This is an open access article under the terms of the Creat ive Commo ns Attri bution License, wh... more This is an open access article under the terms of the Creat ive Commo ns Attri bution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Extreme weather events, land use, and the presence of invasive species can act as pressures threa... more Extreme weather events, land use, and the presence of invasive species can act as pressures threatening biodiversity, resilience and ecosystem services. Particularly in the open cultural landscape, these pressures can suddenly drive ecosystems across tipping points and beyond thresholds of system integrity. Yet, biodiversity holds features for buffering against change. Potential stabilizing mechanisms include species richness, presence of key species such as legumes, and intraspecific diversity. These potential buffers can be promoted by conservation management and political decisions. On this basis, the results of the SIGNAL project and the related scientific based knowledge, will help to develop recommendations that could be used by International, national and local authorities, EU institutions, NGOs, for agriculture, landscape management and biodiversity conservation. Here we briefly describe the project and the Italian field experimental site.
Extreme weather events are expected to increase in frequency and magnitude due to climate change ... more Extreme weather events are expected to increase in frequency and magnitude due to climate change especially on Mediterranean chains, but their effect on ecosystem services and vegetation processes are widely unknown. Prediction of future impacts has become critical to conservation planning and management, particularly in protected areas. Our research has been carried out in the Torricchio Nature Reserve (Central Apennines, Italy), 317 ha under strict protection since 1970, owned and managed by the University of Camerino. Two contrasting grassland ecosystems under different environmental conditions (North and South facing slopes) were selected to simulate extreme events. The magnitude of a given recurrence interval (1000 year) were estimated by the application of extreme value distributions on climate data series covering 50 years. In both slopes, the weather manipulations consisted of extreme drought (D), additional rainfall (R) and ambient conditions for control (C). The experiment...
Landscape means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and ... more Landscape means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors. Unfortunately, this definition hides different criticalities in relation to landscape analyses. In this perspective, landscape ecology should begin to consider ownership types, labour relations, and social perceptions of quality of life, moving towards a concept that can be defined as social ecological green spaces (SEGS). The need for a change fits well with the Adriatic City, which is characterized by a highly fragmented and heterogeneous landscape. First attempts of research show that people’s perception is strictly related to thermal conditions which are strictly related to elements capable of reducing outdoor temperature such as green areas and green canopies. Multidisciplinary approach will help to characterize what could be defined as SEGS, relating the aesthetic, health, and emotional components of the urban quality of life to the shape, distribution, and species composition of green areas.
Forest understory plants are sensitive to light availability, and different species' groups c... more Forest understory plants are sensitive to light availability, and different species' groups can respond differently to changing light conditions. A plant trait tightly linked to light capture is specific leaf area (SLA). Studies considering the relative role of within- and among-species SLA variation across different species groups (e.g., specialists and generalists) are rarely implemented in temperate forest understories varying in their maturity. We examined community-level SLA patterns of beech forest understories along a light availability gradient, and for habitat specialists and generalists separately. We then disentangled and quantified the contribution of intraspecific trait variability and interspecific trait differences in shaping SLA patterns. We revealed that the increase in community-level SLA with decreasing light availability was primarily driven by beech forest specialists (and, to a lesser extent, by forest generalists), and this pattern was mainly determined by specialists' high intraspecific variability. Community-level SLA was therefore formed by different responses at different organizational levels, i.e., within- and among-species, and for separate species' groups. This study provides insights into factors shaping the shade-tolerance strategy in beech forest understory plants; specialists' persistence under putative less favourable conditions (i.e., high irradiation) may be fostered by their ability to adjust their light-capture strategies intraspecifically.
This paper explores which traits are correlated with fine-scale (0.25 m2) species persistence pat... more This paper explores which traits are correlated with fine-scale (0.25 m2) species persistence patterns in the herb layer of old-growth forests. Four old-growth beech forests representing different climatic contexts (presence or absence of summer drought period) were selected along a north–south gradient in Italy. Eight surveys were conducted in each of the sites during the period spanning 1999–2011. We found that fine-scale species persistence was correlated with different sets of plant functional traits, depending on local ecological context. Seed mass was found to be as important for the fine-scale species persistence in the northern sites, while clonal and bud-bank traits were markedly correlated with the southern sites characterised by summer drought. Leaf traits appeared to correlate with species persistence in the drier and wetter sites. However, we found that different attributes, i.e. helomorphic vs scleromorphic leaves, were correlated to species persistence in the northern...
