<i>«Congregavimus totum clerum et visitavimus eum»</i>: le visite pastorali in Sardegna, dal Medioevo all’Età moderna: approcci metodologici per l’utilizzo delle fonti visitali sarde

The thesis proposes a research about pastoral visits which took place in Sardinia, between Middle Age and Modern period and proposes some questions and interpretation points about sardinian documents. We studied and reviewed the papers of pastoral visits of archbishop Federico Visconti (1263), Andrea Sanna (diocese of Ales- Terralba, 1524), Salvatore Alepus (diocese of Sassari, 1553 e 1555). Such a research has permitted to put in place the visitatio institution in Sardinia between Middle Age and Modern period, to detect the richness of contains of sardinian documents, to hightlight some aspects of archbishop behaivor and the religious and social life of the communities. The contains of Quinque Libri of Cagliari diocese has permitted to reenact chronologies of the visitationes throughout XVI century

I monasteri delle clarisse a Cagliari e Oristano (secoli XIV-XVI). Fondazione, ruolo sociale, patrimonio artistico

ITALIANO: L’articolo si focalizza sui monasteri di clarisse fondati tra XIV e XVI secolo nelle città di Cagliari e di Oristano: la prima capitale del regno di Sardegna catalano-aragonese poi spagnolo, la seconda capitale del regno o “giudicato” di Arborea, inglobato nel regno di Sardegna a partire dal 1420. Queste due città furono le prime, nell’isola, ad avere un monastero di clarisse. Di questi monasteri l’articolo ripercorre le origini, le principali vicende e il ruolo sociale. Si sofferma, inoltre, sul superstite patrimonio artistico medievale conservato nella chiesa clariana di Oristano e sulle architetture di epoca moderna dei monasteri cagliaritani. / ENGLISH: The article focuses on the monasteries of Poor Clares founded between the 14th and 16th centuries in the cities of Cagliari and Oristano: the first one was the capital of the catalan-aragonese Kingdom of Sardinia, the second one was the capital of the kingdom or “giudicato” of Arborea, incorporated into the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1420. These two cities were the first, in the island, to have a monastery of Poor Clares. The article traces the origins of these nunneries, the main events and their social role. It focuses also on the surviving medieval heritage in the Clarian church of Oristano and on the modern age architecture of the nunneries in Cagliari

Congruent responses of vascular plant and ant communities to pastoral land-use abandonment in mountain areas throughout different biogeographic regions

Abstract Background There is a long-term trend towards the abandonment of agro-pastoral activities in the mountain areas of Europe: the following encroachment process of semi-natural grasslands by shrubs is one of the main severe threats to the conservation of biodiversity in mountain environments. To better understand the impact of land abandonment, we analysed the reliability of plant functional groups, ant traits, and ant functional groups as indicators of land use changes. We carried out the research in Italy at four sites along a latitudinal/altitudinal gradient in three biogeographic regions (Mediterranean, Continental, Alpine). We identified three stages of a chronosequence at each site as representative of the plant succession in response to pastoral land-use abandonment. Results As expected, both the plant and ant assemblages considerably differed across sites at the species level and, within each site, among the three stages. This trend was found also using ant traits, functional groups of ants, and plant functional groups. Ant and plant communities were related in terms of composition and functionality. Harvester ants and ants with collective foraging strategy were associated with annual legumes and grasses (Therophytes); ants with a strictly individual foraging strategy with Phanerophytes. Ant traits and plant functional groups indicated significant differences among the three stages of the chronosequence. However, ant functional groups could not discriminate between the stages represented by secondary grasslands currently grazed and shrub-encroached grasslands ungrazed. Conclusion Despite some limitations of ant functional groups in explaining the succession stages of land abandonment, our results suggest that ants are a good surrogate taxon and might be used as bioindicators of land-use changes and ecosystem functioning. Furthermore, our findings indicate that the functional group approach should be applied to other European ecosystems. Finally, reducing the taxonomic complexity could contribute to developing predictive models to detect early environmental changes and biodiversity loss in mountain habitats

Where are we now with European forest multi-taxon biodiversity and where can we head to?

