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Genista radiata is a dwarf/low orophilic shrub having a fundamentally southern European distribution. In Italy, it can be found in different ecological contexts, often giving rise to diversified coenoses. Due to its ecological plasticity, G. radiata communities have been considered sometimes as simple dynamic variants of grasslands aspects, sometimes as more or less stable shrublands and this interpretation has changed over time. The aim of this study was to analyze the coenological and ecological features of all Italian G. radiata communities. An Italian comprehensive data-set has been investigated by means of multivariate analysis. Ecological and chorological analyses were performed, and the diagnostic species of different groups were identified through the phi coefficient of association. According to our analysis, nine different types of G. radiata communities were found to be present in Italy. Each group was characterized by means of its floristic, ecological and chorological components and investigated as to its syntaxonomic aspects. This allowed us to attribute the Italian G. radiata communities to nine different associations, four of which already existing and five proposed as new or as stat. nov. Their classification at higher levels is discussed and a comprehensive syntaxonomic scheme is proposed. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/11263504.2022.2056646. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An updated and annotated catalogue of the vascular plants reported for the Arezzo administrative province (eastern Tuscany, Italy) is presented. The study tries to fill the gaps existing in the data at the sub-regional administrative scale, addressing relevant taxonomic and distribution issues, important not only at local level. The catalogue was compiled by gathering all the botanical information from various source types (old and recent floras, vegetation data, taxonomic studies, floristic and chromosome number reports, herbarium data, landscape studies, original field observations). More than 32,000 records were critically examined, georeferenced and stored in a floristic database. For many controversial taxa, considerations and case-by-case comments are reported in explanatory notes. A distribution map of report locations and a map of floristic information intensity (number of records per location) are provided. The total number of taxa registered is 2082, of which four Lycophytes, 42 Ferns and fern allies, 47 Gymnosperms and 1989 Angiosperms. In the total list, 1759 taxa were confirmed after 1950, 126 recorded before 1950, 116 considered inquirendae and 81 excludendae. Amongst the taxa confirmed after 1950, 1518 are native, 13 cryptogenic and 228 alien, of which 104 considered cultivated and 29 invasive for the Arezzo province. Data were analysed in relation to number of families, consistence of native and alien flora, chorological and general conservation aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reynoutria × bohemica is an invasive species causing significant damage to native ecosystems in North America and Europe.In this work, we performed an in‐depth micromorphological characterisation of the extrafloral nectaries (EFN), during their secretory and post‐secretory phases, in combination with field monitoring of nectary activity over time and the qualitative pool of insect visitors.EFN consist of secretory trichomes and vascularised parenchyma. Polysaccharides, lipids and proteins were histochemically detected in all trichome cells; phenolic substances were detected in parenchyma cells. Our data indicate that all nectary regions are involved in nectar production and release, constituting a functional unit. Moreover, the main compound classes of nectar and their transfer change over time: first, granulocrine secretion for sugars prevails, then eccrine secretion of the lipophilic fraction takes place. Active nectaries are mainly located in the apical portion of the stem during the growth phase (April–May), when we detected the highest number of individuals visited by ants; from mid‐August onwards, during flowering, the number of active nectaries declined then ceased production (September), with a concomitant decrease in visits by the ants. The spectrum of nectar‐foraging ants mainly included representatives of the genera Formica, Lasius and Camponotus.Reynoutria × bohemica produces an attractive secretion able to recruit local ants that may potentially act as 'bodyguards' for protecting young shoots, reducing secretions during the blooming stage. This defence mechanism against herbivores is the same as that displayed by the parental species in its native areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patterns and trends of declining reed-beds in four freshwater ecosystems in central Italy are investigated through an aerial orthoimagery-based diachronic analysis over a period of 24 years. Extent variations and retreat from the waterfront are detected in all sites, compensated only in few cases by backwards enlargements. These shape and size modifications suggest that reed die-back is associated with retreat and with a notable fragmentation process. Long-term analysis performed in one of the sites, compared to water levels, shows a drastic extent decrease co-occurring with an artificial rise of the water level, confirming the regulation of freshwater bodies as a driver of biodiversity loss. Results also suggest that reed-dominated ecosystems may reach a threshold of tolerance towards stressing conditions beyond which they cannot regenerate. The carried out study testifies for a valuable role of landscape metrics in analysing the spatial processes related to declining reed-beds. Spatial metrics prove to be a suitable tool in monitoring processes, working as early warning signals of ongoing decline and helping to model future changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use a geodatabase to investigate the distribution patterns of an important subset of floristic reports recorded for the Parco Nazionale delle Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona, Campigna in the northern Apennines, Italy. This database was analysed using spatial statistical techniques and a digital elevation model. Significant relationships between species presence, sampling effort and species richness were then analysed