1. introduction variability and changes in precipitation amounts, including extreme precipitation and droughts, trigger relevant societal and environmental impacts. atmospheric circulation strongly determines precipitation variability over southern half of iran. the influence of prevalent synoptic situations on the distribution of precipitation amounts needs to be understood, as well as their f...

Thirty microsatellite markers were analysed in 1426 goats from 45 traditional or rare breeds in 15 European and Middle Eastern countries. In all populations inbreeding was indicated by heterozygosity deficiency (mean FIS = 0.10). Genetic differentiation between breeds was moderate with a mean FST value of 0.07, but for most (c. 71%) northern and central European breeds, individuals could be ass...

The plain east of the Neusiedler See, the “Seewinkel” (Fig. 1), is one of the most important biodiversity hot-spot regions in Austria. A number of factors contribute to its richness: (1) The area is situated geographically within the Hungarian plain, i.e. open towards the east but isolated from the west by several mountain ridges. Thus, many organisms with a Central Asian or ancient Mediterrane...

Two sea turtle species nest in the Mediterranean, the green turtle and the loggerhead turtle. Leatherbacks are widely distributed in the Mediterranean, although they do not have any permanent nesting area. Two other species, the hawksbill and the Kemp’s ridley turtle only occur occasionally. Available information on sea turtle populations in the Mediterranean Sea, including distribution, popula...

The exact location of glacial refugia and the patterns of postglacial range expansion of European mammals are not yet completely elucidated. Therefore, further detailed studies covering a large part of the Western Palearctic region are still needed. In this order, we sequenced 972 bp of the mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b (mtDNA cyt b) from 124 yellow-necked fieldmice (Apodemus flavicollis) coll...

1. introduction the effect of climate of the earth's surface is the result of interaction of different levels of atmosphere and lithosphere. one of the factors which influences that interaction is the way the system pressure transcends it. in this way, the system pressure changes and can be changed and eventually may become an environmental hazard and geomorphodynamic phenomenon. hazards are an...

previous studies show that the north atlantic oscillation (nao) is the dominant mode of variability in the northern hemisphere winter with marked climatic effects on its downstream regions. in this article the effects of some important forcing terms in the time tendency equation of the eddy kinetic energy (eke) in critical positive months (cpm) and critical negative months (cnm) of the nao are ...

Although the global prevalence of both the overweight and obese is on the rise, there are variations among regions or countries, and sexes. Approximately half or more than half of the population are overweight/obese defined as body mass index ≥25 kg/m(2)in the Americas (61.1%), Europe (54.8%), and Eastern Mediterranean (46.0%) according to the World Health Organization, while a much lower preva...