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The 4th National Report ex Art. 17 of the 92/43/EEC Directive in Italy (period 2013-2018) will try to fill a number of gaps still affecting the former versions of the Italian Reports, where territorial data were still missing for large parts of the country and the assessment was mostly based on the use of the expert opinion. Similar inconsistencies also emerged in other European countries (State of nature in the EU, EEA 2015). In order to reach this aim, a nationally shared protocol for monitoring the vegetation-based Annex I Habitats is currently under development. The most prominent issues addressed by the ongoing project are: i) fixing standardized, updated and scientifically grounded methodological tools, on the basis of the European guidelines (Evans & Arvela 2011, ETC-BD); ii) providing comparable data at national and European level; iii) harmonizing the territorially fragmented knowledge and iv) supporting nationally standardized measures for the conservation of terrestrial, brackish and freshwater Habitats. Promoted by the Italian Ministry for Environment (MATTM) and coordinated by the environmental agency ISPRA, the development of such a tool is being carried out by the Italian Society for Vegetation Science, with the support of a large team of experts. Open issues, such as the favourable reference values and the optimal thresholds for each considered parameter (range,area, structure and function), have to be dealt with, in a condition of large uncertainty. Due to its centrality in the assessment process, especially the concept of "typical species" should be developed with care, trying to combine the need for synthetic indicators with the great floristic diversity of the Italian Habitats. A clear definition of the parameters is crucial for a correct application of the monitoring protocol, to successfully contribute to the whole process of halting biodiversity loss in Europe.

The 4th National Report ex Art. 17 of the 92/43/EEC Directive in Italy (period 2013-2018) will try to fill a number of gaps still affecting the former versions of the Italian Reports, where territorial data were still missing for large parts of the country and the assessment was mostly based on the use of the expert opinion. Similar inconsistencies also emerged in other European countries (State of nature in the EU, EEA 2015). In order to reach this aim, a nationally shared protocol for monitoring the vegetation-based Annex I Habitats is currently under development. The most prominent issues addressed by the ongoing project are: i) fixing standardized, updated and scientifically grounded methodological tools, on the basis of the European guidelines (Evans & Arvela 2011, ETC-BD); ii) providing comparable data at national and European level; iii) harmonizing the territorially fragmented knowledge and iv) supporting nationally standardized measures for the conservation of terrestrial, brackish and freshwater Habitats. Promoted by the Italian Ministry for Environment (MATTM) and coordinated by the environmental agency ISPRA, the development of such a tool is being carried out by the Italian Society for Vegetation Science, with the support of a large team of experts. Open issues, such as the favourable reference values and the optimal thresholds for each considered parameter (range, area, structure and function), have to be dealt with, in a condition of large uncertainty. Due to its centrality in the assessment process, especially the concept of "typical species" should be developed with care, trying to combine the need for synthetic indicators with the great floristic diversity of the Italian Habitats. A clear definition of the parameters is crucial for a correct application of the monitoring protocol, to successfully contribute to the whole process of halting biodiversity loss in Europe.

The methodological foundations of the recently published Manual for Annex I Habitats monitoring in Italy, edited by the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) with the scientific support of the Italian Society for Vegetation Science (SISV), are here presented, discussed and related to the most consolidated and acknowledged scientific advances in the field of Vegetation science. The proposed methodologies aim at offering simple, yet effective, protocols and procedures towards a harmonized data collection, by way of standardized and shared technical tools, resulting in comparable evaluations of the conservation status of Annex I Habitats. The methodological framework was developed by experts including a large team of members of the SISV. Big efforts were deployed to provide indicators and parameters for biodiversity monitoring able to catch its complexity, yet simple enough to be easily measured. Diagnosis and syntaxonomical correspondences of Habitat types, sampling procedure, plot size, distribution mapping, typical species are among the principal issues here examined through a widely shared scientific discussion. The final product is a comprehensive Manual, which offers practical but scientifically sound methodological tools for an efficient and effective monitoring of Annex I Habitats. The importance of bridging across the science-policy interface is emphasized, in a general will to improve the impact of Vegetation science on conservation policy development in Europe.

