In promoting biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service capacity, landscape connectivity is considered a critical feature to counteract the negative effects of fragmentation. Under a Green ...Infrastructure (GI) perspective, this is especially true in rural and peri-urban areas where a high degree of connectivity may be associated with the enhancement of agriculture multifunctionality and sustainability. With respect to GI planning and connectivity assessment, the role of dispersal traits of tree species is gaining increasing attention. However, little evidence is available on how to select plant species to be primarily favored, as well as on the role of landscape heterogeneity and habitat quality in driving the dispersal success. The present work is aimed at suggesting a methodological approach for addressing these knowledge gaps, at fine scales and for peri-urban agricultural landscapes, by means of a case study in the Metropolitan City of Rome. The study area was stratified into Environmental Units, each supporting a unique type of Potential Natural Vegetation (PNV), and a multi-step procedure was designed for setting priorities aimed at enhancing connectivity. First, GI components were defined based on the selection of the target species to be supported, on a fine scale land cover mapping and on the assessment of land cover type naturalness. Second, the study area was characterized by a Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA) and connectivity was assessed by Number of Components (NC) and functional connectivity metrics. Third, conservation and restoration measures have been prioritized and statistically validated. Notwithstanding the recognized limits, the approach proved to be functional in the considered context and at the adopted level of detail. Therefore, it could give useful methodological hints for the requalification of transitional urban–rural areas and for the achievement of related sustainable development goals in metropolitan regions.
Questions: To what extent have semi-natural grassland plant species composition and functional traits changed during the past five decades? Which are the main directions of change? Which ...environmental, management and landscape factors have determined these changes? Location: Central and southern Apennines of Italy. Methods: In 2013-2014, we used a stratified random sampling design to revisit 132 semi-natural grasslands originally sampled between 1966 and 1992. The exact locations of the historical plots were not available but they were associated with detailed vegetation maps. Plots were divided in 17 groups based on study area and original community type. To assess changes in species composition we ran PERMANOVA and RDA. The extent of change was estimated by comparing each new plot with the quantitative species pool of the corresponding historical group; species composition changes were calculated using Bray-Curtis coefficient, and shifts in functional traits were quantified as differences in community-weighted means. These measures of change were used as response variables in mixed effects models including climate, topography, management and landscape metrics as explanatory variables. Results: The largest changes were related to successional dynamics, which occurred mainly in grasslands developing at low altitude and in the flattest sites where the soil organic horizon was relatively thick. Colonization by shrubs and trees was facilitated by high soil pH and amount of adjacent forests. Also, management factors affected the patterns of shifts in species composition and functional traits: grazing intensity was negatively related to the degree of compositional change as well as to the abundance of woody species, whereas the increase of species associated with frequent grazing disturbance was found at sites with higher values of soil salinity. Conclusions: Apennine semi-natural grasslands have undergone substantial changes in species composition and functional traits during recent decades. Compositional changes mainly indicated successional dynamics, likely following a decrease in grazing intensity, whereas some more accessible grasslands experienced an increase in disturbance-tolerant species. The combination of the re-visitation approach with functional traits allowed us to clarify different directions of changes in species composition, adding information on the ecological processes related to these changes.
•The paper presents a green infrastructure (GI) proposal for the combined improvement of biodiversity and mitigation of air pollution in Rome.•Potential Natural Vegetation (PNV) models guided the ...definition of GI restoration actions.•Plantation of 33 ha of new urban forests and wooded strips, together with almost 15 000 native oak individuals along the road verges, are proposed.•About 300 000 city dwellers could benefit of the expected improvement in air quality.•The proposal represents a pilot case study for supporting the implementation of the EU GI Strategy in Italy.
Target 2 of the European Biodiversity Strategy promotes the maintenance and enhancement of ecosystem services <(ES) as well as the restoration of at least 15% of degraded ecosystems by creating green infrastructure (GI). The purpose of the this research is to present a GI proposal that combines the delivery of regulating services with the restoration and ecological reconnection of urban forests and trees in a densely urbanised context.
The project area covers about 3 000 ha in the urban sector of the metropolitan area of Rome and the GI components consist of 533 ha of areal green spaces and of more than 500 km of road verges. Planned interventions include forest restoration and tree plantations, with a varying service supply according to type and condition of the different components. Potential natural vegetation (PNV) models and dispersal potential of representative forest species, together with structural and functional vegetation models for the enhancement of air pollutants removal, guided the selection of the species to be promoted and of the planting pattern. Environmental benefits of the proposal include more than 30 ha of restored urban forests, about 15 000 planted individuals of native oaks, a sevenfold improvement in ecological connectivity and halved isolation between green spaces. On the other hand, the expected socio-economic benefits include almost 300 000 potential beneficiaries of the improved air quality and avoided costs for damages to human health that range between 40 700 and 130 200 EUR per year.
