Indagini fitosociologiche nel Comune di Campo nell'Elba (Li)

Oggetto di questa tesi è la vegetazione naturale e seminaturale del territorio ricadente nel Comune di Campo nell’Elba (isola d’Elba; Li). Lo studio è stato condotto nel biennio 2006-2007 mediante l’esecuzione di circa 200 rilievi fitosociologici secondo il metodo di Braun-Blanquet. Disponendo di fotografie aeree digitali rettificate è stato possibile allestire un progetto GIS, quindi realizzare una carta distributiva dei principali tipi vegetali (scala 1:10.000), riconosciuti su base fisionomica e fitosociologica. I tipi di vegetazione più diffusi sono la macchia a dominanza di Erica arborea L. e Arbutus unedo L. (Erico arboreae-Arbutetum unedonis), le macchie a dominanza di Pistacia lentiscus L. e Calicotome villosa (Poiret) Link (Pistacio lentisci-Calicotometum villosae) e le garighe della classe Cisto ladaniferi-Lavanduletea stoechadis. Frequenti sono i rimboschimenti a conifere. Sopra i 700 m è presente una fascia di vegetazione echinofitica a dominanza di Genista desoleana Valsecchi, entità subendemica. Infine il litorale, prevalentemente roccioso, è caratterizzato dal Crithmo maritimi-Limonietum ilvae. Le fitocenosi di maggior rilievo per la conservazione sono gli habitat litorali, le comunità casmofitiche di altitudine e alcune particolari formazioni prative e boschive

Germplasm bank of Pisa

The germplasm bank of Pisa is a scientific facility committed to the conservation of wild plant species and to conservation-related research programs. Stored collections include seeds of endangered species, endemic species, relic populations and habitat-specialist plants. The seed bank also conserves crop wild relatives that may be considered model plants in studies of ecology and physiology of seed desiccation tolerance, and a small collection of pollen grains. Its main goal is the conservation of rare, threatened, endemic or phytogeographically relevant plant taxa in Tuscany and more generally in the Mediterranean, including southern European mountain systems

Contributo alla conoscenza della flora vascolare endemica di Toscana ed aree contermini. 6. Hypericum hircinum subsp. hircinum (Hypericaceae)

The distribution of Hypericum hircinum subsp. hircinum in Tuscany is reported by the analysis herbarium specimens, bibliographic references and records in the field. Hypericum hircinum subsp. hircinum is confirmed to be endemic to the Sardinian-Corsican biogeographic province including the Tuscan Archipelago, while H. hircinum subsp. majus is widespread along the Italian peninsula and we show that all H. hircinum records for continental Tuscany, Liguria and Lazio should be referred to the subsp. majus

Heterotopy remastered with a quantitative tool: The case study of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L. subsp. sylvatica) in peninsular Italy and Sicily

The term “heterotopic” (from the Greek roots "hetero-" meaning "other" + "topos" meaning "place" = other place) was used for the first time in biology by Haeckel (1) to define a change in germ-layer origin of reproductive organs in animals. Later, it was applied to phytogeography by Jackson (2), referring to those plant populations found on soils apparently very different from those typically occurring across their distribution range. In Italy, Negri (3) was likely the first to use this term referring to European beech (Fagus sylvatica L. subsp. sylvatica) populations occurring at low altitude. Since then, most of the further Italian authors used the term “heterotopic” mainly referring to beech or other woody species (i.e. Ilex aquifolium L., Quercus ilex L.) populations occurring out of their common altitudinal range or, in a broader sense, growing out of their typical macroclimatic context. Indeed, as regards European beech populations in Italy, those occurring below 800 m a.s.l. have been generally considered as heterotopic (4), even though in many cases stands above 800 m a.s.l. were also termed as “heterotopic” (e.g. 5, 6). Here, we highlight the need to quantify “heterotopy” and propose a standard method to test a reliable applicability of this concept. As model species, we selected the European beech in peninsular Italy and Sicily, primarily because this species is typically dominant in mountain woods in all the considered area and, historically, a number of stands have been reported as heterotopic in literature. We checked 18 bibliographic references reporting 108 populations as heterotopic (sometimes not explicitly, but with related terms like extra-zonal). We also randomly generated 305 points falling within the polygons of natural potential vegetation (7) with F. sylvatica, as provided by http://www.va.minambiente.it/, and considered them as controls. Both controls and putatively heterotopic populations were georeferenced by means of a GIS software. Climatic and altitudinal data associated with the occurrence sites were extracted from the Worldclim database (www.worldclim.org). We obtained a data matrix (413 beech stands × 6 environmental variables) that was subjected to a cluster analysis applying as the distance measure the Euclidean Distance and as group linkage method the Group Average (UPGMA), following the methodology commonly used in vegetation studies. Two main clusters were identified, with a dissimilarity index of 0.35. The first cluster is composed by all those populations (including some control points) located at an altitude ≤ 600 m a.s.l., whereas the second one includes all the remaining points. The former cluster is also characterized by those populations growing on stands with a higher mean annual temperature than the latter (t-test, difference between means = 4.09 °C, p < 0.01). These results led us to define as “quantitatively heterotopic” in Italy those beech populations located at an altitude ≤ 600 m a.s.l., and with a mean annual temperature generally higher than 12 °C. They mainly occur on the Tyrrhenian side, namely in Tuscany and Lazio, marked by a high oceanicity. Many of these populations are located outside of vegetation series with European beech and, among these, some are distant more than 20 km, so that they could be interpreted not only as heterotopic, but also as biogeographical-ecological relicts (8). Our methodology could be applied to other species in order to quantify the level of heterotopy by defining ad hoc thresholds (if any), resulting from the multivariate analysis

