1,721,029 research outputs found
Confronto tra i caratteri morfologico-funzionali delle specie costiere dell’Atlantico e del Mediterraneo
No full textPlant traits and functional types of alien and native species on Central Italy coastal dunes
No full textEU habitats monitoring along the coastal dunes of the LTER sites of Abruzzo and Molise (Italy)
No full textThe Italian LTER network is an integrated and shared system for ecosystem monitoring (Long Term Ecological Research-Italy). The research sites of Abruzzo and Molise are part of the LTER site 20 "Coastal sand dunes in central Italy" (www.lteritalia.it) and include 5 S.C.I. along the central Italy Adriatic coastline. The paper aims to carry out a short review of the main results recently achieved through the dune vegetation monitoring in these LTER sites and proposes a synthesis on the species composition (focal and alien species occurrence) and the spatial distribution of dune EU habitats. We recorded 17 EU dune habitats, 4 of them are priority habitats (2250â\u88\u97, 2270â\u88\u97, 3170â\u88\u97, 1510â\u88\u97). Results suggest that many EU habitats are still locally widespread, with the exception of wet slacks and evergreen woods, occurring only in residual small patches. Moreover all EU habitats host several invasive alien species and only in salt marshes they are almost absent, because of the occurrence of extreme salinity. This natural heritage is therefore vulnerable and further efforts should be made to reduce the impacts of human pressure, through increased awareness of environmental issues and the education on ecosystem services provided by the natural landscape of coastal dunes
The co-occurrence of different grassland communities increases the stability of pollination networks
Full text linkHigh heterogeneity of grassland communities supports a high diversity of species and represents a key point for
the retention of pollinators in agricultural landscapes. In the present study, we explored whether the co-occurrence
of different grassland communities has any effect on the stability of the network of pollination interactions.
We monitored pollination interactions in two co-occurring grassland communities, differing in disturbance
history and water and nutrient supply. The monitoring was carried out during the summer season (7
surveys). For each survey we compared the role in the pollination networks (i.e., keystone vs. peripheral species)
of habitat-specialist and habitat-generalist plant and pollinator species. We found that plant and pollinator
species of the two different grassland communities were highly interconnected, revealing that pollination interactions
occur at a level of organization above that of the single community. The co-occurrence of the two
grassland communities increased the type, number and frequency of contacts, thereby contributing to networks
stability. The role of habitat-specialist and habitat-generalist plant and pollinator species in pollination networks
was asymmetric, with habitat-specialist plants and habitat-generalist pollinators being keystone species, while
habitat-generalist plants and habitat-specialist pollinators being peripheral in the pollination networks. Our
results showed that the stability of the network does stem from the co-occurrence of different species pools
having different but complementary roles in the pollination networks. From a conservation perspective, the
maintenance of different grassland communities is important not only because they allow the conservation of
habitat-specialist species, but specifically because plant species specialized in either grassland community are
also keystone for the maintenance of the stability of the pollination networks
The response of plant community diversity to alien invasion: Evidence from a sand dune time series
No full textThis study examines the process of invasion of coastal dunes in north-eastern Italy along a 60-year time series considering alien attributes (origin, residence time, invasive status, and growth form strategy) and habitat properties (species richness, diversity and evenness, proportion of aliens, and proportion of focal species). Vegetation changes through time were investigated in four sandy coastal habitats, using a fine-scale diachronic approach that compared vegetation data collected by use of the same procedure, in four time periods, from the 1950s to 2011. Our analysis revealed an overall significant decline of species richness over the last six decades. Further, both the average number of species per plot and the mean focal species proportion were proved to be negatively affected by the increasing proportion of alien species at plot level. The severity of the impact, however, was found to be determined by a combination of species attributes, habitat properties, and human disturbance suggesting that alien species should be referred to as “passengers” and not as “drivers” of ecosystem change. Passenger alien species are those which take advantage of disturbances or other changes to which they are adapted but that lead to a decline in native biodiversity. Their spread is facilitated by widespread anthropogenic environmental alterations, which create new, suitable habitats, and ensure human-assisted dispersal, reducing the distinctiveness of plant communities and inducing a process of biotic homogenization
Analisi della distribuzione di Malcolmia littorea in Europa: integrazione di dati fitosociologici e climatici
No full text
The use of plant community attributes to detect habitat quality in coastal environments
Full text linkThe monitoring of biodiversity has mainly focused on the species level. However, researchers and land managers are making increasing use of complementary assessment tools that address higher levels of biological organization, i.e. communities, habitats and ecosystems. Recently, a variety of frameworks have been proposed for assessing the conservation status of communities or ecosystems. Among the various criteria proposed, all the protocols suggest considering (i) spatial aspects (range and area), and (ii) qualitative aspects of specific structures and functions. However, changes to ecological function are difficult to quantify and many protocols end up by using qualitative criteria. The aim of this work was to test the efficacy of some plant community attributes for the detection of vegetation quality in sand dune plant communities. We chose plant community attributes that either help to distinguish a habitat from others (diagnostic components) or play a significant role in habitat function and persistence over time. We used a diachronic approach by contrasting up-to-date vegetation data with data from previous studies carried out within the same areas. Changes in species composition were detected through detrended correspondence analyses (detrended correspondence analyses), Multi-Response Permutation Procedures and Indicator Species Analysis, while structural changes were analyzed by comparing species richness, total species cover, ecological groups of species and growth forms through null models. Ecological groups such as native focal species and aliens, and growth forms proved their efficacy in discriminating between habitat types and in describing their changes over time. The approach used in this study may provide an instrument for the assessment of plant community quality that can be applied to other coastal ecosystems
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