Parent\u2019s perception of children\u2019s fear: from FSSC-IT to FSSC-PP

Studies involving parents' reports about children's fears and multiple informant comparisons are less extended than investigations on children's self-reporting fear schedules. Starting with the Italian version of FSSC-R, the FSSC-IT, the main aims of this study were to adapt a schedule for parents' perception of their children's fear: the FSSC-Parent Perception. Its psychometric properties were examined in a large sample of parents (N = 2970) of children aged 8-10 years. Exploratory and confirmatory factorial structures were examined and compared with the Italian children's ones. Mother vs. father, children's gender and school age group effects were analyzed. The confirmatory factor analysis confirmed a four correlated factors solution model (Fear of Danger and Death; Fear of Injury and Animals; Fear of Failure and Criticism; Fear of the unknown and Phobic aspects). Some effects related to child gender, age group, mother vs. father, were found. The FSSC-PP properties supported its use by parents to assess their children's fears. A qualitative analysis of the top 10 fears most endorsed by parents will be presented and compared with children's fears. Clinical implications about the quality of parent-child relationships where discussed, comparing mothers and fathers, and parents' perception about daughters' and sons' most endorsed fears

Patterns of Seed Dispersal in Coastal Dune Plant Communities

Seed dispersal is a key determinant of species distribution, although it is still unclear how it contributes to species assembly in plant communities. We linked patterns of seed dispersal to coexisting species to investigate the role of dispersal in the species assembly process. We focused on 19 species coexisting in a foredune plant community, classified as “foredune foundation species”, “semi-fixed dune species,” and “alien species”. The number of seeds dispersed by the 19 species was monitored monthly in 25 plots for 12 months. Then we compared both dispersal strategies and dispersal phenology among the species. Foredune foundation species, species of the semi-fixed dune, and alien species used the same dispersal strategies, with the exception of hemerochory, which was prevalently used by alien species. The three groups of species differentiated the dispersal season: semi-fixed dune species and alien species were early and late dispersers, respectively (spring vs. late summer), while foredune foundation species dispersed seeds in summer. Seasonal differentiation in seed dispersal may play a more important role in the species assembly process than dispersal vectors. Shifts in seasonality due to climate change may influence the timing of seed dispersal and provide species with different colonization opportunitie

Disturbance affects the contribution of coastal dune vegetation to carbon storage and carbon sequestration rate

Coastal dune vegetation has been proved to contribute to several crucial ecosystem services, as coastal protection, water purification, recreation; conversely, its capacity to regulate the concentration of greenhouse gases received less attention. To fill this gap, the present work focalized on the assessment of the contribution of coastal dune herbaceous vegetation to carbon storage and carbon sequestration rate, also in relation to possible effects of disturbance. To this aim, we measured the dry biomass and carbon sequestration rate in three different vegetation types (foredune, dry grasslands, humid grasslands), and habitat patch attributes as proxies of the disturbance regime. Relationships between disturbance, and carbon storage and sequestration rate have been analysed by GLMMs. The target vegetation types did not equally contribute to the medium-long term sequestration of carbon with a gradient that increased from the seashore inlands and related to both the growth form and the strategy of resource acquisition of dominant species, and plant community attributes. Disturbance in the form of trampling negatively affected carbon sequestration rate. Results suggest that, when different plant communities are spatially interconnected, the landscape scale results in a better understanding of ecosystem dynamics, functioning and resistance to perturbations and allows to plan coherent management strategies

Functional seed traits and germination patterns predict species coexistence in NE Mediterranean foredune communities