A partire dall’entrata in vigore della Direttiva 92/43/EEC, la sorveglianza dello stato di conservazione degli habitat elencati nell’Allegato I ed il relativo monitoraggio periodico a intervalli di sei anni sono diventati un obbligo per tutti i paesi membri dell’UE, in base a quanto previsto negli Articoli 11 e 17. Nel 2011 è stato pubblicato un documento che fornisce le linee guida di riferimento europee per il monitoraggio di habitat e specie (Evans & Arvela 2011). Su questa base metodologica, la Società Italiana di Scienza della Vegetazione (SISV), avvalendosi di un ampio gruppo di soci esperti, ha avviato un dibattito interno su principi, criteri, parametri e strumenti per il monitoraggio degli habitat di Allegato I e dei tipi di vegetazione in essi rappresentati. Il progetto è stato promosso dal Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Tutela del Territorio e del Mare e coordinato dall’Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale, e si trova al momento in una fase prossima alla conclusione. A partire dalla documentazione già prodotta a livello nazionale per gli habitat italiani (Biondi et al., 2009, 2012, 2014; Genovesi et al., 2014), diversi aspetti critici sono stati esaminati attraverso una discussione scientifica ampiamente condivisa. In particolare, sono stati affrontati: gli aspetti legati alla scelta di strumenti adeguati per valutare i parametri area, struttura e funzione, prospettive future; il concetto di "specie tipica"; i metodi di campionamento habitat-specifici appropriati. Il protocollo sviluppato si pone come uno strumento pratico ed efficace, scientificamente valido e in linea con gli standard metodologici internazionali. Il suo utilizzo permetterà una raccolta armonizzata di dati su scala nazionale, rendendo possibile una valutazione comparata dello stato di conservazione di ciascun habitat.

The methodological foundations of the recently published Manual for Annex I Habitats monitoring in Italy, edited by the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) with the scientific support of the Italian Society for Vegetation Science (SISV), are here presented, discussed and related to the most consolidated and acknowledged scientific advances in the field of Vegetation science. The proposed methodologies aim at offering simple, yet effective, protocols and procedures towards a harmonized data collection, by way of standardized and shared technical tools, resulting in comparable evaluations of the conservation status of Annex I Habitats. The methodological framework was developed by experts including a large team of members of the SISV. Big efforts were deployed to provide indicators and parameters for biodiversity monitoring able to catch its complexity, yet simple enough to be easily measured. Diagnosis and syntaxonomical correspondences of Habitat types, sampling procedure, plot size, distribution mapping, typical species are among the principal issues here examined through a widely shared scientific discussion. The final product is a comprehensive Manual, which offers practical but scientifically sound methodological tools for an efficient and effective monitoring of Annex I Habitats. The importance of bridging across the science-policy interface is emphasized, in a general will to improve the impact of Vegetation science on conservation policy development in Europe.

In the framework of the waste circular economy, anaerobic digestion (AD) is a promising treatment option, due to both renewable energy and fertilizer production. Nevertheless, in mesophilic conditions a part of the organic carbon fed is not degraded, reducing the possibility to fully exploit the waste energy potential, and opening the research to advanced processes that can increase AD efficiency. In this study, AD of food waste was investigated in thermophilic conditions. Scope of this work was to evaluate the efficiency of a mild thermal pre-treatment on the solubilisation of complex organics and the digestion enhancement potential in terms of H2 and CH4 conversion rates. Thermal pre-treatment promoted complex organics solubilisation (soluble COD up to +40%) in particular with reference to starch and hemi-cellulose fraction. The high amount of released sugars was rapidly transformed into H2 in the first hours of AD, with high yields (up to 2.6 mol H2/mol glucose) and significant gain with respect to untreated waste. Ultimate methane yield was not affected by the substrate pre-treatment, but the positive impact was shown by the increase in anaerobic biodegradability, and kinetics., Proceedings of the 25th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 12-15 June 2017, Stockholm, Sweden, pp. 926-931

Background The higher cardiovascular variability and the increased prevalence of arrhythmias in patients with obstructive sleep apneas may contribute to their higher rate of fatal events during sleep. In this regard, the use of beta blockers (BB) is debated because they may induce bradyarrhythmias and alter the pattern of heart rate changes induced by apneas. Thus, the aim of our study is to quantify peri‐apneic heart‐rate swings and prevalence of nocturnal bradyarrhythmias in BB‐treated and BB‐naïve patients with obstructive sleep apnea. Methods and Results Our real‐life, retrospective, cohort study analyzed data from patients with obstructive sleep apnea after a basal cardiorespiratory polysomnography. Among 228 eligible participants, we enrolled 78 BB‐treated and 88 BB‐naïve patients excluding those treated with antiarrhythmic drugs or pacemakers, or with uninterpretable ECG traces during polysomnography. In each patient, type and frequency of arrhythmias were identified and peri‐apneic changes of RR intervals were evaluated for each apnea. BB‐treated patients were older and with more comorbidities than BB‐naïve patients, but had similar obstructive sleep apnea severity, similar frequency of arrhythmic episodes, and similar prevalence of bradyarrhythmias. Apnea‐induced heart‐rate swings, unadjusted for age, showed lower RR interval changes in BB‐treated (133.5±63.8 ms) than BB‐naïve patients (171.3±87.7 ms, P =0.01), lower RR interval increases during apneas (58.5±28.5 versus 74.6±40.2 ms, P =0.01), and lower RR interval decreases after apneas (75.0±42.4 versus 96.7±55.5 ms, P Conclusions BB appear to be safe in patients with obstructive sleep apnea because they are not associated with worse episodes of nocturnal bradyarrhythmias and even seem protective in terms of apnea‐induced changes of heart rate.