Contributo alla conoscenza della flora vascolare endemica di Toscana ed aree contermini. 7. Rhamnus glaucophylla (Rhamnaceae)

Contribution to the knowledge of the vascular flora endemic to Tuscany and neighbouring areas. 7. Rhamnus glaucophylla (Rhamnaceae) -.The distribution of the narrow endemic Rhamnus glaucophylla Sommier is reported, by the analysis of herbarium specimens, bibliographic references and records in the field. This stenoecious species occurs on limestone soils, only in the Apuan Alps and in a restricted range of Tuscan Apennine. According to IUCN criteria for Red List categories, the species was evaluated as LC, however, some threats occur in the range of the species, so we recommend a monitoring of the populations to avoid dramatic decrease

Investigating elevational gradients of species richness in a Mediterranean plant hotspot using a published flora

The Apuan Alps are one of the most peculiar mountain chain in the Mediterranean, being very close to the coastline and reaching an elevation of almost 2000 m. Based on published flora, we investigated the distribution of plant species richness along the whole elevational gradient of this chain considering: (i) all species, (ii) endemic versus alien species; and (iii) functional groups of species based on Raunkiær life forms (RLF). Generalized Linear Models (GLMs) were used to analyse richness patterns along the elevational gradient, and elevational richness models versus the area of the elevational belts were fitted to test the effect of surface area. Our results showed decreasing species richness with increasing elevation. In contrast, endemic species richness increased along the elevational gradient. Alien species were mainly distributed at low elevations, but this result should be taken with caution since we used historical data. Species life forms were not equally distributed along the elevation gradient: chamaephytes and hemicryptophytes were the richest groups at high elevations, while therophytes showed highest species richness at low elevations. Our findings suggest that in the Apuan Alps there is a major elevational gradient in species composition that could reflect plant evolutionary history. Furthermore, we highlight the key role of published floras as a relevant source of biodiversity data.publishedVersio

Red Listing plants under full national responsibility: Extinction risk and threats in the vascular flora endemic to Italy

Taxa endemic to a country are key elements for setting national conservation priorities and for driving conservation strategies, since their persistence is entirely dependent on national policy. We applied the IUCN Red List categories to all Italian endemic vascular plants (1340 taxa) to assess their current risk of extinction and to highlight their major threats. Our results revealed that six taxa are already extinct and that 22.4% (300 taxa) are threatened with extinction, while 18.4% (247; especially belonging to apomictic groups) have been categorized as Data Deficient. Italian endemic vascular plants are primarily threatened by natural habitat modification due to agriculture, residential and tourism development. Taxa occurring in coastal areas and lowlands, where anthropogenic impacts and habitat destruction are concentrated, display the greatest population decline and extinction. The national network of protected areas could be considered effective in protecting endemic-rich areas (ERAs) and endemic taxa, but ineffective in protecting narrow endemic-rich areas (NERAs), accordingly changes to the existing network may increase the effectiveness of protection. For the first time in the Mediterranean Basin biodiversity hotspot, we present a comprehensive extinction assessment for endemic plants under the full responsibility of a single country. This would provide an important step towards the prioritization and conservation of threatened endemic flora at Italian, European, and Mediterranean level. A successful conservation strategy of the Italian endemic vascular flora should implement the protected area system, solve some taxonomical criticism in poorly known genera, and should rely on monitoring threatened species, and on developing species-specific action plans