Background and Aims The structure of plant communities, which is based on species abundance ratios, is closely linked to ecosystem functionality. Seed germination niche plays a major role in shaping plant communities, although it has often been neglected when explaining species coexistence. The aim of this work is to link the seed germination niche to community ecology, investigating how functional seed traits contribute to species coexistence. Methods Species selection was based on a database of 504 vegetation surveys from the Veneto coast (Italy). Through cluster analysis we identified the foredune community and selected all of its 19 plant species. By using the “Phi coefficient” and frequency values, species were pooled in different categories (foundation species, accidental species of the semi-fixed dune, and aliens), then the 19 species were grouped according to their germination responses to temperature and photoperiod through cluster analyses. For each germination cluster we investigated germination trends against temperature and photoperiod by using GLMMs. Key Results We identified four germination strategies: (1) high germination at all tested conditions (“high-germinating”); (2) high germination at warm temperatures in the dark (“dark warm-cued”); (3) high germination at warm temperatures in the light (“light warm-cued”); and (4) low germination, regardless of conditions (“low-germinating”). Foredune foundation species showed a narrow germination niche, being “low-germinating” or “dark warm-cued”. Annual species of semi-fixed dunes were “high-germinating”, while alien species were the only members of the “light warm-cued” cluster. Conclusions Our research suggests that different categories of species have dissimilar seed germination niches, which contributes to explaining their coexistence. Climatic events, such as rising temperature, could alter germination patterns, favoring seed regeneration of certain categories (i.e. alien and semi-fixed dune species) at the expense of others (i.e. foundation species, pivotal to ecosystem functioning), hence potentially altering the plant community structure

Trade-offs between sampling effort and data quality in habitat monitoring

The transect method has been widely used to monitor habitat conservation status and has been recently recommended as the best tool to monitor steep ecological gradients, such as those in coastal systems. Despite that, the effectiveness of the transect approach can be limited when considering the sampling effort in terms of time needed for sampling. Our work aimed at evaluating the efficacy of the transect approach in a Mediterranean coastal system. Specifically we aimed at evaluating the sampling effort versus the completeness of datasets obtained by performing belt transects in different ways specifically designed to progressively reduce the sampling effort: (i) sampling plots adjacently (“adjacent-plot transect”); (ii) sampling plots alternately (“alternate-plot transect”); (iii) sampling one plot at each plant community along the vegetation zonation (“zonation-plot transect”). We evaluated method efficiency in terms of number and type of habitats identified, spatial extent, species richness and composition, through multivariate analyses, null models and rarefaction curves. The sampling effort was measured in terms of time needed for sampling. The zonation-plot transect had the lowest sampling effort, but provided only an approximation of the state of the dunal communities. The alternate-plot transect showed the best trade-off between the sampling effort and the completeness of information obtained, and may be considered as a efficient option in very wide coastal systems. Our research provides guidelines that can be used in other coastal systems to choose the most cost-effective monitoring method thereby maximising the efficient use of monitoring resources

The resilience of pollination interactions: importance of temporal phases

Aims The loss of species that engage in close ecological interactions, such as pollination, has been shown to lead to secondary extinctions, ultimately threatening the overall ecosystem stability and functioning. Pollination studies are currently flourishing at all possible levels of interaction organization (i.e., species, guild, group and network), and different methodological protocols aimed to define the resilience of pollination interactions have been proposed. However, the temporal dimension of the resilience of pollination interactions has been often overlooked. In the light of these considerations, we addressed the following questions: does a temporal approach help to reveal critical moments during the flowering season, when pollination interactions are less resilient to perturbations? Do pollination interactions evaluated at species, guild, group and network level show different patterns when assessed through time? Methods We monitored contacts between plant and pollinator species in dry grassland communities every 15 days during the overall community flowering season (12 surveys). For each survey, we built a quantitative plant–pollinator interaction matrix and we calculated two sets of metrics characterizing, respectively, the diversity and the distribution of interactions across hierarchical levels. To describe the diversity of interactions, we calculated partner diversity (PD) at the species level, vulnerability/generality (V/G) at the guild level, and interaction diversity and evenness at the network level. The distribution of interactions was characterized by calculating selectiveness at the species and the network level, and modularity at the group level. We assessed the temporal variation of PD, V/G at the level of plants and pollinators, and species selectiveness, by means of Linear Mixed Models (LMMs). To investigate the temporal variation of indexes calculated at group and network level, we applied simple linear and quadratic regressions after checking for temporal autocorrelation in residuals. Important Findings When taking into account the temporal dimension of interactions, the diversity of interactions showed different patterns at different levels of organization. At the species level, no relationship was disclosed between PD and time, when assessing the temporal trend of V/G separately for the guild of plants and pollinators we observed an asymmetric structure of interactions. Pollination interactions showed to be asymmetric throughout the flowering season; however, evenness of interactions and network selectiveness showed significant positive relationships with time, revealing a poorer network of interactions during the end of the flowering season. The temporal analysis of pollination interactions revealed a stronger risk of secondary extinctions at the end of the flowering season, due to a lower degree of redundancy and thus of resilience of the overall network of interactions

