Environmental Evaluation and Monitoring of Agro-Ecosystems Biodiversity

Il sistema di indici floristico-vegetazionali proposto da Taffetani e Rismondo (2009) viene integrato e perfezionato con alcuni più recenti esempi applicativi. Il metodo, basato sull’integrazione e la rielaborazione di dati derivanti dallo studio della vegetazione e di informazioni contenute in due database appositamente costituiti (floristico-sintassonomico e delle classi sintassonomiche), viene utilizzato per l’analisi della funzionalità ecologica degli ecosistemi agricoli e permette di misurare il grado evolutivo e le caratteristiche ecologiche delle singole fitocenosi. Consente inoltre di valutare lo stato di conservazione di determinati contesti rurali, mettere a confronto gli effetti di modalità gestionali differenti e quantificare il valore dei servizi ecosistemici. Costituisce un metodo per la corretta applicazione della Direttiva 92/43/CEE e l’individuazione delle aree agricole ad elevato valore naturalistico (HNV Farmland Areas). Viene fornita una descrizione della struttura dei due database e delle relazioni intercorrenti tra gli stessi e vengono proposte modifiche che scaturiscono dalla necessità di rendere più agile ed efficace il modello di analisi e di migliorare la struttura analitica del sistema di bioindicatori. I risultati applicativi presentati mostrano le potenzialità assunte dal sistema nei confronti dell’individuazione delle aree caratterizzate dalle più gravi problematiche di conservazione e delle tecniche gestionali più idonee alla tutela della biodiversità in ambito agricolo

An overview of the Italian forest biodiversity and its conservation level, based on the first outcomes of the 4th Habitat Report ex-Art. 17

In 2019 the 4th Report ex-Art. 17 on the conservation status (CS) of Annex I Habitats of the 92/43/EEC Directive was expected by every EU/28 country, with reference to the period 2013-18. In Italy, the process was in charge to the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), on behalf of the Ministry for Environment, Land and Sea Protection (MATTM), with the scientific support of the Italian Botanical Society (SBI). A large group of thematic and territorial experts elaborated the available data concerning the 124 types of terrestrial and inland water Habitats present in Italy, 39 of which are represented by Forest Habitats (Group 9),. The main aim of the work was the evaluation of the overall CS of each Habitat by Biogeographic Region (Mediterranean, Continental and Alpine), for a total amount of 294 assessments. A high proportion of these (92, corresponding to 31% of the total) referred to Forest Habitats, including 20 marginal types for which the CS was not requested. The analysis was carried out at different scales: a) administrative territory, through the data contained in the ISPRA database, whose compilation was in charge to the Regions and Autonomous Provinces; b) Natura 2000 site, with the latest updates available (Standard Data Forms updated to 2018); c) national scale, implementing the distribution maps for each Habitat based on the European grid ETRS89-LAEA5210 (10x10 km2 mesh); d) Biogeographic Region, scale of the final assessment. Cartographic outcomes, associated databases and additional data used for the assessments will be available online on the ISPRA Portal as soon as the validation process by the European Commission will be completed. A dedicated archive named "HAB_IT" has been created in the national database "VegItaly" (1), managed by the Italian Society of Vegetation Science, where the phytosociological relevés representative of the various Annex I Habitats in Italy will be archived and freely accessible. An overview of the results regarding the Forest habitats is here provided, including a comparison with the outcomes of the former reporting cycle, the 3rd Report ex-Art. 17 (2). In several cases (e.g. 9120, 91L0), the distribution maps have been remarkably improved due to better knowledge and more fitful interpretation. The conservation status resulted as Favourable (FV) for 6,7%, Inadequate (U1) for 58,7% and Bad (U1) for 32,0% of the 72 assessed forest Habitat types. In no case there was an improvement of the conservation status, while in 6 cases a worsening of the conditions resulted from the data analysis, pointing out the Habitats types with a higher need of action. Similarly to other projects carried out as a team by the network of Annex I Habitat experts of the Italian Botanical Society and the Italian Society for Vegetation Science (e.g. 3, 4), this is another step in the direction of supporting the implementation of the 92/43/EEC "Habitat" Directive in Italy and Europe. On this ground, the high biodiversity of the Italian forest Habitats could be emphasized, however results pointed out that some rare or endemic types (e.g. Alnus cordata or Betula aetnensis-dominated forests) are still scarcely acknowledged by the most prominent EU conservation tools such as the Annex I to the "Habitat" Directive. 1) F. Landucci et al. (2012) Plant Biosyst., 146(4), 756-763 2) P. Genovesi et al. (2014) ISPRA, Serie Rapporti, 194/2014 3) E. Biondi et al. (2009) Società Botanica Italiana, MATTM, D.P.N., http://vnr.unipg.it/habitat/ 4) D. Gigante et al. (2016) Plant Sociology, 53(2), 77-8

