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Mediterranean stone pine reforestations are common characteristics of the Italian Tyrrhenian coast, which mostly maintain uniform and monolayered stand structures. However, improving structural diversity is an effective climate change adaptation strategy in forest management. The aim of this study was to implement a methodology which allows distinct reforested areas such as a single green infrastructure to be managed according to the surrounding land use and the characteristics of the forest stands. 240 hectares of Mediterranean stone pine forests located along a 16 km strip of the Lazio coast (Central Italy) were mapped. Twelve attributes describing the pine stands and showing possible constraints for future management decisions were associated to each forest patch. A hierarchical cluster analysis was performed to group the pinewood patches according to their similarity level and five different groups were identified. For each group, different silvicultural methods were proposed to guide the compositional and structural evolution of the stands, in order to make them suitable for providing services required locally and increasing overall diversity at landscape scale. The results of the study highlight how coastal land uses can offer effective inputs to differentiate the management of forest systems and therefore achieve greater variety and resilience in the landscape over time. This approach is particularly useful in the case of very homogeneous stands such as the stone pine reforestations under study.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate clinical, surgical, and genetic data of neonates with anorectal malformation (ARM). Study design: A retrospective observational study was conducted on neonates with ARM as an isolated type (group 1), with ≤2 (group 2), and with ≥3 associated malformations (group 3), born between 2009 and 2020. Distribution of ARM, associated abnormalities and genetic testing were analyzed, and risk factors for adverse outcomes were identified. Results: The 45 ARM cases (36% females) were divided as follows: 13 neonates belonging to group 1 (29%), 8 to group 2 (18%), and 24 to group 3 (53%). Cases were equally distributed over 11years. Krickenbeck anatomy was: without fistula/imperforate anus (18%), perineal fistula (36%), rectourethral fistula (4%), rectovesical fistula (2%), vestibular fistula (4%), cloaca (4%), and rare ARMs (31%). Groups showed differences in anthropometric data, Krickenbeck anatomy, and intensive care burden. Additional major congenital abnormalities were prevalent specific of VATER/VACTERL spectrum (vertebral/anorectal/cardiac/tracheoesophageal/renal/limb defects), but also Hirschsprung disease was found in 3/20 biopsies (15%). The most frequent minor abnormality was a single umbilical artery. In group 3, we identified four de novo microdeletions at 8p23.2, 8q13.3, Xp22.31–p22.2, Xq28, four de novo microduplications at 1p36.32, 6p24.1–p23, 13q14.11, 15q11.2, one microdeletion at 9q33.1 inherited from the affected mother, one microdeletion at 7q35 inherited from the unaffected father, one structurally uncharacterized rearrangement involving 9p23–q34.3. Thus, we attributed the Xq28 deletion with inactivated FAM58A gene in one girl to the X-linked dominant STAR syndrome (toe syndactyly-telecanthus-anogenital/renal malformations). Conclusions: Despite the great physical and social burden on ARM patients and their parents, in the majority of cases, the etiology is largely unknown and attributed to be multifactorial. In females, STAR syndrome should be part of the differential diagnosis. Associated malformations of other organ systems interact in outcome parameters.

Management of recreational forests requires focused actions that give priority to the enjoyment of the users subordinating wood production to that goal. Even silvicultural treatments should be drawn with the main aim of increasing recreational value of forest. This papercritically examines the effects of a thinning performed on a periurban 50 years old calabrian pine stand (Pinus laricio Poiret), that has long been used as green area within the city of Viterbo. Thinning intensity, stem selection,damages caused to the released trees, the resulting effect on stand structure and on vegetation dynamics were assessed using as reference the attributes considered optimal for a recreational forest.

