A Common Approach to Foster Prevention and Recovery ofForest Fires in Mediterranean Europe 337Sandra Oliveira, Giovanni Laneve, Lorenzo Fusilli, GeorgiosEftychidis, Adélia Nunes, Luciano Lourenço and Ana Sebastián-López

Section 4 Cultural Ecology and Mediterranean Lifestyle - Withinand Beyond 363

Chapter 15 Climate and Urban Morphology in the City of Barcelona: TheRole of Vegetation 365Gilkauris Rojas-Cortorreal, Francesc Navés Viñas, Julio Peña, JaimeRoset and Carlos López-Ordóñez

Chapter 16 Wheat: A Crop in the Bottom of the MediterraneanDiet Pyramid 381Conxita Royo, Jose Miguel Soriano and Fanny Alvaro

ContentsVI

Chapter 17 Mediterranean Diet beyond the Mediterranean Basin: ChronicDisease Prevention and Treatment 401Guadalupe Echeverría, Catalina Dussaillant, Emma McGee, InésUrquiaga, Nicolás Velasco and Attilio Rigotti

Contents VII

Preface

What is the Mediterranean? What is defining it? Perhaps no region in the world is so com‐plex and meaningful. These kinds of questions do not cease to be asked by the scholars sincethe influential work on the Mediterranean civilization by Fernand Braudel from the last cen‐tury. He opened quite new perspectives on the question of identity of the places, introduc‐ing the leading role of the environment, which he thought is embedded in the core of thecivilizations. The perception of the Mediterranean leans equally on the nature, its climate,vegetation, and sea but also on the culture and history, lifestyle, and finally on the landscapethat embraces both, the nature and culture. To approach the question of identity, it seemsthat we have to give importance to all of these. There is no Mediterranean identity, but Med‐iterranean identities. Although, at first glance, it seems that it is more than clear what theMediterranean region is, everyone has a kind of an image of it; some authors argue that it isnot even a region, because it lacks homogeneity that is essential for regions with expressedidentity. In fact, it is true, but that is exactly what gives individuality to the Mediterranean.Mediterranean is not about the homogeneity and uniformity, but about the unity that comesfrom diversities, contacts, and interconnections. And this applies to marine and terrestrialspecies, waters, as well as for peoples, cultures, and lifestyles. The book is envisioned to em‐brace the environment, society, and culture of the Mediterranean in their multiple andunique interconnections over the millennia and to contribute to the better understanding ofthe essential human-environmental interrelations throughout the history of the Mediterra‐nean. Environment is one of the most important parts of the story. Everything takes place inthe environment. In the distant past, subsistence was conditioned by the environmental op‐portunities much more than today. However, the contemporary lifestyle and activities andeven sociopolitical relations are still in some extent, of course, designed by the environmen‐tal opportunities or constraints.

The choice of 17 chapters of the book, written by a number of prominent scholars and scien‐tists, clearly shows the necessity of the interdisciplinary approach to the Mediterraneanidentity issues. The book reflects some of the current thinking on the subject, based on a vastbody of literature, but also opens new insights and perspectives. Each author approachesthe issue in his own, original way complementing each other. Chapters have defined a num‐ber of current key issues that make the basic structure of the book.

The book consists of four sections. The first section on “Rethinking the Mediterranean”brings four chapters discussing the identity and uniqueness of the Mediterranean from dif‐ferent perspectives—cultural and natural. The authors Trindade Lopes and Almeida havegiven a strong accent on the Mediterranean as a contact area and its multicultural nature buthave particularly emphasized its African and Asian roots, aiming to reclaim the importanceof these other legacies (than Greek and Roman) to the construction of the cradle of the civili‐

