Fine-scale spatial genetic structure and dispersal among Italian smooth newt populations in a rural landscape.

Amphibians are particularly sensitive to habitat loss and fragmentation caused by the intensification and modernization of farming occurring in the second half of the twentieth century in the Mediterranean basin. However, artificial water bodies, associated with traditional husbandry, proved to be important surrogate for amphibian feeding and reproduction. Here, multilocus genotypes were used to investigate the spatial population structure of Lissotriton vulgaris meridionalis and the role of drinking troughs in supporting viable breeding populations within a rural landscape interested by traditional husbandry and agriculture.

Linking agricultural practices to lizard trophic behaviour: An ecological approach.

Among intensive agricultural practices, pesticides, mowing, and heavy agricultural machineries have become an important tool to maximize harvesting and secure animal husbandry. However, they are also cause of agricultural ecosystem decline, often leading to degradation of key micro-habitat features for many species, higher predation risk and lower food availability. We investigated the diet and foraging ecology of the Italian wall lizard in agricultural areas to determine whether different management practices (conventional, organic, and control) can affect (i) the structure of the trophic niche of the species; (ii) prey diversity, the degree of individual specialization, and the overall population feeding strategy; (iii) lizards' health status.

Biological responses in pesticide exposed lizards (Podarcis siculus).

The release of contaminants as herbicides, fungicides and insecticides into the environment has been listed as one of the six major contributors to the global decline of reptiles. Although reptiles may face severe risk from contaminants due to their ecology and physiology, they are currently less studied than other vertebrate groups. In the present work, we investigated if and how different types of field treatment (conventional and organic) affected the health status of Italian wall lizard (Podarcis siculus) individuals in central Italy.

Least speciose among the most speciose: Natural history correlates of monospecific and bispecific genera of Rodentia and Soricomorpha.

Monospecific and bispecific genera are of special concern as they represent unique phylogenetic/evolutionary trajectories within larger clades. In addition, as phylogenetically older taxa are supposed to be exposed to higher rarity and extinction risk, monospecific and bispecific genera may be intrinsically more prone to extinction risks than multispecies genera, although extinction risks also depend on the ecological and biological strategy of the species. Here, the distribution across biogeographical zones and the levels of threat to 2 speciose orders of mammals (monospecific and bispecific genera of Rodentia and Soricomorpha) are investigated in order to highlight major patterns at the worldwide scale.