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Italy is among the European countries with the greatest plant diversity due to both a great environmental heterogeneity and a long history of man–environment interactions. Trait-based approaches to ecological studies have developed greatly over recent decades worldwide, although several issues concerning the relationships between plant functional traits and the environment still lack sufficient empirical evaluation. To draw insights on the association between plant functional traits and direct and indirect human and natural pressures on the environmental drivers, this article summarizes the existing knowledge on this topic by reviewing the results of studies performed in Italy adopting a functional trait approach on vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens. Although we recorded trait measurements for 1418 taxa, our review highlighted some major gaps in plant traits knowledge: Mediterranean ecosystems are poorly represented; traits related to belowground organs are still overlooked; traits measurements for bryophytes and lichens are lacking. Finally, intraspecific variation has been little studied at community level so far. We conclude by highlighting the need for approaches evaluating trait–environment relationship at large spatial and temporal scales and the need of a more effective contribution to online databases to tie more firmly Italian researchers to international scientific networks on plant traits.

Depensation in a population growth rate, well-known as Allee effect , has dramatic implications for the dynamics and conservation of small or sparse populations, as it can drive low-density populations to extinction when their demographic size is below a critical threshold. Although rarely detected, depensation effects are believed to be common in nature. Here we present experimental evidence for Allee effect in one Mediterranean endemic plant: Anchusa sardoa . Depensation in the population growth rate is demonstrated through a density-based approach by showing the fingerprinting relationship which ties the population density to its per capita growth rate ( pgr ) during specific stages of the plant life-cycle. The pgr –density plots derived from observational data qualitatively compare with a general 2nd order polynomial function which features one of the peculiar trends underlying an Allee mechanism. We found strong evidence for depensation in the seedling and sapling classes, whereas no-depensation effect could be clearly observed in the adult classes. We also point out a characteristic demographic structure of A. sardoa (i.e. number of juveniles > number of adults) which reflects a not common life strategy with respect to Mediterranean endemic plants. By combining dynamical and demographic information, the results of this study suggest a possible scenario by which A. sardoa population could go extinct, and are discussed in the context of the increasing mass tourism in Mediterranean coastal environments.

11 páginas, 1 tabla, 5 figuras. The final publication is available at www.springerlink.com, [EN] The introduction of alien ungulates is a major threat for the survival of endangered plants, especially in island ecosystems. However, very few studies have investigated the potential damage of large herbivores on plant diversity in Mediterranean protected areas. In this study, we describe the population structure and the long-term dynamics of the main populations of the Sardinian narrow endemic Centaurea horrida Bad. (Asteraceae), by means of permanent plots where individual plants were tagged and monitored through 6 years (2004–2009). We monitored this endangered plant at three sites: two were protected areas where introduced and feral ungulates are present, and the other one was a non-protected site without introduced ungulates. We found that adults and saplings were more abundant at the non-protected site. Through matrix models, we also highlighted that the non-protected population showed the highest population growth rate. Finally, by means of an exclusion experiment for ungulates at one protected site, we demonstrated that herbivores had a negative effect on the survival of seedlings and adult plants, and reduced the stochastic population growth rate. An LTRE analysis showed that differences in the survival, especially of adult individuals, had the highest responsibility in explaining the higher population growth rate when herbivores are excluded. Our study constitutes a clear example on how the protection of alien large herbivores can have opposite effects on the conservation of an endangered plant. Some management options are proposed, and the urgent need of manipulative experiments on species-specific interactions between protected plants and alien herbivore species is invoked., This study was supported by the Regione Autonoma della Sardegna, LR 7/2007–PO Sardegna FSE 2007–2013, with the Grant No. CRP2_474 for RF and EF, and no. CRP3_188 for SP. MBG also got support from a Spanish National Park project (OAPN, REF. 430/211). We thank the Ente Foreste della Sardegna, the Parco Nazionale dell’Asinara and the Parco Regionale di Porto Conte for the technical aid received.

Spatial variability in the structure of a population and in the reproductive traits of the narrow endemic coastal plant thorny knapweed (Centaurea horrida; Asteraceae) was estimated. Variations in the distribution of individuals and reproductive effort were described and quantified at the per-site scale (3 sites, less than 30 kilometers apart) for two habitats (cliff face and cliff plateau) to provide a basis for further investigations of the factors affecting C. horrida performance and to provide information necessary for an effective conservation of this species. Centaurea horrida was considerably more abundant at one site, especially in the cliff plateau, in the contribution of adults. Estimates of spatial variance for each life stage at both habitats revealed that, on the cliff plateau, a much greater variability was found at the per-site scale for classes of saplings and adults of middle size, whereas in the cliff face local (among replicates), spatial variance was higher for all comparisons...

Summary The Mediterranean Basin, possessing 4.3% of all plants of the world, is considered one of the biodiversity hotspots at global scale. Several forms of impact on biodiversity are currently taking place in European Mediterranean countries as a result of the abandonment of traditional extensive production systems in areas of particular value for nature conservation. In this study we investigated the effects of the cessation of agro-sylvo-pastoral activities on Centaurea horrida Badaro, a very rare sea-cliff plant, endemic to North-Western Sardinia (Italy) and listed by the IUCN as vulnerable. In a similar way to other cliff species, Centaurea horrida can expand its range when unsuitable surrounding habitats are disturbed. The analysis of aerial photos indicates that about 88.5% of a surface previously occupied by a Centaurea horrida dwarf community was replaced by juniper scrub over a 50-year period. In the juniper scrub Centaurea horrida density is at present 1/5 of that observed in the dwarf community. The spatial distribution of Centaurea horrida individuals was not random but concentrated in open microhabitats, more abundant in the dwarf community than in the juniper scrub. Juveniles were found mainly on bare soil; this being the only microhabitat where seedling emergence may occur. Furthermore, disturbance had a positive effect on the survival rates of saplings. Our data show that Centaurea horrida is a species that is linked to the initial stages of secondary succession, when patches of bare soil are available, but it is non-competitive with the late-succession species of the juniper scrub. Active management practices to maintain Centaurea horrida populations are therefore proposed and discussed.

3 p., 1 fot., Two individuals morphologically intermediate between Centaurea horrida Badarò (1824: 367) and C. filiformis Viviani (1825: 6) were collected by Charles Immanuel Forsyth Major on 26 May 1885 at Tavolara Islet, Italy (FI!): these samples were published by Fiori (1904) and later reported in Arrigoni (1972) as two different hybrids: “C. superfiliformis × horrida Levier” and “C. superhorrida × filiformis Levier”. As annotated on the label by Emile Levier, the material deposited in FI shows that the morphology of the two hybrids is very different and only the one named by Fiori as “C. superfiliformis × horrida Levier” was labelled as C. forsythiana Levier (Fig. 1). This sample is morphologically similar to the individuals of a hybrid population we discovered in the same site in the Tavolara Islet (Timone), on limestone, as reported by Fiori (1904). The hybrid named “C. superhorrida × filiformis Levier” by Fiori (1904) was collected by Forsyth Major in a different site (Bocchetta) on granite, and has never been recollected afterwards. For the matter of this note, this is not a problem since, according to Article H.4.1 of the International Code of Nomenclature (McNeill et al. 2012), all the hybrid variants originated from the same parental species, as far as considered nothotaxa (Art. H.3.1), should bear the same name., This study was supported by the Regione Autonoma della Sardegna, LR 7/2007–PO Sardegna FSE 2007–2013, with the grant no. CRP2 474 for all authors and no. CRP3 188 for SP.