zation. Mallia-Milanes discusses the questions of (dis)continuity of primacy of the Mediter‐ranean in the international economy and exchange in the early new period in the context ofthe decline of the Ottoman Empire and the great discoveries. Powley, Van Cappellen, andKrom presented original new insights and a review of the unique relations between the wa‐ter inflow, outflow, and biological productivity of the Mediterranean Sea. Comparing withother semiclosed and closed seas as well as the oceans, they clearly pointed to its unique‐ness. On the other hand, Pizzato demonstrates the considerable performative effect of theMediterranean as a symbolic space and source of meaning on Italian culture as well as in theprocess of Italian nation building between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. Thesecond section addresses “Biodiversity: Nature at the Crossroads.” As Mediterranean is con‐sidered a hotspot of biodiversity, this is the largest section, consisting of five chapters. Threechapters discuss marine ecosystems with different scope, and two others deal with terrestri‐al ecosystems. Mannino, Balistreri, and Deidun give comprehensive and overall review ofmarine biodiversity in relation to the changing climate and biological invasion, while Spanòand De Domenico address particularly the central Mediterranean biodiversity “crossroad”and Gönülal and Dalyan deep-water biodiversity. Martín-Forés questions the traditional ap‐proach of the negative impact of introduced plant species and establishes a new paradigmthat changes traditional belief. She analyzes Mediterranean biomes on all the continents andthe impact of main interchanges that occurred throughout the history on the landscape(change). The chapter by Çiçek and Cumhuriyet contains new contributions in terms of sys‐tematization of threatened species of Mediterranean amphibians and reptiles. The questionsaddressed are significant for understanding the human-environmental issues of the Medi‐terranean region. The third key issue is represented in the next section on “Risk and Haz‐ards.” Risks and hazards are the reality of the Mediterranean throughout its whole history.Particular attention in this book is given to the drought and fire relation as well as to thequestions of wildfire prevention and recovery. Sferlazza, Maetzke, Miozzo, and La Mela Ve‐ca discuss the resilience of Mediterranean forests to climate change and present the resultsof the project LIFE ResilForMed in terms of developing the best management practices thatmay help Mediterranean forests to adapt to climate change and thereby safeguard their mul‐tifunctional benefits for future generations. Varol, Ertuğrul, and Özel question the methodsof predicting the number of fires and burnt area, mainly through the drought indices. Gon‐çalves and Sousa point to the increasing trend toward larger fires in the Mediterranean duemainly to climatic and land-use changes. The case study in Portugal highlights the impor‐tance of vegetation regrowth in a short time after the fire to maintain both forest systemsand soil conservation. Oliveira, Laneve, Fusilli, Eftychidis, Nunes, Lourenço, and Sebastián-López present the results of the PREFER project, as initiative and a kind of platform aimingto improve fire hazard mitigation measures and to promote comparable appraisals betweendifferent regions, based on a set of high-quality information and data sets. On the otherhand, Duarte addresses another important Mediterranean issue of vulnerability of soil andwater and erosivity problems in Mediterranean climatic conditions, pointing primarily tothe exchange of high rainfall and drought periods. The last section addresses “Cultural Ecol‐ogy and Mediterranean Lifestyle: Within and Beyond.” The chapter by Rojas-Cortorreal,Navés Viñas, Peña, Roset, and López-Ordóñez gives new insights into the Mediterraneanurbanism in relation to the environmental characteristics and the potential use of vegetationin designing the urban climatic comfort. In the review chapter by Royo, Soriano, and Al‐varo, we can read about the wheat, one of the oldest domesticated crops at the very core ofthe Mediterranean diet with the immense significance for the Mediterranean culture and

PrefaceX

identity. The topic of Mediterranean diet and its widely known health benefits is furtherdeveloped by Echeverría, Dussaillant, McGee, Urquiaga, Velasco, and Rigotti. Mediterraneandiet is nowadays accepted as a generic term and as one of the pillars of the Mediterraneanidentity has spread far beyond the Mediterranean region itself.

The book has brought to the front the contemporary key issues of the Mediterranean region.Millennia-long human-environmental interrelations have built, shaped, and designed a kindof Mediterranean lifestyle, landscape, and distinct multifaceted identity. The book has alsostressed the most serious concerns of the Mediterranean today—threats to biodiversity,risks, and hazards—mostly increasing wildfires, due to the climate, lifestyle, and land-usechange and finally depletion of traditional Mediterranean practices and landscapes, as con‐stituent parts of the Mediterranean heritage.

I would like to express my appreciation to all the contributors of this book especially to allthe authors of the chapters. I am particularly indebted to the Publishing Process Manager,Ms. Martina Usljebrka and the InTech publishing team for their kind support and great ef‐forts in bringing the book to fruition.

Prof. Borna Fuerst-Bjeliš, PhDUniversity of Zagreb, Croatia

Preface XI