Search

Historical Floras are biodiversity-oriented textual sources, which refer to times when scientific methods were far different compared to the present. They are also geographical documents, as the entire work is referred to a focal region explored by certain collectors and following certain principles, since the taxa recorded are usually accompanied by a description of the locality of the observation. Retrospective georeferencing, as well as taxonomic revision, of the records in Historical Floras are, however, very challenging processes, which are usually not taken into account. As a result, very few global overviews of Historical Floras exist to date. In this article we present the analysis of the 7767 floristic records of the late XIX century Flora of the province of Bologna (N-Italy) compiled by Girolamo Cocconi. We processed these records by georeferencing them, whenever possible, to 659 pairs of coordinates and coupling them with the analysis of the collectors involved besides the author, as to provide the spatial and temporal dimension that permits us to further understand the taxonomic information given by the species listed. This allowed us to detect a bias in the exploration of the territory, which depended on accessibility and/or attractivity of the areas for fieldwork and shifted through time as function of the available collaborators who influenced the definition of the floristic pattern of the territory. Finally, we provided a diachronic analysis with the present flora to document the most significant land use changes based on selected floristic target groups.

Identifying areas susceptible to invasion by an alien species is a strategy of prevention. We used national herbaria and global databases to assess the invasion trends of the two aquatic invasive species Ludwigia hexapetala and Ludwigia peploidessubsp. montevidensis in Italy. We defined the invasion status with invasions curves and predicted potentially suitable areas with Species Distribution Models based on WorldClim variables and the human footprint index. Low seasonal variation in temperature and precipitation, temperature ≥ 20 °C in the warmest, driest and wettest periods of the year and precipitation in the coldest period are the bioclimatic factors that most account for the potential distribution of the two species. The human footprint has lower relative importance than bioclimatic variables. All Italian peninsula appears as a suitable bioclimatic environment for the invasion of the two Ludwigia species, except the Alps and the highest peaks in the Apennine. Based on the current distribution of the species in Italy and the mostly densely invaded areas globally, the agricultural land surrounding the current invaded areas and along the Italian coasts is the most vulnerable to the invasion. Considering the trend of the invasion curves, which have been sharply rising for the latest decades, there are reasons to expect that the alien Ludwigia species will continue their expansion, if no timely and effective actions are taken. Informative campaigns, accurate monitoring and prompt management are fundamental preventive tools in areas predicted as vulnerable to invasion by this study.

The importance of collection, storage and exchange of georeferenced vegetation plot-based data has significantly grown in the recent decades, because of the new potentialities offered by ecoinformatics. In this article we introduce the Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna vegetation database (AMS-VegBank; GIVD code EU-IT-021) compiling 17,505 georeferenced vegetation-plot observations within a time span of 90 years. This database includes 337,799 occurrence data of vascular plant species, belonging to many different habitat types. The historical relevance of the presented database is highlighted by the presence of some of the most ancient vegetation-plot observations in Europe (years 1930–1938). The geographic coverage of the database is mostly for Italian territory but it includes also data from other countries. The thematic focuses represented in the database are various, such as small Mediterranean islands, the Dolomite Mountains and the Italian National Parks. The large amount of historical plots available for the country not previously included in existing databases, combined with the constant action to improve the georeferencing of existing data and the addition of new data, highlight the uniqueness of this database. AMS-VegBank represents thus an important tool for studying plant biodiversity within the context of continental and global vegetation plot databases. Taxonomic reference: All plant names reported in this article follow the nomenclature by Pignatti et al. (2017–2019). Abbreviations: EVA = European Vegetation Archive; GIVD = Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases.

Puccinellia fasciculata is a littoral miohalophyte with a Mediterranean-Atlantic distribution, uncommonly found in inland sites. The main Italian inland population is located in the Salse di Nirano Reserve, an area internationally renowned for the phenomenon of mud volcanoes. In this study, molecular markers are used to characterize this population and its possible relationships with the nearest littoral conspecific population. A survey of ISSR markers revealed low levels of genetic diversity (He = 0.081 in the inland population, 0.105 in the littoral one) and a weak genetic differentiation (Gst = 0.24 within the inland population, 0.28 among this and the littoral one). A sequence analysis of three non-coding regions of chloroplast DNA found no genetic differentiation both within the inland population and between the two populations, and revealed a common origin for the two dating back to the middle Holocene. The apparent incongruence between the results from the two approaches may be explained by differences between ISSR and non-coding cpDNA markers in capturing signatures related to gene flow; their integrated information implies a mixed reproductive strategy and a common evolutionary history for the two examined populations. Effective conservation strategies are recommended for the inland population of P. fasciculata and its habitat.

Context: Preserving hydrophyte and wetland plant diversity is among the most critical environmental issues worldwide. The progressive decline and disappearance of these species led to dramatic consequences on functions and services provided by inland aquatic ecosystems. This is especially relevant for lowlands that are usually disturbance-dominated landscapes, mainly by mechanization in agriculture and land use changes. Objectives: In these contexts, it is fundamental to understand the key factors affecting the aquatic and wetland plant richness, focusing on relict aquatic habitats, and overcoming a purely trophic-oriented approach. Methods: To do this, the aquatic and wetland flora of 88 aquatic sites, encompassed in an oversimplified watershed, was explored in terms of the total number of aquatic and wetland plant species, hydrophytes, alien species, and policy species, as well as 18 explanatory variables, including eco-morphological, hydrological, direct human impact, and landscape mosaic drivers. Results: The results emphasize the key role of site area and hydrological connectivity compared to land-use intensity in explaining hydrophyte and wetland plant richness in overexploited landscapes; conversely, site origin was crucial only for alien species, being more abundant in artificial sites. Conclusions: This paper offers a new comprehension of the leading contribution of local drivers in explaining macrophyte patterns, suggesting a relevant influence of habitat dynamics in regulating species establishment and developing. The future challenge will be to actively include artificial and/or altered aquatic ecosystems in hydrophyte and wetland plants conservation programs, not forgetting the risks associated with an increasingly spread of alien species. Graphic Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].

