Monitoring of Alarm Reactions of Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) in a Captive Population in Paneveggio Pale di San Martino Natural Park

Simple Summary After several years of inappropriate management, the pasture inside the enclosure for captive red deer in Paneveggio Pale di San Martino regional Park (TN, Italy) lost its nutritional value, due to the expansion of unpalatable tall grasses. Therefore, several measures to restore a suitable pasture composition were needed. The mowing activity represents a disturbance for the captive deer, which negatively affects the animals' well-being. To establish the more appropriate times/days to perform activities inside the enclosure, we observed the alarm reactions and relative intensity of animals exposed to different visual stimuli presented inside and outside the enclosure. Some differences were highlighted between the males and the nursery (females and fawns) groups. Considering the deer biology and the studied location, the best months in which it would be possible to plan activities inside the enclosure are March, April (if the snow is not present) and August. Data elaboration suggests that the best day to perform activities inside the enclosure is Wednesday because the animals showed less sensitivity to disturbances; Tuesday and Thursday may also be considered additional suitable days. The study analyzes red deer responses to disturbances during the day and different exposures to tourists, to establish the more appropriate times to carry out activities inside the Paneveggio deer enclosure. The alarm reactions of red deer were observed after presenting different types of visual stimuli inside and outside the fence, in order to answer some questions: Which stimuli produce the strongest reactions from the animals? Do animals differently react to stimuli presented outside and inside the fence? On which days and times are the animals more sensitive to disturbances? Are there different reactions between the males and females? The results suggest that the red deer adversely react to the disturbance at different degrees of intensity in relation to day, sex, tourist and where the stimuli are presented. It was observed that during the days with the highest tourist presence, the animals were particularly alarmed; discomfort accumulation produced the highest number of alarm reactions on Monday. For these reasons, it would be opportune to manage the pasture on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, scheduled at specific times of day, preferably far from the estimated presence of tourists

The interplay between flowering timing and environmental constraints affects the functional strategies in central Apennine grasslands

The timing of flowering is an important component of community assembly. Indeed flowering phenology affects the composition of plant communities through its effect on species interactions. Moreover, flower production is resource-intensive, which might tend to favour reproduction during times of low environmental stress. Nevertheless, if flowering time is critical to competition for resources or avoidance of stress, it could be considered a part of a larger plant strategy that incorporates other functional traits. Actually it was stated that in grasslands of central Apennines, dominant species tend to bloom in the central phases of the growing season, when no stress acts in the system, day-length and light intensity allow a high rate of photosynthesis, and a long time is available for seed maturation. These species do not need functional strategies allowing fast pre-emption of the canopy or tolerance to stresses. Instead, subordinate and accidental species have functional strategies that allow them to flower before or after the dominant ones or to share the same period through a different type of space occupation. Moreover the functional set underlying the flowering pattern of subordinate and accidental species has a dual ecological meaning. It limits competition with dominant species and enables tolerance to environmental stresses, which change throughout the growing season (i.e. low soil temperature in spring and water shortage in summer). Also invasion of pastures by tall grasses owing to the management cessation affects the flowering-related functional pattern in that during the central and late phases of the growing season (when invasive tall grasses are growing and blooming), flowering species of abandoned meadows are marked by a set of traits devoted to stress tolerance or underlying a long reproductive cycle. It is possible to argue that the comprehension of the changes in the flowering-related functional pattern in abandoned pastures may help to explain the ecosystem functional response to the cessation of anthropogenic disturbance

Effect of tall-grass invasion on the flowering-related functional pattern of submediterranean hay-meadows

Several studies demonstrated that abandonment changes the functional composition of grasslands; nevertheless, little is known about the effects of grassland abandonment on the flowering-related functional pattern. We hypothesized that invasion by tall grasses affects this pattern. We counted the number of flowering shoots per species at five times during the growing season, in 80 plots placed in mown and in abandoned grasslands (central Apennines), and assessed the differences in the trait composition of flowering species between the two treatments. The selected traits were linked to resource acquisition and stress tolerance strategies. Our results indicated that abiotic environmental control is prevalent in determining the phenological pattern in both conditions and in accordance with the phenological "mid-domain hypothesis". We demonstrated that when the dominant species is a tall grass with competitive behaviour, the magnitude of this phenomenon is amplified due to the abiotic changes yielded by the tall grass invasion. Indeed, in the central and late phases of the growing season (when invasive tall grasses are growing and blooming), abandoned grasslands were marked by a set of traits devoted to stress tolerance or underlying a long reproductive cycle or linked to competition for light