The conifer reforestations established during the last century in many mountainous areas of Central and Southern Italy allowed the restoration of thousands of hectares of degraded bare lands. During the last sixty years many social and environmental functions were added to such forests and now they require a multifunctional management approach. A 100-years old reforestation with black pine (Pinus nigra Arnold) located in a mountain tourist area and within a Natura 2000 site in Central Italy was taken into consideration as a case study. The stands, although even-aged and dense, have a diversified structure as a consequence of localized wind throws and the growth of an underlayer of hardwoods. The traditional, timber production-oriented management based on strip clear cutting has shown to be inapplicable in such a context. Systemic silviculture grasps this challenge as it assumes as fundamental management goal the search for the functional efficiency of the forest ecosystem. In such a perspective silvicultural practices are guided by an adaptive approach, based on trial and error, rather than on so-called normalisation schemes. Starting from the concept that forest is a complex, self-regulating, dynamically changing system,a management trajectory is proposed to foster the gradual succession of the pine stands towards different types of pure and mixed hardwood forest according to site conditions. The basic silvicultural criterion is to reduce gradually the pine cover by thinning and opening of small gaps in order to increase tree age and size diversity. The public incentives necessary to implement this sort of management are justified by the goal of increasing the functionality and resilience of the forest system: both elements can reduce the risk of damages for the forests. This paper aims to provide general considerations on such issues in the form of a commentary discussion with reference to the considered case study. I rimboschimenti di conifere realizzati durante il secolo scorso in molte aree montuose del Centro e Sud Italia hanno permesso il recupero di migliaia di ettari di terreni nudi soggetti a erosione. Negli ultimi 60 anni, in aggiunta a quella protettiva, altre funzioni sociali e ambientali sono state attribuite a tali popolamenti per la cui gestione è ora richiesto un approccio multifunzionale. Come caso di studio è stato preso in considerazione un rimboschimento di 100 anni di pino nero (Pinus nigra Arnold ) situato in una zona turistica in Abruzzo, all’interno di un sito Natura 2000. I popolamenti, sebbene nel complesso puri e omogenei, presentano a tratti struttura diversificata a causa di schianti da vento localizzati e il conseguente sviluppo di uno strato inferiore di latifoglie autoctone in corrispondenza delle aperture della copertura. I tradizionali metodi di pianificazione forestale, orientati alla produzione legnosa e basati sul taglio raso a strisce per favorire la rinnovazione del pino, sono risultati inapplicabili in un tale contesto a causa della scarsa redditività della coltivazione. Viene qui proposto un diverso approccio alla gestione dei rimboschimenti, basato sull’adozione della selvicoltura sistemica, ponendo come obiettivo fondamentale la ricerca dell’efficienza funzionale dell’ecosistema forestale. In questa prospettiva le pratiche selvicolturali sono guidate da un approccio adattativo, basato sul metodo per tentativi ed eliminazione degli errori, piuttosto che sui cosiddetti sistemi di normalizzazione. Partendo dal concetto che il bosco è un sistema complesso, capace di auto-regolazione e in continuo cambiamento, l’articolo propone una traiettoria di gestione in grado di favorire la graduale successione della pineta verso diversi tipi forestali in base alle condizioni micro-stazionali presenti nell’area rimboschita. Il criterio colturale è di ridurre gradualmente la copertura del pino mediante diradamenti e l’apertura di piccole buche per aumentare nel tempo la diversità di specie, età e dimensione degli alberi senza bruschi mutamenti del paesaggio. Gli incentivi pubblici necessari per attuare questo tipo di interventi sono giustificati dall’obiettivo di aumentare la funzionalità e la resilienza del sistema forestale: entrambi gli elementi possono ridurre il rischio di danni per le foreste. Questo lavoro si propone di fornire considerazioni generali su tali questioni nella forma di una discussione con riferimento al caso di studio analizzato.

Estimation and mapping of forest attributes are a fundamental support for forest management planning. This study describes a practical experimentation concerning the use of design-based k-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN) approach to estimate and map selected attributes in the framework of inventories at forest management level. The study area was the Chiarino forest within the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park (central Italy). Aboveground biomass and current annual increment of tree volume were selected as the attributes of interest for the test. Field data were acquired within 28 sample plots selected by stratified random sampling. Satellite data were acquired by a Landsat 5 TM multispectral image. Attributes from field surveys and Landsat image processing were coupled by k-NN to predict the attributes of interest for each pixel of the Landsat image. Achieved results demonstrate the effectiveness of the k-NN approach for statistical estimation, that is compatible with the produced forest attribute raster maps and also proves to be characterized, in the considered study case, by a precision double than that obtained by conventional inventory based on field sample plots only. L'articolo è disponibile sul sito dell'editore www.sisef.it