Contributi per una flora vascolare di Toscana. XII (739-812)

Vengono presentate nuove località e/o conferme relative a 74 taxa specifici e sottospecifici di piante vascolari della flora vascolare to- scana, appartenenti a 69 generi e 28 famiglie: Bunium, Trinia (Apia- ceae), Nerium (Apocynaceae), Lemna (Araceae), Artemisia, Bidens, Centaurea, Crupina, Gazania, Hieracium, Rhagadiolus, Symphyotri- chum, Tagetes, Tripleurospermum (Asteraceae), Impatiens (Balsami- naceae), Anredera (Basellaceae), Cynoglottis, Phacelia (Boraginaceae), Cardamine, Diplotaxis, Hornungia (Brassicaceae), Campanula, Lobe- lia (Campanulaceae), Cerastium, Dianthus, Polycarpon, Spergularia, Stellaria (Caryophyllaceae), Commelina (Commelinaceae), Fallopia (Convolvulaceae), Sempervivum (Crassulaceae), Dryopteris (Dryopte- ridaceae), Euphorbia (Euphorbiaceae), Lathyrus, Medicago, Ononis, Trigonella (Fabaceae), Geranium (Geraniaceae), Lycopus, Stachys (Lamiaceae), Malva (Malvaceae), Anacamptis, Cephalanthera, Epi- pactis, Orchis (Orchidaceae), Linaria (Plantaginaceae), Ceratochloa, Eragrostis, Festuca, Gastridium, Hyparrhenia, Molineriella, Phalaris, Phyllostachys, Setaria, Sporobolus, Stipellula (Poaceae), Anogramma (Pteridaceae), Anemonoides, Ranunculus (Ranunculaceae), Reseda (Resedaceae), Alchemilla, Kerria, Pyracantha, Rosa, Rubus (Rosa- ceae), Galium, Valantia (Rubiaceae), Thesium (Santalaceae). Infine, viene discusso lo status di conservazione delle entità e gli eventuali vincoli di protezione dei biotopi segnalati

Contributi per una flora vascolare di toscana. IX (507-605)

Contributions for a vascular flora of Tuscany. IX (507-605). New localities and/or confirmations concerning 98 specific and subspecific plant taxa of Tuscan vascular flora, belonging to 81 genera and 42 families are presented: Alisma, Baldellia (Alismataceae), Chenopodium (Amaranthaceae), Sternbergia (Amaryllidaceae), Bupleurum (Apiaceae), Vinca (Apocynaceae), Muscari, Polygonatum (Asparagaceae), Carlina, Centaurea, Chondrilla, Filago, Pallenis, Tagetes, Tr a - gopogon, Tyrimnus (Asteraceae), Impatiens (Balsaminaceae), Campsis (Bignoniaceae), Cardamine, Iberis, Isatis, Lepidium, Rorippa (Brassicaceae), Humulus (Cannabaceae), Centranthus (Caprifoliaceae), Atocion, Paronychia, Sabulina, Scleranthus (Caryophyllaceae), Euonymus (Celastraceae), Fumana (Cistaceae), Phedimus, Sedum (Crassulaceae), Juniperus (Cupressacesae), Carex, Cyperus, Schoenus (Cyperaceae), Erica (Ericaceae), Euphorbia (Euphorbiaceae), Astragalus, Cytisus, Gleditsia, Lotus, Trifolium, Vicia (Fabaceae), Geranium (Geraniaceae), Philadelphus (Hydrangeaceae), Phacelia (Hydrophyllaceae), Hermodactylus, Iris, Romulea (Iridaceae), Salvia, Ziziphora (Lamiaceae), Gagea, Lilium (Liliaceae), Lindernia (Linderniaceae), Mirabilis (Nyctaginaceae), Nymphaea (Nymphaeaceae), Ligustrum (Oleaceae), Oenothera (Onagraceae), Oxalis (Oxalidaceae), Plantago, Veronica (Plantaginaceae), Armeria (Plumbaginaceae), Eleusine, Festuca, Phleum, Setaria, Stipa, Tragu s (Poaceae), Stuckenia (Potamogetonaceae), Anemonoides, Ranunculus (Ranunculaceae), Reseda (Resedaceae), Aphanes, Cotoneaster, Eriobotrya, Malus, Rosa (Rosaceae), Galium (Rubiaceae), Nicotiana, (Solanaceae). In the end, the conservation status of the units and possible protection of the cited biotopes are discussed