Correlations among biodiversity, biomass and other plant community parameters using the phytosociological approach: A case study from the south-eastern Alps

The present study deals with the grassland complex of communities which may be found on the limestones in the southeastern Alps; these communities show in fact a particular interest for their high biodiversity degree and for their importance for the traditional land-use economy of the south-European mountain regions. Phytosociological releve´s corresponding to well-defined plant associations have been used in order to get information on the relationships among plant species diversity, biomass, chorotypes, pollination types, functional strategies and soil characteristics. The analysis was carried out both along an altitudinal and a soil evolution gradient. The analysis of the correlations among the variables and the application of the principal component analysis shows a positive correlation between soil parameters and biomass, eurichory, anemogamy and C- and R-strategies; on the contrary, a negative correlation among stenochory, entomogamy and S-strategy with the soil evolution seems to be present. This article shows how the phytosociological approach can be used to get information and knowledge on the correlations between several variables useful to understand the complex nature of the plant communities in order to support management plans

Plant communities of Italy. The vegetation prodrome

The Vegetation Prodrome of Italy was promoted in 2012 by the Italian "Ministry of Environment, Land and Sea Protection", in collaboration with the "Italian Society of Botany", to provide a comprehensive and systematic catalogue and description of Italian plant communities. The Prodrome that is presented in this paper is the first full organic synthesis of the vegetation of Italy at the alliance syntaxonomic level. It fulfils several needs, the main one being a unified and comprehensive national framework that may make an important contribution to the definition of the European Vegetation Prodrome. Syntaxonomy, as well as taxonomy, is sometimes based on considerations that may in part diverge: several authors tend to favour models that are divisive or aggregative to a greater or lesser extent in terms of flora, biogeography and ecology. These different points of view stimulate the scientific debate and allow the adoption of a framework that is more widely supported. The Prodrome includes 75 classes, 2 subclasses, 175 orders, 6 suborders and 393 alliances. The classes were grouped into nine broad categories according to structural, physiognomic and synecological elements rather than to syntaxonomic criteria. The rank, full valid name, any synonymies and incorrect names are provided for each syntaxon. The short declaration highlights the physiognomy, synecology, syndynamics and distribution of the plant communities that belong to the syntaxon. The Prodrome of the Italian Vegetation is linked to the European Strategy for Biodiversity, the European Habitats Directive and the European Working Groups related to the ecosystems and their services. In addition to basic applications, the Prodrome can be used as a framework for scientific research related to the investigation of the relationships between plant communities and the environmental factors that influence their composition and distribution

New national and regional Annex I Habitat records: from #26 to #36

New Italian data on the distribution of the Annex I Habitats 1510*, 2130*, 2250*, 3180*, 3260, 5230*, 6410, 7140, 7220*, 9320 are reported in this contribution. Specifically, 14 new occurrences in Natura 2000 sites are presented and 20 new cells are added in the EEA 10 km × 10 km reference grid. The new data refer to the Italian administrative regions of Abruzzo, Apulia, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Marche, Molise, Sardinia, Sicily, Tuscany and Umbria

An updated checklist of the vascular flora native to Italy

An updated inventory of the native vascular flora of Italy, providing details on the occurrence at regional level, is presented. The checklist includes 8195 taxa (6417 species and 1778 subspecies), distributed in 1092 genera and 152 families; 23 taxa are lycophytes, 108 ferns and fern allies, 30 gymnosperms and 8034 angiosperms. The taxa currently occurring in Italy are 7483, while 568 taxa have not been confirmed in recent times, 99 are doubtfully occurring in the country and 19 are data deficient. Out of the 568 not confirmed taxa, 26 are considered extinct or possibly extinct

An updated checklist of the vascular flora native to Italy

An updated inventory of the native vascular flora of Italy, providing details on the occurrence at regional level, is presented. The checklist includes 8195 taxa (6417 species and 1778 subspecies), distributed in 1092 genera and 152 families; 23 taxa are lycophytes, 108 ferns and fern allies, 30 gymnosperms and 8034 angiosperms. The taxa currently occurring in Italy are 7483, while 568 taxa have not been confirmed in recent times, 99 are doubtfully occurring in the country and 19 are data deficient. Out of the 568 not confirmed taxa, 26 are considered extinct or possibly extinct

Are the ancient forests of the Eastern Po plain large enough for a long term conservation of herbaceous nemoral species?

We analysed the effects of patch configuration and site history on vascular plants in ancient forests of the Eastern Po Plain, documented back to 1740. Despite their reduced size, all the forests are part of Natura 2000 Network and significantly contribute to the maintenance of a threatened habitat and support biological diversity of the Continental biogeographic region. The presence of some functional ecological plant species groups was correlated with patch configuration and age. Habitat quality, in terms of suitability for forest species, was found to be important in explaining the presence of species of high conservation value, but patch age (as an indicator for habitat quality) played a major role too. For core forest species, patch area is a redundant variable in explaining species richness relative to habitat quality and patch age and the extinction of specialists seems to occur mainly in a deterministic way. Even small forest fragments can be very important for maintaining plant species diversity, at least if they are of high habitat quality and if the forest management is appropriate. However, to achieve a long term conservation, management plans should also aim at an improvement of the anthropogenic matrix surrounding forest remnants

The response of plant community diversity to alien invasion: evidence from a sand dune time series

This study examines the process of invasion of coastal dunes in north-eastern Italy along a 60-year time series considering alien attributes (origin, residence time, invasive status, and growth form strategy) and habitat properties (species richness, diversity and evenness, proportion of aliens, and proportion of focal species). Vegetation changes through time were investigated in four sandy coastal habitats, using a fine-scale diachronic approach that compared vegetation data collected by use of the same procedure, in four time periods, from the 1950s to 2011. Our analysis revealed an overall significant decline of species richness over the last six decades. Further, both the average number of species per plot and the mean focal species proportion were proved to be negatively affected by the increasing proportion of alien species at plot level. The severity of the impact, however, was found to be determined by a combination of species attributes, habitat properties, and human disturbance suggesting that alien species should be referred to as ‘‘passengers’’ and not as ‘‘drivers’’ of ecosystem change. Passenger alien species are those which take advantage of disturbances or other changes to which they are adapted but that lead to a decline in native biodiversity. Their spread is facilitated by widespread anthropogenic environmental alterations, which create new, suitable habitats, and ensure human-assisted dispersal, reducing the distinctiveness of plant communities and inducing a process of biotic homogenization