Gianniantonio Domina

Non‐native flora of Italy: Species distribution and threats

Abstract In this paper, we provide an overview of the distribution and invasive status of non‐native species in the Italian flora across its administrative regions, biogeographic regions and main land use types, and a synthesis of current knowledge on the threats they pose within the country. The information on non‐native plant species collected during the project “A survey of the non‐native Italian flora” was used to compile comprehensive regional and national databases. The number of non‐native species within a given administrative region increases in proportion to its size, resident population density and latitude, reaching the highest values in the intensively cultivated, heavily industrialized and urbanized Po Plain in northern Italy. The number of casual species is positively correlated with the number of yearly visitors in each region and negatively correlated with the proportion of mountainous terrain within the region. If compared with the Continental and Mediterranean biogeographic regions, the Alpine region yields the lowest number of non‐native species and lowest proportion of casual species. The number and density of introduced species is highest in artificial land use types, particularly in urban areas. A negative impact is reported to be exerted by 203 species, most of which are agricultural weeds.

Is legal protection sufficient to ensure plant conservation? The Italian Red List of policy species as a case study

The conservation of species listed in the Bern Convention and European Directive 1992/43/EEC (so-called policy species) is mandatory for European Union (EU) countries. We assessed the conservation status of Italian policy species, based on the IUCN categories and criteria, to evaluate the effectiveness of existing protection measures at the national level. Among the 203 vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens evaluated, 41.9% are categorized as threatened, and one is already extinct, indicating that the protection measures for policy species are inadequate. Our results for the Italian policy species are consistent with those of an assessment at the EU level. Conservation priorities should be established at both the national and regional scales. An effective conservation strategy is needed, and in situ and ex situ actions focused on threatened species should be promoted.

An updated checklist of the vascular flora native to Italy.

Abstract An updated inventory of the native vascular flora of Italy, providing details on the occurrence at regional level, is presented. The checklist includes 8195 taxa (6417 species and 1778 subspecies), distributed in 1092 genera and 152 families; 23 taxa are lycophytes, 108 ferns and fern allies, 30 gymnosperms and 8034 angiosperms. The taxa currently occurring in Italy are 7483, while 568 taxa have not been confirmed in recent times, 99 are doubtfully occurring in the country and 19 are data deficient. Out of the 568 not confirmed taxa, 26 are considered extinct or possibly extinct.

Are Red Lists really useful for plant conservation? The New Red List of the Italian Flora in the perspective of national conservation policies

“The New Red List of the Italian Flora” includes all the Italian policy species and other species of known conservation concerns for a total of 400 taxa, 65% of which are threatened with extinction. The Red List is based on a huge georeferenced data-set useful for conservation purposes.

Conserving plant diversity in Europe: outcomes, criticisms and perspectives of the Habitats Directive application in Italy

Habitat Directive is the core strategy of nature conservation in Europe aiming at halting biodiversity loss. In this study the results of the third Italian assessment regarding the conservation status (CS) of plants listed in the Habitat Directive (Flora of community interest—FCI) was presented. Data was collected from several sources related to plant distribution, population data, habitats and pressures. Following the official European procedure, all parameters were evaluated and combined to give the CS of each taxon in each biogeographical region of presence. A comparison between the recent Italian IUCN and Reporting assessments was performed in order to evaluate the consistency between these two assessments. The official EU checklist comprises 113 Italian plant taxa, 107 of which were examined in this study. Our results showed a critical situation with only 34% of favourable CS, while 50% were unfavourable (40% inadequate plus 10% bad) and 16% unknown, in particular in the Mediterranean bioregion, where the unfavourable assessments reach the 65%. The results of the Report were consistent with those of the IUCN assessment, in which 41.9% of plants were threatened with extinction. This report highlighted some benefits and criticisms at national level, but it may have a wider significance. Although a general advance of knowledge, a great effort is needed to reach the Habitats Directive goals. Despite the limited resources, monitoring activities needs to be improved in order to close information gaps for several plants. A positive outcome was the development of a specific national project funded by the Italian Ministry of Environment, with the ambitious target to set future monitoring activities for FCI and optimize monitoring efforts.

Agricultural landscapes and biodiversity conservation: a case study in Sicily (Italy)

The diversity of life is made up not only of the diversity of plants and animal species, habitats and ecosystems, but also of the diversity of human cultures. These diversities interact with one another in complex ways and express the mutual adaptation between humans and the environment at local level. Sicilian traditional agro-ecosystems, due to the history of the territory and the resulting social and economic context, are configured in a heterogeneous mosaic rich in residual features of environmental value, which enhance the connectivity of the ecological network and support a high proportion of species that are rare or of conservation concern. As a case study we analyzed the characteristics of the cultural and natural landscape of the Madonie Mountains (Sicily), acknowledged as one of the most relevant biodiversity hotspots in the Mediterranean. In a G.I.S. environment, we created a digital naturalness grid map and a floristic map including extensive data collected in field. We measured landscape naturalness degree, using the Naturalness Evaluation Index, and analysed its relationship with plant species distribution. We produce evidence that the cultural processes that shape a traditional landscape can foster an amount of specific richness disproportionate to the area covered. The presence of even limited surfaces with remnant semi-natural vegetation cover, scattered within the agricultural land mosaic, positively affects biodiversity. Therefore, we suggest that environmental management plans and policies aimed at nature and biodiversity conservation should take into account not only natural and semi-natural habitats but also the key role of agro-ecosystems.