Assessment of interaction between sheep and poorly palatable grass: a key tool for grassland management and restoration

Invasion of poorly palatable grasses due to abandonment or improper grazing management decreases pastures feeding value and biodiversity. With the aim to control their spread, we assessed the relationship between sheep foraging behavior and changes in aboveground phytomass, leaf traits, and chemical features of the tall grass Brachypodium rupestre and evaluated the effects of a B. rupestre-based diet on epithelium keratinization of rumen. Our results demonstrated that sheep became less selective throughout the experimental trials and B. rupestre decreased its aboveground phytomass. Some leaf traits showed significant changes (LDMC, LA, and ADL were higher in ungrazed areas; leaf nitrogen content was higher in the grazed ones). In addition, we detected an increase of the degree of epithelium keratinization of sheep. Thus high grazing pressure can be used to control the spread ofB. rupestre, but negative effects on animal welfare due to the increase of rumen keratinization might be expecte

Carta della vocazionalità del territorio della Comunità Montana di Camerino per la coltivazione del tartufo nero pregiato (Tuber melanosporum) - Scala 1: 50.000

La realizzazione della “Carta della vocazionalità del territorio della Comunità Montana di Camerino per la coltivazione del tartufo nero pregiato (Tuber melanosporum)” e della “Carta della distribuzione delle aree forestali vocate per il tartufo nero pregiato (Tuber melanosporum) del territorio della Comunità Montana di Camerino” in scala 1: 50.000 si inserisce nell’ambito del progetto “Valorizzazione del tartufo della Marca di Camerino”, promosso dalla Camera di Commercio di Macerata e dalla Comunità Montana di Camerino e avviato nel 2008.Obiettivo centrale del progetto è la valorizzazione del tartufo autoctono quale prodotto tipico del territorio ed ha avuto come principali linee direttrici la realizzazione di un supporto scientifico per la predisposizione di modelli interpretativi e predittivi sulla vocazionalità del territorio per il tartufo nero pregiato e l’incentivazione dei settori economici legati alla produzione e commercializzazione del tartufo (produttivo, enogastronomico e turistico), attraverso il coinvolgimento attivo degli stakeholder locali per l’individuazione di strategie comuni finalizzate al miglioramento delle produzioni e alla loro valorizzazione.Per quanto riguarda la parte scientifica del progetto, nella prima fase si è provveduto a caratterizzare il territorio della Comunità Montana dal punto di vista ecologico, quale quadro indispensabile di riferimento per la definizione delle sue potenzialità produttive tartuficole. In particolare sono state effettuate analisi riguardanti il bioclima ed i paesaggi pedologici. La successiva definizione ad una scala di maggior dettaglio delle caratteristiche pedoclimatiche delle aree a vocate per il tartufo nero pregiato ha consentito la redazione dei due suddetti elaborati cartografici

How environment and grazing influence floristic composition of dry Puna in the southern Peruvian Andes

High mountain environments located in the tropics account for as much as 10 % of the total surface area of high mountain ecosystems worldwide, yet their ecology has been studied much less thoroughly than outside the tropics. The dry Puna is the largest ecosystem of the high tropical Andes and one of the leading biodiversity hotspots worldwide. In this high mountain environment, the main stress factors are the long period of water shortage, high degree of potential evapotranspiration, wind erosion, low soil nutrient content, and extreme thermal variation. The aim of this study was to deepen our understanding of the relation between the dry Puna species composition and diversity, and environmental/anthropogenic variables. Species cover was determined and soil samples were analysed from 121 plots, along altitudinal transects located between 3,900 and 4,900 m a.s.l. in South Peru. The data were statistically analysed by means of Multivariate regression tree analysis, Indicator Species analysis and Redundancy analysis. The hypothesis that in the dry Puna, altitudinal gradient, aspect and rockiness are key factors that mainly determine the floristic composition of the vegetation was confirmed. The local soil features emerged as a secondary driver in the plant community composition. Moreover, disturbance intensity appeared to be a main factor in determining changes in the plant community diversity, also modifying the site ecology (nutrient content, pH) and the structure of ecosystems (from grass dominated systems to dwarf shrub-dominated communities). High grazing intensities caused the spread of species with avoidance strategies such as thorny dwarf shrubs (Tetraglochin cristaturn), annual and prostrate plants. Harsh conditions (thin and coarse soil, severe solar radiation, low temperatures and thermal fluctuations) promoted the spread of cushion plants (Pycnophyllurn sp. pl.), while aspect and soil features (pH, silt % and potassium content) shaped the species composition of Festuca orthophylla tall grassland, the dominant plant community in the dry Puna