The European biodiversity and forest strategies rely on forest sustainable management (SFM) to conserve forest biodiversity. However, current sustainability assessments hardly account for direct biodiversity indicators. We focused on forest multi-taxon biodiversity to: i) gather and map the existing information; ii) identify knowledge and research gaps; iii) discuss its research potential. We established a research network to fit data on species, standing trees, lying deadwood and sampling unit description from 34 local datasets across 3591 sampling units. A total of 8724 species were represented, with the share of common and rare species varying across taxonomic classes: some included many species with several rare ones (e.g., Insecta); others (e.g., Bryopsida) were represented by few common species. Tree-related structural attributes were sampled in a subset of sampling units (2889; 2356; 2309 and 1388 respectively for diameter, height, deadwood and microhabitats). Overall, multitaxon studies are biased towards mature forests and may underrepresent the species related to other developmental phases. European forest compositional categories were all represented, but beech forests were overrepresented as compared to thermophilous and boreal forests. Most sampling units (94%) were referred to a habitat type of conservation concern. Existing information may support European conservation and SFM strategies in: (i) methodological harmonization and coordinated monitoring; (ii) definition and testing of SFM indicators and thresholds; (iii) data-driven assessment of the effects of environmental and management drivers on multi-taxon forest biological and functional diversity, (iv) multi-scale forest monitoring integrating in-situ and remotely sensed information. Forest biodiversity Multi-taxon Sustainable management Biodiversity conservation Forest stand structurepublishedVersio

I monasteri delle Clarisse a Cagliari e Oristano (sec. XIV-XVI). Fondazione, ruolo sociale, patrimonio artistico

Il saggio analizza le vicende storiche, artistiche e architettoniche dei conventi di clausura a Cagliari, Oristano e Sassari nel Cinquecento

Spatial Distribution and Habitat Selection of Sarda Cattle in a Silvopastoral Mediterranean Area

The beef livestock system in Sardinia is based on suckler cows, often belonging to autochthonous breeds, such as the Sarda breed, and they often graze silvopastoral areas. Besides beef meat, silvopastoral systems (SPSs) provide several Ecosystem Services (ESs), such as timber provision, harvested as wood, and watershed protection. Livestock distribution is a critical factor for the sustainable use of SPSs (e.g., to avoid uneven grazing patterns) and information on patterns of spatial use are required. A study was conducted to determine: (i) the spatial distribution and (ii) the habitat selection of Sarda cattle grazing in a Mediterranean silvopastoral area. Over different seasons, 12 free-roaming adult Sarda cows were fitted with Global Positioning System (GPS) Knight tracking collars to calculate an index mapping of the incidence of livestock in the landscape (LRI) and a preference index (PI) for different areas. Since the PI data were not normally distributed, the Aligned Rank Transform (ART) procedure was used for the analysis. LRI was able to represent the spatial variability in resource utilization by livestock as a LRI map. Overall, the areas where the animals drank and received supplementation were strongly preferred by the cows, reaching PI values in the summer of 19.3 &plusmn; 4.9 (median &plusmn; interquartile range), whereas areas with predominantly rocks were strongly avoided (the worst PI value in the spring was 0.2 &plusmn; 0.6). Grasslands were, in general, used in proportion to their presence in the area, with slightly increased use in the spring (PI 1.1 &plusmn; 0.5). Forest area was avoided by cows, except in the spring when it was used in proportion to their presence in the area

Handbook of field sampling for multi-taxon biodiversity studies in European forests

Forests host most terrestrial biodiversity and their sustainable management is crucial to halt biodiversity loss. Although scientific evidence indicates that sustainable forest management (SFM) should be assessed by monitoring multi-taxon biodiversity, most current SFM criteria and indicators account only for trees or consider indirect biodiversity proxies. Several projects performed multi-taxon sampling to investigate the effects of forest management on biodiversity, but the large variability of their sampling approaches hampers the identification of general trends, and limits broad-scale inference for designing SFM. Here we address the need of common sampling protocols for forest structure and multi-taxon biodiversity to be used at broad spatial scales. We established a network of researchers involved in 41 projects on forest multi-taxon biodiversity across 13 European countries. The network data structure comprised the assessment of at least three taxa, and the measurement of forest stand structure in the same plots or stands. We mapped the sampling approaches to multi-taxon biodiversity, standing trees and deadwood, and used this overview to provide operational answers to two simple, yet crucial, questions: what to sample? How to sample? The most commonly sampled taxonomic groups are vascular plants (83% of datasets), beetles (80%), lichens (66%), birds (66%), fungi (61%), bryophytes (49%). They cover different forest structures and habitats, with a limited focus on soil, litter and forest canopy. Notwithstanding the common goal of assessing forest management effects on biodiversity, sampling approaches differed widely within and among taxonomic groups. Differences derive from sampling units (plots size, use of stand vs. plot scale), and from the focus on different substrates or functional groups of organisms. Sampling methods for standing trees and lying deadwood were relatively homogeneous and focused on volume calculations, but with a great variability in sampling units and diameter thresholds. We developed a handbook of sampling methods (SI 3) aimed at the greatest possible comparability across taxonomic groups and studies as a basis for European-wide biodiversity monitoring programs, robust understanding of biodiversity response to forest structure and management, and the identification of direct indicators of SFM. Biodiversity Field methods Multi-taxon Indicators Sampling protocol Forest stand structur

