OBJECTIVE The aims of this study were to assess the changes that have occurred in food patterns in Europe over the last 40 years based on food availability data and to compare the stability of the traditional Mediterranean diet in the south of Europe in this period. DESIGN An ecological study carried out on the basis of Food and Agriculture Organization food balance sheets for three geographi...

In the Mediterranean region, climate and land use change are expected to impact on natural and agricultural ecosystems by warming, reduced rainfall, direct degradation of ecosystems and biodiversity loss. Human population growth and socioeconomic changes, notably on the eastern and southern shores, will require increases in food production and put additional pressure on agro-ecosystems and wate...

The past decade has witnessed a quantum leap in our understanding of the origins, diffusion, and impact of early agriculture in the Mediterranean Basin. In large measure these advances are attributable to new methods for documenting domestication in plants and animals. The initial steps toward plant and animal domestication in the Eastern Mediterranean can now be pushed back to the 12th millenn...

Greece is located between parallels 340 and 420 of the Northern Hemisphere. It is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan Peninsula, bordering the eastern Mediterranean. The country covers an area of about 131,000 km, the coastline of which extends to 13,676 km and it corresponds to half of the total Mediterranean coastline. The Greek islands are estimated a...

Diet, environment, society, economy and health Food and agriculture organization oF the united nations international centre For advanced mediterranean agronomic studies rome, 2015 ii the designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and agriculture organization of the united nation...

The fresh water shortage in agriculture is an increasing problem worldwide, therefore the possibility of cultivating crops under saline conditions is of high importance. Crithmum maritimum, a halophytic plant naturally found on the rocky coastlines of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, has a long history of human consumption and was recently suggested as a cash crop for biosaline agr...

Assessment of the content and sources of heavy metals in soils is required to identify agricultural areas affected by contamination on a regional level, according to the European Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection. The total content of Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn of 29 agricultural soils used to grow vegetable crops such as artichoke, broccoli, and potato, in the Segura River Valle...

In this study we analyzed runoff and sediment yield from land under various traditional and current land uses in Mediterranean mountain areas, using long-term data from an experimental station in the Aísa Valley, Central Spanish Pyrenees. The Aísa Valley Experimental Station was established in 1991. The operation and monitoring at this station has provided 20 years of data that can help explain...

Conservation tillage has been promoted as a solution to counteract constraints caused by intensive agriculture. In this work the effects of two conservation tillage systems, reduced tillage (RT) and no-tillage (NT) were compared to the traditional tillage (TT) in a long(15 years, RT) and short-term experiment (3 years, NT). Both experiments were carried out under semi-arid, rainfed agriculture ...