Notwithstanding their preliminary character, these estimates allowed the proposal to highlight the relationship between GI and public health. Moreover, they showed the economic and social effectiveness of nature-based solutions in comparison with further development of grey infrastructure. These results promote the definition of a national GI strategy in Italy.
This paper presents an original approach for identifying and mapping agricultural landscapes that are highly representative of different biogeographical and natural settings and likely to be ...traditional, at the national scale. In the case study of Italy, we used national land cover data of different dates to examine composition of agricultural types and their persistence over time while we employed national stratifications into ecoregions and potential natural vegetation (PNV) to include environmental representativeness. Implementing the procedure returned 120 landscapes, which are distributed across all ecoregions and 51% of the PNV types. Most landscapes match areas with certified and traditional produce (93%) and relevant potential vegetation (86%), whereas 30% overlap acknowledged historical rural landscapes. These results show that our approach highlights the coevolutionary process between traditional crops and the underlying environmental framework and, therefore, provides an ecologically sound coarse filter for selecting and mapping traditional agricultural landscapes.
A second version of the Ecosystems Map of Italy is presented that updates the one realized for the Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) process. The map represents a renewed ...reference for the implementation of biodiversity-related policies in the country, including the Red List of Ecosystems, Ecosystem Accounting under the UN System of integrated Environmental and Economic Accounts, EU Nature Restoration Law, and, more in general, for the support of planning initiatives aimed at climate change adaptation and recovery of degraded ecosystems in keeping with restoration ecology principles. The mapping approach recalled the earlier rationale, i.e. that current and potential vegetation are valuable proxies for outlining ecosystems, but basic information on land cover and characterization of types have been updated. Additionally, a detailed description of the mapping procedure is provided that may facilitate replication in time, validation processes and comparison with different maps. The crosswalk between the Italian ecosystem typology and other classification systems, already available for Corine Land Cover and EUNIS habitats, was therefore revised and complemented with respect to the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology. Finally, future perspectives for a regular updating of the map and further improvement of its geometric and thematic detail are sketched.
•An original approach for mapping ecosystems at the national level is presented.•Current and potential vegetation are adopted as valuable ecosystem proxies.•The resulting Italian map is much more ...detailed than available EU-level syntheses.•The map is effectively supporting main BD conservation initiatives in Italy.•It represents the knowledge base for the national Natural Capital Accounting system.
Several international initiatives, including the European Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, promote the identification and mapping of ecosystems as basic tools for the conservation of biodiversity and related services. On coarse scales, the spatial representation of ecosystems is usually based on broad land cover categories that largely overlook important ecological and biogeographic features of the biotic communities they are meant to exemplify. This paper presents a nationwide ecosystem mapping approach that promotes a degree of thematic detail, which is more suited than that found in the continental maps to meeting biodiversity conservation targets in Italy. The approach is based on the rationale that current and potential vegetation cover are valuable proxies for outlining ecosystems. The resulting Ecosystem Map of Italy includes 43 types of forest ecosystems instead of the 5 woodland, forest and other wooded land types recognized at the European level. We outline the expected advantages of this enhanced thematic detail for a number of conservation purposes and highlight how the resulting maps may help to meet biodiversity conservation targets at the national level. In particular, we refer to the assessment of conservation status, the definition of restoration priorities, the planning of green infrastructure and the identification of collapse risks for the ecosystems identified. Comprehensively, the definition, characterization and assessment of ecosystem types represent the carrying structure of the recently launched national system of natural capital accounting.
Urban forests represent key elements of green infrastructure and provide essential ecosystem services in both the ecological and social spheres. Therefore, forestation planning plays a decisive role ...in the sustainable development strategies of metropolitan areas and addresses the challenge of maintaining biodiversity while improving human health and well-being. The aim of this work is to present a methodological approach that can be used to identify priorities in urban forest planning and can provide comprehensive responses to ecological and social needs in any metropolitan context. The approach, which is based on interdisciplinary principles of landscape ecology, ecosystem geography and dynamic plant sociology, has been adopted in the Municipality of Rome (Italy). The first step entails defining an ecological framework for forestation plans by means of the ecological land classification and assessment of landscape conservation status. The second step entails setting forestation priorities according to both ecological and social criteria. The application of the method proved to effectively select limited areas requiring intervention within an extensive metropolitan area. Furthermore, it provided responses to sustainability issues such as long-term maintenance of restored habitats, landscape perspective of planning, greening of urban agriculture, improvement in urban resilience, and cost-effective improvement in ecosystem services provision.
In Europe, the management of semi-natural grasslands is changing steadily in extent and intensity. These changes represent a serious threat to one of the most species-rich habitats in Europe; ...therefore, the related shifts in species composition should be assessed by means of sound scientific.