Plant invasions on small Mediterranean islands: An overview

Abstract Biological invasions have become one of the main drivers of habitat degradation and a leading cause of biodiversity loss in island ecosystems worldwide. The spread of invasive species poses a particular environmental threat on the islands of the Mediterranean Basin, which are hot spots of biodiversity and contain rare habitats and endemic species, especially on small islands, which are highly vulnerable to biodiversity loss. Following a recent survey, in this paper we aim to provide an overview of the present-day non-native vascular flora of small Mediterranean islands based on a sample of 37 islands located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Italy. By comparing the current data with those gathered during a previous survey conducted in the same study area, we also aim to highlight the main changes that have occurred in non-native plant species diversity, establishment and distribution in recent years and to present a first general overview of the most prominent plant taxa in the island’s introduced flora, focusing on those most responsible for these changes and those that pose the greatest environmental threats. We recorded 203 non-native plant species, 147 of which have established on at least one of the islands investigated. Overall, we detected a sharp increase in the number of species, in their levels of establishment and in the extent of their distribution within the study area in recent years. This may be explained by the intensification of research on plant invasions, as well as to new introduction, escape, establishment and invasion events on the islands in recent decades. The most remarkable plants detected include acacias and succulents, two groups that appear to be emerging very rapidly and to be posing new threats to the conservation of the islands’ natural environment, especially the genus Carpobrotus, whose spread into natural habitats containing rare and endemic taxa is seriously threatening biodiversity on both a local and global scale. On the whole, our results show that the plant invasion phenomenon in the study area has in recent years intensified considerably. As this process seems likely to continue, we should expect more establishment events in the future and the further spread of species that are already present. This is of particular conservation concern on the islands investigated in this survey, which are rich in endemisms, but have been facing deep socio-economic and environmental transformations in these last decades as a consequence of the abandonment of traditional management practices and the development of tourism. Our study thus confirms that plant invasions on Mediterranean islands are a serious environmental problem that threatens biodiversity conservation not only in the Mediterranean biogeographic region, but also on the global scale, and highlights the need to further increase efforts aimed at preventing, controlling or mitigating the effects of plant invasions in island ecosystems.

Bioclimatology and Vegetation Series in Sicily: A Geostatistical Approach

Tackling the Sicilian woody vegetation as a case-study, this work aims to verify the correspondence between Rivas-Martínezs bioclimatic units and the main vegetation series in the Mediterranean region. Following this approach, one macrobioclimate and 25 bioclimatic type belts can be recognized in Sicily. By means of a geostatistical analysis based on WorldClim data sets, cartographic models of the distribution range of each single bioclimatic unit were obtained and combined with vegetation data, in order to develop a new regional spatial framework, integrating climatic and vegetation data. Fidelity of each vegetation unit to a given climatic range was then evaluated as percent distribution of the occupied surface within a given bioclimatic unit, while the predictive power of the WorldClim data sets was tested by using half of the spatial data of the processed vegetation units as independent variables. Our results suggest that: (1) any kind of numerical threshold used to define bioclimatic units is not effective a priori, but only after it has been adjusted to the territory and to the spatial scale used to set the model; (2) bioclimatic indices being an empirical tool, the model can be trained and eventually adjusted when applied to different territories; (3) fidelity of vegetation units to a given bioclimatic unit is highly variable; (4) the mechanistic pitfall that climatophilous vegetation has to be necessarily linked to a single bioclimatic unit should be avoided.

Notes on the genus Orobanche in Italy: 3. Taxa described by A. Bertoloni

Abstract Original material of the 12 taxa described as new by Bertoloni has been examined, and typification of their names is discussed. Lectotypes are designated for 11 of Bertolonis names, one (O. densiflora Bertol.) had been lectotypified before. Orobanche bicolor Bertol. (non C. A. Mey.) belongs to O. cernua L., O. cruenta Bertol. to O. gracilis Sm., O. stricta Moris ex Bertol. to O. schultzii Mutel, O. thyrsoidea Moris ex Bertol to O. rigens Loisel., O. crithmi Bertol. to O. minor Sm., O. vitalbae Bertol. to O. artemisiae-campestris Gaudin, O. fragrantissima Bertol. to O. lutea Baumg., O. laurina Bertol. to O. hederae Duby, O. yuccae Savi f. ex Bertol. to O. hederae Duby (not to O. minor Sm.), O. centaurina Bertol. to O. litorea Guss. (not to O. artemisiae-campestris Gaudin). O. australis Moris ex Bertol., included by Beck in O. canescens C. Presl, is a good species restricted to Sardinia. O. densiflora Bertol. must not, as is customary, be ascribed to Reuter who republished it later.

Taxonomy and conservation of Pancratium maritimum (Amaryllidaceae) and relatives in the Central Mediterranean

Abstract Pancratium maritimum L. (Amaryllidaceae) is a geophyte occurring in the Mediterranean region, from the Black Sea to part of the Atlantic coast. This plant is receiving much attention from the international scientific community due to its value as a bioindicator, the potential industrial value of its chemical compounds, and its use as a commercial ornamental plant. Plant morphometry and sequences of three plastid DNA regions (rbcL, matK, trnH-psbA) were used to assess the phenotypic and genetic variability of this taxon and its closest congeneric species (in particular Pancratium linosae, from the volcanic island of Linosa) in the Central Mediterranean (Sicily, Tunisia and surrounding islands). Pancratium maritimum and P. linosae cannot be distinguished based on morphological and genetic data and should belong to the same taxon. Our results also highlight a diversified gene pool in P. maritimum that is worth preserving. The lectotypes of the names Halmira stellaris, Pancratium angustifolium and Pancratium foetidum are here designated.