Aim: Ecoinformatics offer new opportunity to test islands as biogeographic and ecological models.... more Aim: Ecoinformatics offer new opportunity to test islands as biogeographic and ecological models. In this paper we predicted three hypotheses: (1) plot-based data issuing from vegetation surveys can be used to predict Island Species-Area Relationships (ISARs) or island similarity; (2) the habitat area is an independent predictor of species richness patterns within island; (3) species richness and composition are more dependent on habitat type than island identity in land-bridge islands. Area: Tuscan Archipelago, Italy. Methods: We assembled a database of all the vegetation plots available for the archipelago. For the first hypothesis we calculated ISARs, using Arrhenius model, and Beta Diversity, using Jaccard dissimilarity, on both published floras and cumulative plot data. For the second hypothesis, we modelled Habitat Species-Area Relationships (HSARs), using Arrhenius model. For the third hypothesis, we used additive partitioning of species richness, NMDS and PERMANOVA. Results: Island Species-Area Relationships based on plot data mirrored those on published floras, but absolute values of c and z parameters were different. Beta diversity based on plot data resembled those of published floras, but was higher. Species richness was significantly related to the habitat area. The total species richness of the archipelago was linked to large scale drivers, such as island identity, while plot species composition was driven by both habitat type and island identity. Conclusions: Data assembled issuing from vegetation surveys are useful to describe biogeographic patterns. Species richness in the archipelago is driven by spatial factors such as the amount of habitats and the differences among islands, while the species composition of local assemblages is largely driven by habitat filters rather than by island identity, as expected in land-bridge islands. K E Y W O R D S biogeographic patterns, islands, plot data, species-area relationships
This study aims to increase floristic knowledge of Marche by means of a survey in the Montagna di... more This study aims to increase floristic knowledge of Marche by means of a survey in the Montagna di Torricchio State Nature Reserve (central Italy). The Reserve, located in the central Apennines, covers about 3.2 km2 at altitudes ranging from 820 to 1,491 m a.s.l. It has been owned and managed as a strict reserve by the University of Camerino since 1970: all the anthropic activities ceased about 50 years ago, except for a minimal area where mowing and cattle grazing are still allowed. The floristic list consists of 789 specific and subspecific taxa belonging to 81 families and 352 genera. Two species are new for Italy (Taraxacum calocarpum and T. pulchrifolium) and 14 for Marche regional flora. Compared to previous floristic studies, we found 127 more taxa but we showed a certain stability in the life-form spectrum, suggesting limited effects of dynamic processes related to climate and land-use changes. The negligible number of alien species (11) is probably related to the limitations...
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creat ive Commo ns Attri bution License, wh... more This is an open access article under the terms of the Creat ive Commo ns Attri bution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Extreme weather events, land use, and the presence of invasive species can act as pressures threa... more Extreme weather events, land use, and the presence of invasive species can act as pressures threatening biodiversity, resilience and ecosystem services. Particularly in the open cultural landscape, these pressures can suddenly drive ecosystems across tipping points and beyond thresholds of system integrity. Yet, biodiversity holds features for buffering against change. Potential stabilizing mechanisms include species richness, presence of key species such as legumes, and intraspecific diversity. These potential buffers can be promoted by conservation management and political decisions. On this basis, the results of the SIGNAL project and the related scientific based knowledge, will help to develop recommendations that could be used by International, national and local authorities, EU institutions, NGOs, for agriculture, landscape management and biodiversity conservation. Here we briefly describe the project and the Italian field experimental site.
Extreme weather events are expected to increase in frequency and magnitude due to climate change ... more Extreme weather events are expected to increase in frequency and magnitude due to climate change especially on Mediterranean chains, but their effect on ecosystem services and vegetation processes are widely unknown. Prediction of future impacts has become critical to conservation planning and management, particularly in protected areas. Our research has been carried out in the Torricchio Nature Reserve (Central Apennines, Italy), 317 ha under strict protection since 1970, owned and managed by the University of Camerino. Two contrasting grassland ecosystems under different environmental conditions (North and South facing slopes) were selected to simulate extreme events. The magnitude of a given recurrence interval (1000 year) were estimated by the application of extreme value distributions on climate data series covering 50 years. In both slopes, the weather manipulations consisted of extreme drought (D), additional rainfall (R) and ambient conditions for control (C). The experiment...
Landscape means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and ... more Landscape means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors. Unfortunately, this definition hides different criticalities in relation to landscape analyses. In this perspective, landscape ecology should begin to consider ownership types, labour relations, and social perceptions of quality of life, moving towards a concept that can be defined as social ecological green spaces (SEGS). The need for a change fits well with the Adriatic City, which is characterized by a highly fragmented and heterogeneous landscape. First attempts of research show that people’s perception is strictly related to thermal conditions which are strictly related to elements capable of reducing outdoor temperature such as green areas and green canopies. Multidisciplinary approach will help to characterize what could be defined as SEGS, relating the aesthetic, health, and emotional components of the urban quality of life to the shape, distribution, and species composition of green areas.