in relation to topographical variables and to an existing vegetation map. Report-based rarefaction techniques were used to compare areas having different numbers of species recorded. Overall, the analysis shows that some areas of the park are richer in species of conservation interest than others, and that these have been more intensely investigated. Meanwhile, for other areas, botanical knowledge is scarce or even absent. This has led to clustering and redundancy of floristic data in some areas. The study confirms that the existence of a complete and up-to-date geodatabase creates a valuable resource which enables information gaps to be bridged. Such gaps often exist in biological databases for rare and narrowly distributed species. The wider application of these analyses should also give useful indications of how the incidences of these species of conservation interest are associated with particular environmental variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Common reed Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud. is one of the most widely distributed angiosperms with important ecological functions. In recent decades, it has been affected by a severe decline known as reed die-back syndrome (RDBS), the causal factors of which are still under investigation. Among the biotic factors that influence the dynamic of the reed population, the role of microorganisms is still poorly understood. During surveys carried out on P. australis populations in Central Italy, Claviceps-like sclerotia were detected: is Claviceps infection related to P. australis sexual reproduction and seed production? Could Claviceps infection be involved in the RDBS? These are the questions that we address. We characterized the sclerotia at the morphological, molecular, and chemical level and we demonstrated that they belong to Claviceps arundinis Pažoutová & M. Kolařík. To our knowledge, this is the first report of C. arundinis on P. australis in Italy. Furthermore, the association of C. arundinis with RDBS was evaluated considering a set of macromorphological traits generally related to RDBS, such as P. australis clumping habit, culm height and diameter. No correlation was seen between the occurrence of C. arundinis and the declining status of reed populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The invasion by alien macrophytes in aquatic ecosystems may produce a strong alteration of the native aquatic vegetation leading to heavy impacts for both plant and faunal native diversity. Myriophyllum aquaticum is an aquatic plant native of Southern America, invasive in several part of the world. We studied the effects of M. aquaticum invasion on plant and macro-arthropod communities in the canals around a protected wetland in the Mediterranean basin. We sampled plant and macro-arthropod communities in 10 transects in invaded and non-invaded tracts of the canals. We assessed the differences in plant and macro-arthropod species richness, diversity, taxonomic diversity and species composition between invaded and non-invaded habitats by means of univariate and multivariate analyses. Our study shows a significant loss of plant diversity between non-invaded to invaded sites, leading to communities numerically and taxonomically impoverished and highly divergent in the species composition. We also detected significant differences in arthropod species composition between invaded and non-invaded transects. Some taxa such as mosquitoes and malacostraca were more frequent in the M. aquaticum-dominated stands. Furthermore, the study shows a positive relation between invaded habitats and juvenile individuals of the invasive alien crayfish Procambarus clarkii. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of plant communities for conservation purposes is recognized in their inclusion in the “Habitat Directive” (92/43 EEC), that relates habitat types to plant community syntaxonomic units. However, habitat definitions in the Habitat Directive lead to several inaccuracies in local habitat characterization. Several wetland plant communities (and their corresponding habitats), rare in the Mediterranean basin, are not included in the Habitat Directive. This study proposes criteria for assessing the conservation importance of habitats. It deals with plant community types at the alliance level, as promising units for setting conservation priorities. The principle criteria considered as drivers for setting alliance conservation values are the distribution and abundance of plant species of conservation interest and their fidelity to a plant community. Multivariate methods were used, and a quantitative floristic index of alliance conservation priority was created. This procedure was applied to an important wetland in central Italy. Results emphasize: (i) high conservation values of some alliances not listed in the Habitat Directive, confirming various gaps in the current conservation law affecting Mediterranean wetlands; (ii) that habitats widely distributed in other biogeographical areas, may greatly underestimate their conservation importance in Mediterranean region; (iii) need to consider regional peculiarities when setting conservation priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In Italy, woods dominated byQuercus petraeaare well documented within local and regional phytosociological studies but a critical revision of their principal ecological-floristic components based on a comprehensive Italian data set was missing. We gathered 209 published and unpublished Italian phytosociological relevés, whereQ. petraeawas dominant, that were investigated by means of multivariate analysis. The ecological requirements of the resulting groups were indirectly calculated by means of Ellenberg indicator value, and a chorological analysis was performed. The fidelity coefficient (phi) for the diagnostic species of each group was calculated. According to our analysis, five different types ofQ. petraeawoods were found to be present in Italy. Each group was characterized by means of its floristic, ecological and chorological components. These resulting five groups were further compared with similarQ. petraea-dominated woods recorded in other European locations, as to the floristic and chorological components. We collected 57 synoptic tables ofQ. petraeacommunities coming from all over Europe. This data set, together with the Italian relevés, was submitted to exploratory multivariate analysis using also the chorological information. According to these analyses, the Italian woods dominated byQ. petraeacan be subdivided in two main clusters: the communities belonging to It-1 group (Alps) fell within the central European communities, distinguished by the predominance of large distribution and European chorotypes. All the other Italian groups of relevés resulted to be positioned in the cluster which includes central southern, central eastern and eastern EuropeanQ. petraeacommunities. From the syntaxonomical point of view, the results of this analysis allow to attribute the ItalianQ. petraeawoods to seven alliances of three different orders. The ecological similarities betweenErythronio-Quercion petraeaeandErythronio-Carpinion betuliare highlighted and the distribution ofErythronio-Quercion petraeaeis limited to northern Apennines, in particular, to slopes facing the Po Valley. