Ecological features facilitating spread of alien plants along Mediterranean mountain roads.

Unlabelled: Invasive alien species represent a major threat to global biodiversity and the sustenance of ecosystems. Globally, mountain ecosystems have shown a degree of resistance to invasive species due to their distinctive ecological features. However, in recent times, the construction of linear infrastructure, such as roads, might weaken this resistance, especially in the Mediterranean basin region.

Climate regulation processes are linked to the functional composition of plant communities in European forests, shrublands, and grasslands.

Terrestrial ecosystems affect climate by reflecting solar irradiation, evaporative cooling, and carbon sequestration. Yet very little is known about how plant traits affect climate regulation processes (CRPs) in different habitat types. Here, we used linear and random forest models to relate the community-weighted mean and variance values of 19 plant traits (summarized into eight trait axes) to the climate-adjusted proportion of reflected solar irradiation, evapotranspiration, and net primary productivity across 36,630 grid cells at the European extent, classified into 10 types of forest, shrubland, and grassland habitats.

Climate-trait relationships exhibit strong habitat specificity in plant communities across Europe.

Ecological theory predicts close relationships between macroclimate and functional traits. Yet, global climatic gradients correlate only weakly with the trait composition of local plant communities, suggesting that important factors have been ignored. Here, we investigate the consistency of climate-trait relationships for plant communities in European habitats.

Impact of invasive alien plants on native plant communities and Natura 2000 habitats: State of the art, gap analysis and perspectives in Italy.

Invasive alien plants are a major threat to biodiversity and they contribute to the unfavourable conservation status of habitats of interest to the European Community. In order to favour implementation of European Union Regulation no. 1143/2014 on invasive alien species, the Italian Society of Vegetation Science carried out a large survey led by a task force of 49 contributors with expertise in vegetation across all the Italian administrative regions.

SoilTemp: A global database of near-surface temperature.

Current analyses and predictions of spatially explicit patterns and processes in ecology most often rely on climate data interpolated from standardized weather stations. This interpolated climate data represents long-term average thermal conditions at coarse spatial resolutions only. Hence, many climate-forcing factors that operate at fine spatiotemporal resolutions are overlooked.

Functional composition and diversity of leaf traits in subalpine versus alpine vegetation in the Apennines.

Mediterranean high mountain grasslands are shaped by climatic stress and understanding their functional adaptations can contribute to better understanding ecosystems' response to global change. The present work analyses the plant functional traits of high-elevation grasslands growing in Mediterranean limestone mountains to explore, at the community level, the presence of different plant strategies for resource use (conservative vs. acquisitive) and functional diversity syndromes (convergent or divergent).

Not just a sandy beach. The multi-service value of Mediterranean coastal dunes.

Coastal sand dunes are complex transitional systems hosting high levels of biodiversity and providing important benefits to society. In this paper we aimed to evaluate the multi-service nature of ecosystem services (ES) supply in the dunes of the Italian Adriatic coast within Natura 2000 (N2K) sites. We i) identified ES indicators and assessed the supply capacity (Climate regulation, Protection from wind and aerosol, Erosion regulation, Recreation and Tourism and Existence value of biodiversity) of natural dune ecosystems of European conservation concern; ii) upscaled this data to create an inventory of ES supply for all dune N2K sites in the study area; iii) explored the trade-offs among ES; and iv) summarized and spatially compared the overall multi-service value of the N2K sites.

Changes in composition, ecology and structure of high-mountain vegetation: a re-visitation study over 42 years.

High-mountain ecosystems are increasingly threatened by climate change, causing biodiversity loss, habitat degradation and landscape modifications. However, very few detailed studies have focussed on plant biodiversity in the high mountains of the Mediterranean. In this study, we investigated the long-term changes that have occurred in the composition, structure and ecology of high-mountain vegetation in the central Apennines (Majella) over the last 42 years.

Seasonal habitat preference by the flagship species Testudo hermanni: Implications for the conservation of coastal dunes.

In this study, we explored if, how, and when the European Union habitats (EU sensu Habitats Directive 92/43/CEE) are used by the flagship species Testudo hermanni in a well-preserved coastal dune system of the Italian peninsula. Radio telemetry data and fine-scale vegetation habitat mapping were used to address the following questions: (a) is each EU habitat used differentially by Hermann's tortoises? (b) is there any seasonal variation in this utilization pattern? (c) how does each habitat contribute to the ecological requirements of the tortoises? Nine tortoises were fitted with transmitters and monitored for the entire season of activity. The eight EU habitats present in the study area were surveyed and mapped using GIS.

Changes in plant species composition of coastal dune habitats over a 20-year period.

Coastal sandy ecosystems are increasingly being threatened by human pressure, causing loss of biodiversity, habitat degradation and landscape modifications. However, there are still very few detailed studies focussing on compositional changes in coastal dune plant communities over time. In this work, we investigated how coastal dune European Union (EU) habitats (from pioneer annual beach communities to Mediterranean scrubs on the landward fixed dunes) have changed during the last 20 years.

The impact of Acacia saligna invasion on Italian coastal dune EC habitats.

Alien species can represent a threat to several ecosystems because they can alter species relationships and ecosystem function. In Italy, Acacia saligna is a major invader and it forms dense stands in coastal environments. We analyze the impact of A.

Recent plant diversity changes on Europe's mountain summits.

In mountainous regions, climate warming is expected to shift species' ranges to higher altitudes. Evidence for such shifts is still mostly from revisitations of historical sites. We present recent (2001 to 2008) changes in vascular plant species richness observed in a standardized monitoring network across Europe's major mountain ranges.

Ecosystem classification for EU habitat distribution assessment in sandy coastal environments: an application in central Italy.

Many recent developments in coastal science have gone against the demands of European Union legislation. Coastal dune systems which cover small areas of the earth can host a high level of biodiversity. However, human pressure on coastal zones around the world has increased dramatically in the last 50 years.