Public perception and acceptance of coypu Myocastor coypus removal in urban areas: influences of age and education.

Monitoring and management of alien coypu (Myocastor coypus) is a key issue in Europe since this species has been included in the EU Invasive Alien Species Regulation 1143/2014. Thus, controlling the population of this rodent is considered as imperative by wildlife managers. Coypu management in urban areas is crucial considering potential conflicts with human activities.

Green-house gas fluxes and soil microbial functional genes abundance in saturated and drained peatlands in South-West Iceland.

The drainage of peatlands followed by land use conversion significantly impacts on the fluxes of green-house gases (GHGs, i.e. CO, CH, and NO) to and from the atmosphere, driven by changes in soil properties and microbial communities.

Citizens' use of public urban green spaces at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy.

Since early 2020, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread rapidly, quickly becoming a global pandemic. To counter the COVID-19 outbreak, national governments have issued different measures and restrictions, forcing citizens to adapt to a whole new lifestyle. These restrictions have impacted on the use of green spaces by citizens owing to many factors: more available free time, increased flexibility in the work environment, and a need to relax in Nature to relieve anxiety and stress.

Aesthetic preferences for deadwood in forest landscape: A case study in Italy.

In the last decades, the structural and functional role of standing dead trees and lying deadwood in forests has been widely recognized by scientific community and forest managers. However, a large amount of deadwood in forests can have negative impacts on recreational forests by reducing the aesthetic value and site attractiveness. The aims of the present study are to investigate whether deadwood in forests is truly perceived negatively by people and whether socio-demographic characteristics influence the respondents' perception.

Decomposition of black pine (Pinus nigra J. F. Arnold) deadwood and its impact on forest soil components.

Deadwood decomposition is a complex and dynamic process with large implications for biogeochemical cycling of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) in forest soil and litter. Moreover, it affects functional and structural diversity of fungal and bacterial communities in these components. Mesocosms with deadwood blocks at progressive decay classes were set in a black pine forest and incubated for 28 months in the field with the aim to assess the impact of deadwood decomposition on i) CO, CH and NO fluxes; ii) C and N pools and allocation among deadwood, litter and soil; iii) the fungal and bacterial structural diversity and activity.

Teamwork makes the dream work: Disentangling cross-taxon congruence across soil biota in black pine plantations.

Soil plays a fundamental role in many ecological processes, throughout a complex network of above- and below-ground interactions. This has aroused increasing interest in the use of correlates for biodiversity assessment and has demonstrated their reliability with respect to proxies based on environmental data alone. Although co-variation of species richness and composition in forests has been discussed in the literature, only a few studies have explored these elements in forest plantations, which are generally thought to be poor in biodiversity, being aimed at timber production.

Perception of forest values in the alpine community of trentino region (Italy).

Values are generally defined as social facts that orientate individual and collective actions, and consequently influence political, economic and social systems. The evaluation of natural resource values is considered an important instrument to support decision making in environmental policy. The forest is an important renewable resource that provides a mix of social, economic and environmental values for society.