Historical floras, i.e. lists of plant species recorded in a given geographical area, are not usually considered for capturing past landscape features. In this study, we tested the usefulness of the simultaneous use of historical floristic data and a coeval topographic map to evaluate the main features of the past vegetation landscape and the potential of such data in change detection. Our study site was the Monte Fumaiolo area (northern Italy), where historical floristic data were independently recorded by two famous botanists during the 1930s. Past floristic data were then compared with current cartographic and vegetation data. Despite the fact that the two authors explored a comparable area, they significantly differed in the use of toponyms and in the distribution of floristic records among toponyms. This is reflected by a low floristic similarity at the toponym level between the two data sets. Nevertheless, the species classification into ecological categories allowed to highlight how the two authors recorded similar information on the landscape features. However, the use of these floristic data may have some flaws in landscape change detection.

In a chestnut belt in the northern Apennines (Italy), we interviewed current (n = 52) and potential growers from a younger generation (n = 57), to assess what factors are likely to drive their willingness to continue chestnut culture. In 35 cases, local appraisals of chestnut stand disturbances were also contrasted with expert assessments. More than half of current growers were confident about the future of chestnut cultivation. This proportion decreased with grower's age and experienced issues, while slightly increased in presence of multifunctional management and support from family members. Although most growers resulted highly capable of diagnosing problems, expert advice significantly contributed to driving positive perceptions. About half of the younger interviewees also expressed interest in growing chestnut. This proportion was higher for respondents who are exposed to chestnut culture within the family, and who value cultural services above other ecosystem services (ES) of forests. Overall, passion for the activity and attachment to local heritage were the most influential motivation for both categories of respondents. We outline policy actions that may encourage the continuation of chestnut management and, more generally, conservation of cultural landscapes in mountain areas. Possible measures include financial incentives (e.g., payments for ES), tighter integration of traditional and expert knowledge in the production chain, and public recognition of the value of local heritage in land management. Broader support to maintaining services and infrastructure in rural areas, however, will also be a pre-condition.

Urban sprawl is defined as an inefficient urban development often linked to sparse building density over rural areas. Routinely available remote sensing data on land cover are useful to study such phenomena, focus is on large raster maps of Urban Morphological Zones (UMZ) produced by the CORINE Land Cover programme of the European Environmental Agency. We present statistical indices to investigate changes in urban size and morphology between sub-regions within a predefined study area and show their implementation with raster data representing UMZ. Urban size is measured by urban land proportion, while morphology is quantified by Moran’s I spatial correlation index. These two area-proportionately additive measures allow comparisons between urban size and morphology in sub-regions of different size to be performed. An urban sprawl scatterplot displaying Moran’s I vs. urban land proportion is proposed as a tool to compare the urban sprawl level in pre-defined sub-regions with respect to a global average level. This scatterplot allows urban sprawled regions within a map to be identified and also an assessment of whether sprawl is due to augmented urban size or decreased urban compactness. An example of the methods is given for Bologna province, Northern Italy, where the interest is in detecting types of urban sprawl at several spatial scales, i.e. municipalities and unions of municipalities, within the whole province.

The spatial pattern of the altitudinal limit of beech woods in the Northern Apennines and its correlation with the Fagus sylvatica thermal requirements were studied. The study area was the whole northern side of the Northern Apennines (latitude 44° N), including a timberline. The pattern was described on a scale of 1:25,000, using digitized phytosociological vegetation maps. The timberline elevation ranges from 1,200 to 1,825 m a.s.l., with the highest range at 1,525 to 1,725 m and a peak (13%) at 1,600–1,625 m. As suggested by the known beech thermal requirements, the following thermal parameters were considered: mean annual temperature, mean of the coldest month (January), mean of the warmest month (July); days with maximum temperatures >10°C and summer mean (June to September). The values were calculated using data for 1951–2002 from six weather stations. The present upper timberline (1,825 m) corresponds to the following: i) mean annual temperature of 4.5°C; ii) coldest month mean temperature of −2.3°C; iii) summer mean of 11.5°C; iv) warmest month mean temperature of 13°C; v) 139 days with maximum temperatures of 10°C or higher. The mean temperature of the warmest month corresponds to the July mean temperature in maritime mountains, such as the Appalachians and the New Zealand Alps (13°C). The geographical location of the Northern Apennines close to the Mediterranean Sea seems to indicate that such a conclusion is reliable. With reference to the elevation variability of the upper timberline, the multiple regression shows that the annual mean is the best explaining thermal parameter (P

Vengono presentati i risultati di un’analisi diacronica di paesaggio effettuata mediante il confronto fra carte di uso del suolo. L’area di studio e il comune di Rimini e il periodo di indagine (1955- 2003) e significativo dei principali cambiamenti avvenuti nei paesaggi del Mediterraneo negli ultimi 60 anni. Scopo dell’indagine e valutare intensita, pattern e gradiente di tali cambiamenti nonche valutare la perdita di servizi ecosistemici. Nel caso in esame, solo il 29% del paesaggio ha conservato i suoi caratteri iniziali e le trasformazioni sono state particolarmente intense nel periodo 1955-1976. L’analisi diacronica, unitamente alla valutazione dei servizi ecosistemici, puo fornire dati utili per una futura pianificazione sostenibile del territorio in esame