Characterization of the instability mechanisms affecting slopes on carbonatic Flysch: Alicante (SE Spain), case study

The studied Flysch sequence of Alicante occupies a widely populated area crossed by main communication routes. The slopes existing on this area usually suffer slope instabilities that cause substantial damage and a very high maintenance cost. In order to assess the type of instability mechanisms affecting these heterogeneous carbonatic slopes, in this paper a wide inventory of 194 Flysch rock slopes has been performed, reporting the existing lithologies, their competence and their relative arrangement and the geometrical relationship between bedding and the slope and the associated instability mechanism. All these data have been jointly used for performing an instability mechanisms characterization. For systematically characterizing the wide type of complex rock exposures existing in the study area, they are divided into basic units referred as lithological pattern columns to which the different observed instability mechanisms are associated. Inventoried instability mechanisms are diverse and sometimes are combined with each other. Rockfalls are a very common instability mechanism associated to the differential weathering and sapping of the marly lithologies which are present in a wide number of geometrical combinations. The other instability mechanisms closely depend on the combination of the geometrical and lithological parameters. Therefore, this work provides a new basic tool which can be easily used during preliminary project stages for knowing the instability mechanisms which can affect rock slopes excavated on carbonatic Flysch heterogeneous geological formations.

Drought and grazing combined: Contrasting shifts in plant interactions at species pair and community level

The combined effects of drought stress and grazing pressure on shaping plant–plant interactions are still poorly understood, while this combination is common in arid ecosystems. In this study we assessed the relative effect of grazing pressure and slope aspect (drought stress) on vegetation cover and soil functioning in semi-arid Mediterranean grassland–shrublands in southeastern Spain. Moreover, we linked these two stress factors to plant co-occurrence patterns at species-pair and community levels, by performing C-score analyses. Vegetation cover and soil functioning decreased with higher grazing pressure and more south-facing (drier) slopes. At the community level, plants at south-facing slopes were negatively associated at no grazing but positively associated at low grazing pressure and randomly associated at high grazing pressure. At north-facing slopes, grazing did not result in a shift in the direction of the association. In contrast, analysis of pairwise species co-occurrence patterns showed that the dominant species Stipa tenacissima and Anthyllis cytisoides shifted from excluding each other to co-occurring with increasing grazing pressure at north-facing slopes. Our findings highlight that for improved understanding of plant interactions along stress gradients, interactions between species pairs and interactions at the community level should be assessed, as these may reveal contrasting results.

Is financial instability male-driven? Gender and cognitive skills in experimental asset markets

The hypothesis that price stability would reliably increase with the fraction of women operating in financial markets has been frequently suggested in policy discussions. To test this hypothesis we conducted 10 male-only, 10 female-only and 10 mixed-gender experimental asset markets, and compared the effects of gender composition, confidence, risk attitude and cognitive skills. Male and female markets have comparable volatility and deviations from fundamentals, whereas mixed-gender markets are substantially more stable. On the other hand, higher average cognitive skills of the group are associated with reduced market volatility. Individual-level analysis shows that subjects with higher cognitive skills trade at prices closer to fundamental values and earn significantly higher profits; similarly, mixed markets exhibit lower mispricing, particularly for traders with lower cognitive skills. Our results are demonstrated to hold in other experimental asset market studies, suggesting that a mixed-gender composition reduces mispricing across different types of asset markets.