Altitudinal patterns of floral morphologies in dry calcareous grasslands

A central goal in vegetation ecology is the identification of processes that influence species assemblage and distribution within a community. Among the wide variety of biotic interactions, plant-pollinator interactions are assumed to have a marked influence on plant communities assemblage and dynamics. The aim of this work was to verify if in dry grasslands there is a non random distribution of different blossom types along an altitudinal gradient, which may exert a selective pressure on both plants and insects, as well as on their mutualistic relationships. We sampled 85 plots in pre-alpine and hilly reliefs of the Veneto Region, finding that different blossom morphologies were patterned along the altitudinal gradient. Wind blossom type was dominant at low altitude while disk shaped flowers prevailed at high altitude. Our study revealed that altitude might affect species assemblage in dry grassland communities not only by selecting plant species according to their tolerance to different environmental conditions, but also according to their floral morphology, evoking the possibility of an indirect pollination filtering to occur

Increasing the germination percentage of an endangered native orchid (Himantoglossum adriaticum) by pollen transfer and outbreeding between populations

The endangered native orchid Himantoglossum adriaticum H. Baumann is a European endemic species of priority interest (92/43/ EEC, Annex II). Italian populations of H. adriaticum are small and isolated, with depressed germination (< 5%) and seed set. Given the important implications for plant population conservation, we tested the efficacy of artificial pollen transfer (hand pollination) and outbreeding between populations for increasing the germination percentage. Artificial cross-pollination included a). pollen transfer from one large population to two small and isolated populations; b). pollen transfer between two small but not very isolated populations; c) within-population pollen transfer used as a control. Seeds were sown on a modified Malmgren’s medium in vitro and cultured in a controlled environment. Total germination was recorded when no further germination was observed. Germination percentage was compared using a Kruskall-Wallis analysis of variance. Pollen transfer produced a significant increase in total germination but increases were not homogeneous between crosses nor between ramets. Pollen transfer from the largest population to the smaller ones enhanced the germination capacity in one population (1.1% vs. 3.1%; p=0.019). Cross pollination between small-sized and less isolated populations resulted in the largest increase of germination (6.1% vs. 1.58%; p=0.028). The largest differences in total germination occurred between ramets within each crossed-pollinated population. Although germination capacity was essentially ramet-specific and was never high, the results of pollen transfer between the small populations are particularly encouraging, since the mean increase in germination was almost four times that of the control. Our results suggest that pollen transfer and outbreeding between small populations can be considered as a valuable tool to increase genetic flow and germination capacity in natural populations, limit the accumulation of detrimental effects on their fitness driven by the repeated breeding with closely-related individuals, thereby increasing the possibility of conservation of endangered native species

The fate of coastal habitats in the Venice Lagoon from the sea level rise perspective

Coastal wetlands worldwide are retreating owing to several anthropogenic pressures and accelerated sea level rise (SLR). The importance of preserving salt marshes and the services they provide is being increasingly recognized and wetlands have become the target of several international initiatives and conservation regulations. Thus, geospatial models with applicable high spatial resolution results estimating the potential development of wetland habitats under climate change are urgently needed in order to prepare proper conservation measures and management strategies in an opportune moment. This study aimed at predicting the potential impact of SLR on salt marsh habitats in the Venice Lagoon. Habitat turnover over time was modelled based on a fine-scale vegetation map, relative elevation measurements, and most relevant environmental data (subsidence and accretion) connected with SLR. Three model-based SLR scenarios (GFDL P50, RCP4.5, RCP8.5) and the local linear trend were considered. Clear differences between the northern and southern parts of the lagoon emerged. By 2075, 37 to 48% (model-based scenarios) or even 51% (linear scenario) of the Venice lagoon coastal habitats could lie under water. Although nearly all habitats evidenced a decrease in their extent by 2050 and beyond, our results also suggest that different types of marshes will respond differently to SLR. Exactly this information (what, where and when) is of crucial importance for decision makers to initiate enhance planning and management policies. Moreover, the forecasted changes in tidal marsh area and the presented cost effective methodological approach is transferable to other temperate areas faced with comparable SLR rates