Handbook of field sampling for multi-taxon biodiversity studies in European forests

none44Forests host most terrestrial biodiversity and their sustainable management is crucial to halt biodiversity loss. Although scientific evidence indicates that sustainable forest management (SFM) should be assessed by monitoring multi-taxon biodiversity, most current SFM criteria and indicators account only for trees or consider indirect biodiversity proxies. Several projects performed multi-taxon sampling to investigate the effects of forest management on biodiversity, but the large variability of their sampling approaches hampers the identification of general trends, and limits broad-scale inference for designing SFM. Here we address the need of common sampling protocols for forest structure and multi-taxon biodiversity to be used at broad spatial scales. We established a network of researchers involved in 41 projects on forest multi-taxon biodiversity across 13 European countries. The network data structure comprised the assessment of at least three taxa, and the measurement of forest stand structure in the same plots or stands. We mapped the sampling approaches to multi-taxon biodiversity, standing trees and deadwood, and used this overview to provide operational answers to two simple, yet crucial, questions: what to sample? How to sample? The most commonly sampled taxonomic groups are vascular plants (83% of datasets), beetles (80%), lichens (66%), birds (66%), fungi (61%), bryophytes (49%). They cover different forest structures and habitats, with a limited focus on soil, litter and forest canopy. Notwithstanding the common goal of assessing forest management effects on biodiversity, sampling approaches differed widely within and among taxonomic groups. Differences derive from sampling units (plots size, use of stand vs. plot scale), and from the focus on different substrates or functional groups of organisms. Sampling methods for standing trees and lying deadwood were relatively homogeneous and focused on volume calculations, but with a great variability in sampling units and diameter thresholds. We developed a handbook of sampling methods (SI 3) aimed at the greatest possible comparability across taxonomic groups and studies as a basis for European-wide biodiversity monitoring programs, robust understanding of biodiversity response to forest structure and management, and the identification of direct indicators of SFM.noneBurrascano S.; Trentanovi G.; Paillet Y.; Heilmann-Clausen J.; Giordani P.; Bagella S.; Bravo-Oviedo A.; Campagnaro T.; Campanaro A.; Chianucci C.; De Smedt P.; Itziar G.-M.; Matosevic D.; Sitzia T.; Aszalos R.; Brazaitis G.; Andrea C.; Ettore D.A.; Doerfler I.; Hofmeister J.; Hosek J.; Janssen P.; Kepfer Rojas S.; Korboulewsky N.; Kozak D.; Lachat T.; Lohmus A.; Lopez R.; Marell A.; Matula R.; Mikolas M.; Munzi S.; Norden B.; Partel M.; Penner J.; Runnel K.; Schall P.; Svoboda M.; Tinya F.; Ujhazyova M.; Vandekerkhove K.; Verheyen K.; Xystrakis F.; Odor P.Burrascano, S.; Trentanovi, G.; Paillet, Y.; Heilmann-Clausen, J.; Giordani, P.; Bagella, S.; Bravo-Oviedo, A.; Campagnaro, T.; Campanaro, A.; Chianucci, C.; De Smedt, P.; Itziar, G. -M.; Matosevic, D.; Sitzia, T.; Aszalos, R.; Brazaitis, G.; Andrea, C.; Ettore, D. A.; Doerfler, I.; Hofmeister, J.; Hosek, J.; Janssen, P.; Kepfer Rojas, S.; Korboulewsky, N.; Kozak, D.; Lachat, T.; Lohmus, A.; Lopez, R.; Marell, A.; Matula, R.; Mikolas, M.; Munzi, S.; Norden, B.; Partel, M.; Penner, J.; Runnel, K.; Schall, P.; Svoboda, M.; Tinya, F.; Ujhazyova, M.; Vandekerkhove, K.; Verheyen, K.; Xystrakis, F.; Odor, P