We describe a new methodology aimed at: (i) quantifying the temporal changes in vascular plant species composition of semi-natural grasslands; (ii) identifying the environmental and management variables that drive patterns of change. Our approach consists of a diachronic analysis based on historical phytosociological data associated with detailed vegetation maps. To describe and test our methodology, in 2013 we re-visited 24 historical plots of Bromus erectus grasslands that were first sampled in 1982. To designate the new sampling sites, we combined the topographic and typological information available for the historical plots with the spatial information of the associated map. The degree of change in species composition was calculated through ordination techniques; multivariate distances were used in a regression analysis to identify the environmental variables responsible for patterns of compositional change. Our worked example demonstrated that species composition has changed significantly in the last 30 years, with patterns that have been substantially influenced by topography and landscape structure.
Gospodarjenje s pol naravnimi travišči se v Evropi spreminja po obsegu in po intenzivnosti. Spremembe predstavljajo resno grožnjo enim vrstno najbolj bogatih habitatov v Evropi, zato je potrebno ocenjevati spremembe v vrstni sestavi z znanstveno metodo. Opisujemo novo metodologijo, ki stremi h (i) kvantifikaciji časovnih sprememb v vrstni sestavi pol naravnih travišč ter (ii) opredelitvi dejavnikov okolja in gospodarjenja, ki vodijo v spremembe. Naš pristop temelji na diakronični analizi historičnih fitocenoloških podatkov v povezavi z natančnimi vegetacijskimi kartami. Za opis in preverjanje metodologije smo leta 2013 ponovno obiskali 24 starejših ploskev travišč z vrsto Bromus erectus, mi smo jih prvič vzorčili leta 1982. Za izbiro novih vzorčnih mest smo kombinirali topografske in tipološke informacije, ki so na voljo za starejše ploskve, s prostorskimi informacijami na povezani karti. Stopnjo sprememb vrstne sestave smo izračunali z ordinacijskimi metodami; uporabili smo multivariatne razdalje v regresijski analizi za opredelitev okoljskih dejavnikov odgovornih za vzorec sprememb vrstne sestave. Z našim primerom smo pokazali, da se je vrstna sestava v zadnjih 30 letih značilno spremenila, na vzorec sprememb pa sta bistveno vplivala topografija in krajinska sestava.
The conservation of semi-natural habitats represents a primary challenge for European nature conservation due to their great species diversity and their vulnerability to ongoing massive land-use ...changes. As these changes rapidly transform and phase out semi-natural habitats, conservation measures should be prompt and specifically focused on a sound assessment of the degree of conservation. Here we develop a methodological strategy for the assessment of the degree of conservation of semi-natural grasslands based on well-defined criteria rather than on expert opinion. Through mixed effect models, we tested ten potential indicators, encompassing proxies of species composition, habitat structure, and landscape patterns, against a measure of compositional change from habitat favourable condition, i.e., an inverse proxy of conservation status. This measure derives from the re-visitation of 132 sampling units historically sampled between 1966 and 1992 along the Apennines. The compositional change was quantified as the dissimilarity between historical habitat species pools and the composition of current communities. The compositional change was significantly related to the number of habitat diagnostic species and the relative cover of woody species with opposite sign (positive and negative, respectively). We classified and combined the classes of these two indicators in each sampling unit to assess the habitat degree of conservation at the plot and at the Natura 2000 site level. At the plot level, our assessment was in good agreement with the occurrence of species of conservation concern. On the other hand, at the site level, our assessment was not always harmonic with the habitat conservation assessment officially reported for the site investigated.
No prospective study has validated molecular classification to guide adjuvant treatment in endometrial cancer (EC), and not even retrospective data are present for patients with morphological ...low-risk EC. We conducted a retrospective, multicenter, observational study including 370 patients with low-risk endometrioid EC to evaluate the incidence and prognostic role of p53 abnormal expression (p53abn) in this specific subgroup. Among 370 patients, 18 had abnormal expressions of p53 (4.9%). In 13 out of 370 patients (3.6%), recurrences were observed and two were p53abn. When adjusting for median follow-up time, the odds ratio (OR) for recurrence among those with p53abn versus p53 wild type (p53wt) was 5.23-CI 95% 0.98-27.95,
= 0.053. The most common site of recurrence was the vaginal cuff (46.2%). One recurrence occurred within the first year of follow-up, and the patient exhibited p53abn. Both 1-year and 2-year DFS rates were 94.4% and 100% in the p53abn and p53wt groups, respectively. One patient died from the disease and comprised p53wt. No difference in OS was registered between the two groups; the median OS was 21.9 months (16.4-30.1). Larger multicenter studies are needed to tailor the treatment of low-risk EC patients with p53abn. Performing molecular classification on all EC patients might be cost-effective, and despite the limits of our relatively small sample, p53abn patients seem to be at greater risk of recurrence, especially locally and after two years since diagnosis.
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