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim was to compare the protected area (PA) network in Tuscany, Italy, with the areas referenced to different types of potential natural vegetation (PNV), to determine whether they are adequately represented for plant and habitat conservation purposes. For PNV, an existing but slightly updated and modified Italian Vegetation Series (VS) map was used. Each VS type corresponds to vegetation complexes that live under homogeneous environmental conditions and can each be considered an ecological land unit at the working scale employed here. Using GIS techniques, the geographic layers of PAs and VS were processed with spatial intersection to extract and quantify the VS contained within the boundaries of PAs. As a minimum conservation goal, we used the widely accepted 10% target threshold. It was found that, even though Tuscan PAs covered almost 20% of the total land surface, 94% of VS types resulted to be included in PAs with a percentage of at least 10% of their total area. The survey shows that the VS with the higher degree of inclusion in PAs are distributed in the Mediterranean Tuscany (coast and Tuscan Archipelago) and in some inner areas such as Apuan region, northern Apennines, Amiata Mt. and Farma-Merse Valley. Two VS types must be considered under-protected (i.e. contained in an existing PA network with percentages < 10%). We propose a simple GIS procedure based on certain priority assumptions: (a) existing PAs should be enlarged rather than new ones created and (b) their naturalness taken into account. This procedure produces a suitability map useful for identifying the best areas in which a local administration might look for solutions to bridge the gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyse the spatial patterns of sampling effort and species richness of pteridophyte in a well-investigated region as Tuscany, Italy, by using data stored from a geodatabase storing information on the specimens preserved in the main herbaria of the region. A total of 6,905 records about pteridophyte specimens were extracted from the geodatabase, and 5,638 of such specimens were studied through the use of spatial statistical techniques. The data about the sampling effort and species richness were analysed in relation to topographical variables to assess any significant relationship. Specimen-based rarefaction techniques were used to compare areas with different number of detected species. The analysis of the sampling effort data showed a nonhomogeneous distribution of herbarium data, with some areas being intensively sampled and others being almost unsampled. Thus, the geographical distribution of specimens was extremely clustered. The comparison across geographical areas through specimen-based rarefaction curves showed great differences in species richness and sampling completeness. The analysis of the residuals of species-area relationships evidenced that the distance to water bodies was the only significant topographical variable in controlling species diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The purpose of this work was to compare levels of styrene-7,8-oxide (SO) adducts of albumin (Alb) and hemoglobin (Hb) with those of two urinary metabolites of styrene, mandelic acid (MA) and phenylglyoxylic acid (PGA), among workers exposed to styrene in the reinforced-plastics industry and in unexposed subjects. We also wished to determine whether cigarette smoking influenced adduct levels among these subjects. Methods: A group of 22 male workers was selected on basis of an expectedly high level of exposure to styrene, and a group of 15 controls was selected from hospital blood donors and hospital staff. In the exposed group, MA and PGA were quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis of urine samples collected prior to the work shift. The SO adducts were cleaved from cysteine residues by reaction with Raney nickel to give 1-phenylethanol (1-PE) and 2-phenylethanol (2-PE), which, after derivatization, were measured using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in the negative-chemical-ionization (NCI) mode. Results: The estimated mean levels of MA and MA+PGA were 74 and 159 mg/g creatinine, respectively. Using the levels of urinary metabolites, an average styrene concentration of about 100 mg/m3 in the workplace air was estimated. The mean levels of 2-PE and 1-PE adducts in exposed workers were 2.84 and 0.60 nmol/g Alb and 5.44 and 0.43 nmol/g Hb, respectively. When subjects were stratified by level of urinary metabolites [zero (controls), low-level exposure (MA+PGA ≤159 mg/g creatinine), and high-level exposure (MA+PGA> 159 mg/g creatinine)] and smoking status (smokers versus nonsmokers), a difference in Alb adduct levels was found among the groups (2-PE P=0.002, 1-PE P=0.052). The difference in 2-PE-Alb levels was related to exposure category, to smoking status, and to their interaction. Correlations at or near a 0.05 level of significance were observed among the workers ( n=22) between individual levels of SO-protein adducts and MA+PGA (2-PE Alb, r=0.54, 2-PE Hb, r=0.40). Conclusion: Our data suggest that only exposure to relatively high levels of styrene allows a clear relationship to be detected between styrene exposure and SO adducts, due in part to the effects of cigarette consumption and to the high background levels of these adducts observed in unexposed subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]