Phytocoenotic diversity of the N-Adriatic coastal sand dunes - The herbaceous communities of the fixed dunes and the vegetation of the interdunal wetlands

The hemicryptophytic, chamaephytic and therophytic communities which inhabit the fixed sand dunes of the N-Adriatic coast, along with those of the interdunal wetlands, have been studied from the phytosociological point of view. The floristic-sociological analysis focuses on the syntaxonomic discussion of the xerophilous communities; in this context, the following new syntaxa have been described: Syntrichio ruraliformis-Lomelosion argenteae, Tortulo-Scabiosetum typicum and Sileno conicae-Avellinietum michelii. In regards to the dune slack vegetation, the study points out the occurrence in the coastal area of two rare inland microtherm communities (Plantagini altissimae-Molinietum caeruleae and Erucastro-Schoenetum nigricantis). As already stated in previous papers, the originality of this sector of the Mediterranean basin is highlighted as a result of both bioclimatic and phytogeographic factors, which confer to this area a unique character in the European context

Valutazione della qualità e dello stato di conservazione degli ambienti litoranei: l'esempio del pS.I.C. "Penisola del Cavallino: biotopi litoranei" (Venezia, NE-Italia)

Evaluation of quality and conservation status in coastal landscapes: the example of the Site of Community Importance “Penisola del Cavallino: biotopi litoranei”(Venice, NE Italy). Quality of coastal landscape has been estimated at two different scale: at the community level, we assessed a naturalistic value, by evaluating characteristics coming both from species (i.e. presence of endemic species) and from community itself (i.e. rarity). We also took into account the percentage of exotic and ruderal species on the total number of species of each community, as an indirect measure of alteration degree. At the landscape level, we tried to value structural and functional integrity by evaluating spatial connectivity and contrast among patches. As the plant communities of foredunes show a typical spatial zonation, the two indices have been calculated along 27 transects perpendicular to the seashore. On the basis of a digital map of the area, we measured the gamma connectivity index along each transect; we assessed both “total connectivity”, considering all the communities intersected by the transects, and “partial connectivity”, considering only the plant communitie s of foredunes, so describing spatial distribution model of coastal vegetation. Since on the backdune there is not a typical zonation of communiti es, we counted only the links between natural communities, considering anthropogenic communities as a break of natural landscape and of connectivity. I n addition, we measured the contrast index; this index evaluates the change in environmental conditions going from one community (or patch) to the neighbouring one. The different patches are included and surrounded by a matrix, consisting of “nonhabitat” at different degree of alteratio n, that may function as an impenetrable barrier for individuals or, on the contrary, may favour movements. Thus, the surrounding matrix may significant ly influence the effective isolation of habitat patches, rendering them more or less isolated than simple distance would indicate. For the contr ast computation, we utilized the naturalistic value assessed to each community on the basis of the phytosociological data. Both indices point to the extreme fragmentation of coastal landscape and to high vulnerability that characterizes all natural communities being they surrounded by a matrix hig hly contrasting. Conservation strategies should, then, concern natural habitat, their quality and their structural and functional integrity, but they should also consider the quality of surrounding matrix

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

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

Kosteletzkya pentacarpos (L.) Ledeb.

Viene definita la distribuzione in Italia di Kosteletzkya pentacarpos e discusso il suo stato di conservazione

Lista bibliografica

Questa lista bibliografica contiene il secondo aggiornamento della bibliografia della Lisy e deriva dall’assemblaggio da parte della redazione (M. Serdoz ed E. Panfili) dei contributi parziali stilati dai gruppi regionali

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

Il supporto della SISV alla realizzazione di un manuale nazionale per il monitoraggio degli habitat della Direttiva 92/43/EEC in Italia.

A partire dall'entrata in vigore della Direttiva 92/43/EEC, la sorveglianza dello stato di conservazione degli habitat elencati nell'Allegato I ed il relativo monitoraggio periodico a intervalli di sei anni sono diventati un obbligo per tutti i paesi membri dell'UE, in base a quanto previsto negli Articoli 11 e 17. Nel 2011 è stato pubblicato un documento che fornisce le linee guida di riferimento europee per il monitoraggio di habitat e specie (Evans & Arvela 2011). Su questa base metodologica, la Società Italiana di Scienza della Vegetazione (SISV), avvalendosi di un ampio gruppo di soci esperti, ha avviato un dibattito interno su principi, criteri, parametri e strumenti per il monitoraggio degli habitat di Allegato I e dei tipi di vegetazione in essi rappresentati. Il progetto è stato promosso dal Ministero dell'Ambiente e della Tutela del Territorio e del Mare e coordinato dall'Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale, e si trova al momento in una fase prossima alla conclusione. A partire dalla documentazione già prodotta a livello nazionale per gli habitat italiani (Biondi et al., 2009, 2012, 2014; Genovesi et al., 2014), diversi aspetti critici sono stati esaminati attraverso una discussione scientifica ampiamente condivisa. In particolare, sono stati affrontati: gli aspetti legati alla scelta di strumenti adeguati per valutare i parametri area, struttura e funzione, prospettive future; il concetto di "specie tipica"; i metodi di campionamento habitat-specifici appropriati. Il protocollo sviluppato si pone come uno strumento pratico ed efficace, scientificamente valido e in linea con gli standard metodologici internazionali. Il suo utilizzo permetterà una raccolta armonizzata di dati su scala nazionale, rendendo possibile una valutazione comparata dello stato di conservazione di ciascun habitat

Pollination networks along the sea-inland gradient reveal landscape patterns of keystone plant species

Linking the functional role of plants and pollinators in pollination networks to ecosystem functioning and resistance to perturbations can represent a valuable knowledge to implement sound conservation and monitoring programs. The aim of this study was to assess the resistance of pollination networks in coastal dune systems and to test whether pollination interactions have an explicit spatial configuration and whether this affect network resistance. To this aim, we placed six permanent 10 m-wide belt transects. Within each transect we placed five plots of 2 m x 2 m, in order to catch the different plant communities along the dune sequence. We monitored pollination interactions between plants and pollinators every 15 days during the overall flowering season. The resulting networks of pollination interactions showed a relatively low degree of resistance. However, they had a clear spatial configuration, with plant species differently contributing to the resistance of pollination networks occurring non-randomly from the seashore inland. Our results evidenced that beside contributing to the creation and maintenance of dune ridges, thereby protecting inland communities from environmental disturbance, plant species of drift line and shifting dune communities have also a crucial function in conferring resistance to coastal dune pollination networks