Il patrimonio dei fiumi delle Marche. Vitale risorsa ambientale o “fonte di calamità naturali”?

Situazione della biodiversità floristica, vegetazionale e degli habitat dei fiumi della Regione March

Le erbe spontanee come prodotto naturale dell’azienda agricola

Risultati del Progetto "Le Produzioni del Conero, la qualità che tutela l'ambiente": sub-progetto: "Specie vegetali spontanee di interesse alimentare del Parco del Conero". Le sperimentazioni di incremento delle popolazioni di specie spontanee di interesse alimentare ed aromaticodegli agroecosistemi del Parco del Conero e la coltivazione del finocchio di mare (Critmum maritimum)

The conservation of the Italian Crop Wild Relatives in the RIBES seed-banks: first data to establish national inventories and conservation priorities.

Crop Wild Relatives (CWR), a component of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA), are wild species closely related to crops, including their progenitors, defined by their potential ability to contribute beneficial traits for crop improvement (Maxted et al., 2006; Vincent et al., 2013). CWR populations are particularly likely to contain the adaptive genes necessary to develop new varieties because of the wide variety of habitats in which they grow and broad range of conditions they are adapted to, so their genetic diversity offers an insurance against the predicted harmful impacts of climate change on biodiversity and food security, together with the growing world population (FAO, 2008; Vincent et al., 2013). On the other hand, CWRs, which are intrinsically no different to any other group of wild species, are subject to an increasing range of threats in their host habitats, then a more systematic attention to their conservation is required (Maxted & Kell, 2009; Bilz et al., 2011; Vincent et al., 2013). Particularly, a concerted effort devoted to improving the conservation and availability of CWRs for crop improvement is thus timely both for biodiversity conservation and for food security objectives, as the window of opportunity to resolve these deficiencies will not remain open indefinitely (Vincent et al., 2013; Castañeda-A� lvarez et al., 2016). In such contest, a census of CWRs of species of food and forage interest listed in the Annex I ‘Priority crops’ of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (FAO, 2001) was carried out in 2014 by the Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), based on Landucci et al. (2014) and the CWR and Wild Harversted Plants published at http://vnr.unipg.it/PGRSecure (Andreella et al. 2015), in order to quantify the extent of CWR representation in the Italian ex situ collections. Here, we present the updated results of such census in the Italian Seed Bank Network for native species conservation (RIBES) with an analysis of the contribution to the conservation of the Italian FAO priority CWR. Finally, a national priority list for conservation of CWRs was drawn up and proposed here

Natura sulle due sponde dell’Adriatico: Un grande patrimonio di origine comune.

Venono descritte le somiglianze della flora e degli habitat tra le due sponde dell'Adriatico, attraverso la ricostruzione delle vicende geologiche recenti (glaciazioni), dell'origine e dell'evoluzione geologica dell'Adriatico, oltre che sulla base delle zonazioni climatiche e del ruolo antropico