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Abstract Background Hybrids are expected to show greater phenotypic variation than their parental species, yet how hybrid phenotype expression varies with genetic distances in closely-related parental species remains surprisingly understudied. Here, we investigate pelage and morphometric trait variation in anthropogenic hybrids between four species of Brazilian Callithrix marmosets, a relatively recent primate radiation. Marmoset species are distinguishable by pelage phenotype and morphological specializations for eating tree exudates. In this work, we (1) describe qualitative phenotypic pelage differences between parental species and hybrids; (2) test whether significant quantitative differences exist between parental and hybrid morphometric phenotypes; and (3) determine which hybrid morphometic traits show heterosis, dysgenesis, trangression, or intermediacy relative to the parental trait. We investigated cranial and post-cranial morphometric traits, as most hybrid morphological studies focus on the former instead of the latter. Finally, we estimate mitogenomic distances between marmoset species from previously published data. Results Marmoset hybrid facial and overall body pelage variation reflected novel combinations of coloration and patterns present in parental species. In morphometric traits, C. jacchus and C. penicillata were the most similar, while C. aurita was the most distinct, and C. geoffroyi trait measures fell between these species. Only three traits in C. jacchus x C. penicillata hybrids showed heterosis. We observed heterosis and dysgenesis in several traits of C. penicillata x C. geoffroyi hybrids. Transgressive segregation was observed in hybrids of C. aurita and the other species. These hybrids were also C. aurita-like for a number of traits, including body length. Genetic distance was closest between C. jacchus and C. penicillata and farthest between C. aurita and the other species. Conclusion We attributed significant morphometric differences between marmoset species to variable levels of morphological specialization for exudivory in these species. Our results suggest that intermediate or parental species-like hybrid traits relative to the parental trait values are more likely in crosses between species with relatively lesser genetic distance. More extreme phenotypic variation is more likely in parental species with greater genetic distance, with transgressive traits appearing in hybrids of the most genetically distant parental species. We further suggest that fewer developmental disturbances can be expected in hybrids of more recently diverged parental species, and that future studies of hybrid phenotypic variation should investigate selective pressures on Callithrix cranial and post-cranial morphological traits.

Mammals have evolved to occupy spatial and temporal niches in order to optimize resource utilization and minimize predation risk or competition. Subsequently, niche partitioning may be influenced by phylogenetic associations, which could have substantial consequences for ecosystem structure and function. We use the output from occupancy models based on camera trapping data to construct a tri-partite network describing the environmental and temporal partitioning of activity among twelve sympatric mammals in the Apennine Mountains of central Italy. We further evaluate if there were any effects of phylogenetic associations on the contributions of species to the properties of this spatio-temporal network. The Apennines form a pristine region in central Italy with a relatively intact Mediterranean mammal fauna. The mammal community in our study consisted of species ranging in size from 300 gs to over 200 kg, and included herbivores, omnivores and predators. There was limited structuring of the network describing environmental and temporal niche use. Furthermore, we did not find any phylogenetic signal in species contributions to network structures, and phylogenetic relatedness among species was not associated with their similarities in environmental or spatial niche use. However, animals appeared to have partitioned environmental niches more than temporal ones, suggesting that spatial variation in resource availability may have been more important than temporal avoidance of predation risk or competition in shaping activity within this mammal community. Our study highlights the need to evaluate under which conditions evolutionary history is influencing contemporary ecological processes.

The present paper describes a sampling-event dataset on species belonging to two families of Diptera (Syrphidae and Asilidae) collected between 2012 and 2019 in two Italian beech forests located in the central Apennines. The reference dataset consists of an annotated checklist and has been published on Zenodo. Syrphidae and Asilidae are two widespread and key ecological groups, including predator, pollinator and saproxylic species. Despite their pivotal role in both natural and man-made ecosystems, these families are still poorly known in terms of local distribution and open-access sampling-event data are rare in Italy.This open-access dataset includes 2,295 specimens for a total of 21 Asilidae and 65 Syrphidae species. Information about the collection (e.g. place, date, methods applied, collector) and the identification (e.g. species name, author, taxon ID) of the species is provided. Given the current biodiversity crisis, the publication of checklists, sampling-event data and datasets on insect communities in open-access repositories is highly recommended, as it represents the opportunity to share biodiversity information amongst different stakeholders. Moreover, such data are also a valuable source of information for nature reserve managers responsible for monitoring the conservation status of protected and endangered species and habitats and for evaluating the effects of conservation actions over time.

The global biodiversity decline might conceal complex local and group-specific trends. Here the authors report a quantitative synthesis of longterm biodiversity trends across Europe, showing how, despite overall increase in biodiversity metric and stability in abundance, trends differ between regions, ecosystem types, and taxa.

