Basic concepts and research activities at Italian forest sites of the Long Term Ecological Research network

Italy entered the International Long Term Ecological Research Network (ILTER) in 2006, contributing a group of research sites in marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems to the global network. Five forest sites are included in the Italian Network. They are representative of the main forest ecosystems in Italy and integrate 15 research stations managed by different institutes. Starting from LTER rationale and basic concepts, the first part of the paper reviews the status of LTER Italy forest sites, the strengths resulting from multidisciplinary expertise and site management, current activities and available datasets. Long term data series on key environmental parameters show the high scientific value of these sites, where monitoring and/or research is still ongoing. But two main LTER issues are currently arising in the international context: (1) overall consistency of datasets; (2) harmonization of sampling methods. For this reason, the second part of the paper investigates the suitability of Italian forest sites to address recommended long term research topics and ecological issues of global concern and to investigate the shift from in-site monitoring to crosssite cooperation and inter-site research

Basic concepts and research activities at Italian forest sites of the Long Term Ecological Research network

Italy entered the International Long Term Ecological Research Network (ILTER) in 2006, contributing a group of research sites in marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems to the global network. Five forest sites are included in the Italian Network. They are representative of the main forest ecosystems in Italy and integrate 15 research stations managed by different institutes. Starting from LTER rationale and basic concepts, the first part of the paper reviews the status of LTER Italy forest sites, the strengths resulting from multidisciplinary expertise and site management, current activities and available datasets. Long term data series on key environmental parameters show the high scientific value of these sites, where monitoring and/or research is still ongoing. But two main LTER issues are currently arising in the international context: (1) overall consistency of datasets; (2) harmonization of sampling methods. For this reason, the second part of the paper investigates the suitability of Italian forest sites to address recommended long term research topics and ecological issues of global concern and to investigate the shift from in-site monitoring to cross-site cooperation and inter-site research

Rete NEC Italia: i risultati della prima campagna di monitoraggio della diversità dei licheni epifiti.

I rilievi di biodiversità lichenica sono condotti nei sei siti forestali della Rete CONECOFOR inclusi nella Rete NEC Italia all'interno di un accordo UNICAM-CUFA /2019. Il protocollo operativo di campo è riferito al ICP Forests' ‘Field Manual part VII.2’ (Stofer et al. 2016). In questa fase del lavoro, per ciascun sito, sono stati presi in considerazione i seguenti descrittori statistici, in relazione a due livelli di aggregazione (esposizione e albero): • Numero totale di specie licheniche per sito; • Media del numero di specie per albero; • Media della diversità lichenica (LDV) per albero; • Statistica di base (mediana, deviazione standard, valori minimo e massimo)

Survey of saproxylic beetle assemblages at different forest plots in central Italy

Saproxylic beetles from coarse deadwood debris found on the forest floor were documented for the first time at four permanent monitoring plots in central Italy that are part of the International Co-operative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests (ICP Forests). The plots consisted of unmanaged vegetation communities representing typical beech forest, mixed broadleaf and conifer forest, Turkey oak forest, and cork oak forest respectively. With the present study, we identified beetle assemblages to species level and investigated whether the type of vegetation affects beetle communities. In order to detect more of the species present and perform a better comparison among study sites, samples were collected with two types of traps: flight interception traps hanging from tree branches (n = 1 per plot) and emergence traps mounted on deadwood like fallen branches or trunks (n = up to 8 per plot, depending on the availability of deadwood pieces). A total of 1372 individual beetles, belonging to 133 species of 36 families were captured, identified and enumerated. Considering all beetles caught in both trap types, alpha-diversity values indicated high beetle diversity at all of the four forest sites, while measured species richness, accumulation curves and species richness estimators agreed that the highest species density was at Rosello. Monte Rufeno had the highest abundance of beetle individuals. Monte Rufeno and Monte Circeo had the highest numbers of saproxylic species, even though Rosello had the highest total number of beetle species. Ninety species (67.7% of the species found in all plots combined) were caught in only one plot, while only three species, representing 2.3% of the total of species, were collected at all of the four plots; nine saproxylic species were collected exclusively at Monte Circeo, among them rare singletons like Agrilus convexicollis mancini Obenberger (Buprestidae) and Nematodes filum (F.) (Melasidae), the latter recorded in central Italy for the first time. Environmental variables having the strongest correlations with the assemblage composition were plot-scale variables (slope, stand age, amount of deadwood). The only trap-scale variable that showed up as related to assemblage composition was wood decayclass. The study highlighted that the diversity in saproxylic beetle communities reflects the different tree communities at the four study plots. The research also showed that even at the small and very small scale of forest plots, traits of beetle assemblages can be revealed on coarse deadwood debris