Forest understory plants are sensitive to light availability, and different species' groups c... more Forest understory plants are sensitive to light availability, and different species' groups can respond differently to changing light conditions. A plant trait tightly linked to light capture is specific leaf area (SLA). Studies considering the relative role of within- and among-species SLA variation across different species groups (e.g., specialists and generalists) are rarely implemented in temperate forest understories varying in their maturity. We examined community-level SLA patterns of beech forest understories along a light availability gradient, and for habitat specialists and generalists separately. We then disentangled and quantified the contribution of intraspecific trait variability and interspecific trait differences in shaping SLA patterns. We revealed that the increase in community-level SLA with decreasing light availability was primarily driven by beech forest specialists (and, to a lesser extent, by forest generalists), and this pattern was mainly determined by specialists' high intraspecific variability. Community-level SLA was therefore formed by different responses at different organizational levels, i.e., within- and among-species, and for separate species' groups. This study provides insights into factors shaping the shade-tolerance strategy in beech forest understory plants; specialists' persistence under putative less favourable conditions (i.e., high irradiation) may be fostered by their ability to adjust their light-capture strategies intraspecifically.
This paper explores which traits are correlated with fine-scale (0.25 m2) species persistence pat... more This paper explores which traits are correlated with fine-scale (0.25 m2) species persistence patterns in the herb layer of old-growth forests. Four old-growth beech forests representing different climatic contexts (presence or absence of summer drought period) were selected along a north–south gradient in Italy. Eight surveys were conducted in each of the sites during the period spanning 1999–2011. We found that fine-scale species persistence was correlated with different sets of plant functional traits, depending on local ecological context. Seed mass was found to be as important for the fine-scale species persistence in the northern sites, while clonal and bud-bank traits were markedly correlated with the southern sites characterised by summer drought. Leaf traits appeared to correlate with species persistence in the drier and wetter sites. However, we found that different attributes, i.e. helomorphic vs scleromorphic leaves, were correlated to species persistence in the northern...
Aim: Ecoinformatics offer new opportunity to test islands as biogeographic and ecological models.... more Aim: Ecoinformatics offer new opportunity to test islands as biogeographic and ecological models. In this paper we predicted three hypotheses: (1) plot-based data issuing from vegetation surveys can be used to predict Island Species-Area Relationships (ISARs) or island similarity; (2) the habitat area is an independent predictor of species richness patterns within island; (3) species richness and composition are more dependent on habitat type than island identity in land-bridge islands. Area: Tuscan Archipelago, Italy. Methods: We assembled a database of all the vegetation plots available for the archipelago. For the first hypothesis we calculated ISARs, using Arrhenius model, and Beta Diversity, using Jaccard dissimilarity, on both published floras and cumulative plot data. For the second hypothesis, we modelled Habitat Species-Area Relationships (HSARs), using Arrhenius model. For the third hypothesis, we used additive partitioning of species richness, NMDS and PERMANOVA. Results: Island Species-Area Relationships based on plot data mirrored those on published floras, but absolute values of c and z parameters were different. Beta diversity based on plot data resembled those of published floras, but was higher. Species richness was significantly related to the habitat area. The total species richness of the archipelago was linked to large scale drivers, such as island identity, while plot species composition was driven by both habitat type and island identity. Conclusions: Data assembled issuing from vegetation surveys are useful to describe biogeographic patterns. Species richness in the archipelago is driven by spatial factors such as the amount of habitats and the differences among islands, while the species composition of local assemblages is largely driven by habitat filters rather than by island identity, as expected in land-bridge islands. K E Y W O R D S biogeographic patterns, islands, plot data, species-area relationships
This study aims to increase floristic knowledge of Marche by means of a survey in the Montagna di... more This study aims to increase floristic knowledge of Marche by means of a survey in the Montagna di Torricchio State Nature Reserve (central Italy). The Reserve, located in the central Apennines, covers about 3.2 km2 at altitudes ranging from 820 to 1,491 m a.s.l. It has been owned and managed as a strict reserve by the University of Camerino since 1970: all the anthropic activities ceased about 50 years ago, except for a minimal area where mowing and cattle grazing are still allowed. The floristic list consists of 789 specific and subspecific taxa belonging to 81 families and 352 genera. Two species are new for Italy (Taraxacum calocarpum and T. pulchrifolium) and 14 for Marche regional flora. Compared to previous floristic studies, we found 127 more taxa but we showed a certain stability in the life-form spectrum, suggesting limited effects of dynamic processes related to climate and land-use changes. The negligible number of alien species (11) is probably related to the limitations...
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