In this contribution, new data concerning the distribution of native vascular flora in Italy are presented. It includes new records, confirmations, exclusions, and status changes to the Italian administrative regions for taxa in the genera Ajuga, Chamaemelum, Clematis, Convolvulus, Cytisus, Deschampsia, Eleocharis, Epipactis, Euphorbia, Groenlandia, Hedera, Hieracium, Hydrocharis, Jacobaea, Juncus, Klasea, Lagurus, Leersia, Linum, Nerium, Onopordum, Persicaria, Phlomis, Polypogon, Potamogeton, Securigera, Sedum, Soleirolia, Stachys, Umbilicus, Valerianella, and Vinca. Nomenclatural and distribution updates, published elsewhere, and corrigenda are provided as Suppl. material 1.

Since 1986, vegetation monitoring of alpine plant communities has been performed at the Gran Sasso d’Italia LTER site (https://deims.org/c0738b00-854c-418f-8d4f-69b03486e9fd) in the Central Apennines, through phytosociological relevés and abundance and coverage estimation of the vascular flora at fine scale. The monitoring activities for abiotic parameters regard air and soil temperatures, rainfall, snowfall and snow cover persistence. A comparative analysis of changes in species composition, life forms, life strategies and morpho-functional types allowed recognition of dynamical processes (fluctuation and degeneration) and an increase in stress- and drought-tolerant and ruderal species, probably linked to a general process of climate change. A trend of variation forced by increasing drought was recorded in high-mountain plant communities, normally within a dynamic fluctuation process. There has been a 50–80% change in species composition with respect to the total number of species observed over the years. Whereas the total number of species has increased in all communities, in high-mountain mesic grassland 20% of sensitive species have completely disappeared. Early signs of a degeneration process were already discernible after seven years: such signs are more evident in snow-dependent communities, with a quantitative increase in more thermophilic and drought-tolerant species and a parallel decrease in more mesic, cryophilic and competitive species. In particular, the following phenomena have been recorded in high-mountain mesic grassland, in agreement with predicted or observed phenomena in other Alpine or Arctic areas: (a) coverage increase (or appearance) of ruderal and stress- and drought-tolerant species; (b) coverage decrease (or disappearance) of cryophilic, mesic and competitive species. These short-term changes could lead, in the medium- or long-term, to a disgregation process affecting the high elevation plant communities of the Apennines (including the local extinction of most of the cold-adapted species), due to their very low resilience. The phenomena described may be linked to the observed climate change which occurred during the last century (in particular in the last 50 years) in the Apennines, consisting mainly, in the mountains, of a strong reduction in the duration of snow-cover and an increase in mean and minimum annual temperatures.

Climate change, ozone effects on forests as well as the loss of biodiversity are nowadays the top priorities of environmental monitoring programmes in Europe. The first set of twenty Level II PMPs (Permanent Monitoring Plots) of the CONECOFOR programme was installed in 1995. At the moment, the intensive monitoring network includes 31 PMPs. All the plots were framed into the UN/ECE ICP-Forests; since 1998, 10 plots were also included into the UN/ECE ICP-IM as bio-monitoring sites. With the entering into force of EC Regulation Forest Focus, these new priorities found an EU legal basis for co-funding the related pilot projects, developed at trans-national level in the field of forest biodiversity monitoring: ForestBIOTA and BioSoil. In the frame of the EEA programme SEBI2010, a specific qualitative forest indicator has been developed by the Italian Forest Service. The Forest Status Indicator is based on sub-indicators identified and implemented at pan-European and National level, such as tree condition, forest structure, deadwood, plant species composition and naturalness, mostly available at European level and collected according to harmonized methods. In 2004, the Italian Forest Service (CONECOFOR Board) joined the Network of Excellence ALTER-Net. The participation to ALTER-Net gave the opportunity to Italy to become official member of the International Long Term Ecological Research Network (ILTER) in 2006: four LTER-Italy sites include forest environments and 10 research stations (plots) belong to CONECOFOR Level II network. At international level, CONECOFOR is the leader in FutDiv proposal (Future Forest Biodiversity Monitoring in Europe) and an associated beneficiary in the FutMon proposal (Further Development and Implementation of an EU-level Forest Monitoring System), already submitted under the EC Regulation LIFE+.

The 1995-2005 time series obtained from the original set of 20 plots have been recently analysed in the framework of the Integrated and Combined (I&C) evaluation system of the programme. In this paper, results obtained, problems encountered and future perspectives are summarized.

Following EU Regulation no. 1091/94, the Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry Policy (National Forest Service) has since 1995 sponsored the "National Integrated Programme for Forest Ecosystems Monitoring" (CONECOFOR), implemented to study the effects of atmospheric pollution and climate change on forest ecosystems. The Programme also operates within the framework of the Geneva Convention on Trans-boundary air pollution (L.R.T.A.P. U.N.-E.C.E.), ratified by Italy in 1982, and of the Resolutions of the Ministerial Conferences on the protection of forests in Europe (Res. no. 1, Strasbourg, 1990, Res. H4, Helsinki, 1993). The Programme involves the development of the so-called Level I investigations, which have been in progress since 1987 on a European grid made up of 16×16 km2. At present there are in Italy 265 monitoring plots distributed over the whole country, where annual assessments are made of the state of the tree crowns. At selected points within the same square, in 1995/6, pedological investigations were carried out and the chemical content of the leaves analysed. The Level II CONECOFOR Programme is currently based on 28 permanent plots in the framework of the International Co-operative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests; 11 areas are also classed as "biomonitoring sites", in the framework of the International Co-operative Programme on Integrated Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Ecosystems. Nine different researches have since 1996 been in progress in the permanent plots, involving the following analyses: geological and geomorphological (preliminary), vegetation (yearly), crown condition (yearly), chemical content of leaves (every 2 years), soil (every 10 years), variations in tree growth (every 5 years), atmospheric depositions (continuous), meteorological (continuous), atmospheric pollutants (continuous). Since 2000, surveys of soil solution (continuous), tree phenology (continuous) and ozone visible damage (yearly) have been added. Test phases of new surveys (biodiversity, biotic damage, etc.) are planned for 2002/3. The National Forestry Service (CONECOFOR Service) co-ordinates six participating research institutes, each of which is responsible for the analyses and monitoring activities. The permanent plots are selected according to the directive of EU Regulation no. 1091/94 so as to include the major forest ecosystems in Italy, and are distributed over the whole country. Each covers an area of 10-100 ha, within which two sample units of 2,500 m2 are designated. The main dominant species are Fagus sylvatica (10 areas), Picea abies (6), Quercus cerris (5), Quercus ilex (4), Quercus petraea (1) Quercus robur (1) and Abies alba (1). The first six years of the CONECOFOR Programme have resulted in a detailed, organic description of the main forest ecosystems in Italy. Implementation of the programme has meant that we are now in possession of a reasonably complete knowledge of the ecological characteristics of 17 different Italian forest communities ranging from the Alps to Sicily. The assessment and monitoring of forest health represent a key point for environmental policy-makers and for the management of environmental resources in the framework of sustainable development.

Phytosociological knowledge of plant communities and their synecological allocation are the reference basis of the CONECOFOR Programme. Vegetation surveys are performed in all the CONECOFOR plots (28), and have been performed in most of them for 6-7 years, following two fundamental approaches: (1) phytosociological (plant community level) and (2) dynamical (population level). According to a syntaxonomical analysis, 17 plant communities are represented in the CONECOFOR permanent plots, grouped in three classes (Querco-Fagetea, Vaccinio-Piceetea and Quercetea ilicis). Analysis of species richness at community level shows that the total number of vascular species varies between 14 and 81, the lowest values occurring in beech forests and the highest in Turkey oak forests; spruce forests are divided into two groups, the first comprising the secondary type (with high diversity values) and the second comprising the primary type (with relatively low diversity values). Analysis of the main dynamical tendencies show that fluctuation is the commonest ongoing process (occurring mostly in beech and primary spruce forests). Regeneration is also widespread, following the recent general decline of wood exploitation and coppicing, whereas regression and degeneration have been identified only in a few plots. The first vegetation changes seen during the first 6-7 years of investigation are slight and of very low significance. The temporal variation, however, is generally positive, with a fair increase in the number of species. Further assessment is required to evaluate the ongoing trends.

The paper summarises the contents of the present volume devoted to forest research in Italy, within the National Programme for Forest Ecosystem Monitoring (CONECOFOR), part of the Level II forest monitoring, and other linked regional and provincial monitoring activities. The coordination of the project, through a National Focal Centre and a Task Force for the Integrated and Combined Evaluation of results, made up of the foremost Italian experts working in the field, is outlined. No clear signals of strong negative impacts emerge from the papers, although the results of several studies indicate nitrogen and ozone as possible causes of disturbances in a number of plots. The effects of the deposition of acidity are largely buffered by the nature of the soils, while nitrate is leached from the plots where runoff is analysed, indicating N saturation of soils. This paper describes the main activities of the Task Force as regards data validation and elaboration, aimed at providing reliable information leading to sustainable forest management in Italy as well as making a useful contribution to international activities in a Pan-European context.

Proper forest management must take account of and balance many factors; some have direct positive or negative links with human activity (e.g. cultivation, fires), and some are more closely connected with the ecology of the system, such as environmental features and disturbances indirectly caused by anthropogenic activities through atmospheric deposition and pollution. These problems are more marked in a geographically complex country like Italy, which has a variety of environments (Mediterranean, Apennine and Alpine) with distinct differences between them, reflected in the vegetation types. A further characteristic of our country is its high density of population and productive activities, which has resulted in the deforestation of the areas most suited to agriculture and industry, and encouraged the growth of forests which can be exploited by man.