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Pubblicazioni Scientifiche
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Pubblicazioni per anno
Widespread Crown Defoliation After a Drought and Heat Wave in the Forests of Tuscany (Central Italy) and Their Recovery—A Case Study From Summer 2017
Mostra abstract
An anomalous event of drought and heat occurred in central Italy during the summer of 2017. Based on the SPI (Standardized Precipitation Index) and data from the European Space Agency, this event started in November 2016 and was characterized by a strong reduction of precipitation and soil moisture, especially in lowland areas with Mediterranean climate. The aim of this case report were to describe the impact of this event on representative forest communities in central Italy, to analyze the different responses of deciduous and evergreen tree and shrub species in contrasting environmental conditions and to assess their subsequent capacity of recovery or, if not, mortality. Trees suffered severe impacts consisting of widespread crown defoliation, leaf desiccation, crown dieback and whole tree mortality. Deciduous tree species (Fagus sylvatica, Quercus pubescens, Quercus cerris) shed their leaves during the summer, but apical buds and twigs were preserved. This allowed these species to produce new shoots in the following year (2018) and to restore the canopy closure of the stands. Mediterranean evergreen broadleaves, such as Quercus ilex and Phillyrea latifolia suffered of total or partial crown desiccation with wilting leaves and branch dieback. These species partially resprouted in 2018 from axillary and latent buds. The case presented here is discussed within the wider context of the impacts of climate change on Mediterranean forests. Future research directions should include an effective forest monitoring system that combines terrestrial and remote sensing surveys, ad hoc field climate change experiments and silvicultural trials from the perspective of proactive management for the adaptation of forests to future climatic conditions. © Copyright © 2019 Pollastrini, Puletti, Selvi, Iacopetti and Bussotti.
Monitoring the effects of extreme drought events on forest health by Sentinel-2 imagery
Mostra abstract
Global climate change is expected to result in more frequent and intense drought events, especially during the warm season. In such perspective, it is crucial to assess the forest stands vulnerability to extreme climatic events, such as drought, even for Mediterranean forest tree species, commonly considered resistant to dry spell. To test the capability of multitemporal imagery derived by Sentinel-2 (S2) in detecting the impacts of extreme drought events on forest health assessed as crown dieback, some forest stands in Tuscany (central Italy) were analyzed. Vegetation indices (VIs) and ancillary digital terrain model-derived data have been collected in 118 observational samples distributed along an ecological gradient. VIs detected a reduction of trees of photosynthetic activity in August 2017. S2 data have allowed the observation of the different response strategies of the tree species considered in this study to the extreme climatic event that occurred. The case study presented shows that S2 can be applied for monitoring climate-related processes providing a synthetic overview of forest conditions at regional scale. © 2019 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).
Where are we now with European forest multi-taxon biodiversity and where can we head to?
Burrascano
,
Sabina
,
Chianucci
,
Francesco
,
Trentanovi
,
Giovanni
,
Kepfer-Rojas
,
Sebastian
,
Sitzia
,
Tommaso
,
Tinya
,
Flóra
,
Doerfler
,
Inken
,
Paillet
,
Yoan
,
Nagel
,
Thomas A.
,
Mitić
,
Božena
,
Morillas
,
Lourdes
,
Munzi
,
Silvana
,
Van Der Sluis
,
Theo
,
Alterio
,
Edoardo
,
Balducci
,
Lorenzo
,
de Andrade
,
Rafael Barreto
,
Bouget
,
Christophe
,
Giordani
,
P.
,
Lachat
,
Thibault
,
Matošević
,
Dinka
,
Napoleone
,
Francesca
,
Nascimbene
,
Juri
,
Paniccia
,
Chiara
,
Roth
,
Nicolas
,
Aszalós
,
Réka
,
Brazaitis
,
Gediminas
,
Cutini
,
Andrea
,
D'Andrea
,
Ettore
,
de Smedt
,
Pallieter
,
Heilmann-Clausen
,
Jacob
,
Janssen
,
Philippe
,
Kozák
,
Daniel
,
Mårell
,
Anders
,
Mikoláš
,
Martin
,
Nordén
,
Björn
,
Matula
,
Radim
,
Schall
,
Peter
,
Svoboda
,
Miroslav
,
Ujházyová
,
Mariana
,
Vandekerkhove
,
Kris
,
Wohlwend
,
Michael Rudolf
,
Xystrakis
,
Fotios
,
Aleffi
,
Michele
,
Ammer
,
Christian
,
Archaux
,
Frédéric
,
Asbeck
,
Thomas
,
N Avtzis
,
Dimitrios N.
,
Ayasse
,
Manfred
,
Bagella
,
Simonetta
,
Balestrieri
,
Rosario
,
Barbati
,
Anna
,
Basile
,
Marco
,
Bergamini
,
Ariel
,
Bertini
,
Giada
,
Biscaccianti
,
Alessandro Bruno
,
Boch
,
Steffen
,
Bölöni
,
János
,
Bombi
,
Pierluigi
,
Boscardin
,
Yves
,
Brunialti
,
Giorgio
,
Bruun
,
Hans Henrik
,
Buscot
,
François
,
Byriel
,
David Bille
,
Campagnaro
,
Thomas
,
Campanaro
,
Alessandro
,
Chauvat
,
Matthieu
,
Ciach
,
Michał
,
Čiliak
,
Marek
,
Cistrone
,
Luca
,
Pereira
,
Joaò Manuel Cordeiro
,
Daniel
,
Rolf
,
de Cinti
,
Bruno
,
de Filippo
,
Gabriele
,
Dekoninck
,
Wouter
,
Di Salvatore
,
Umberto
,
Dumas
,
Yann
,
Elek
,
Zoltán
,
Ferretti
,
Fabrizio
,
Fotakis
,
Dimitrios G.
,
Frank
,
Tamás
,
Frey
,
Julian
,
Giancola
,
Carmen
,
Gömöryová
,
Erika
,
Gosselin
,
Marion
,
Gosselin
,
Frédéric
,
Goßner
,
Martin M.
,
Götmark
,
Frank
,
Haeler
,
Elena
,
Hansen
,
Aslak Kappel
,
Hertzog
,
Lionel R.
,
Hofmeister
,
Jeňýk
,
Hošek
,
Jan
,
Johannsen
,
Vivian Kvist
,
Justensen
,
Mathias Just
,
Korboulewsky
,
Nathalie
,
Kovács
,
Bence
,
Lakatos
,
Ferenc
,
Landivar
,
Carlos Miguel
,
Lens
,
Luc
,
Lingua
,
Emanuele
forest biodiversity
biodiversity conservation
forest stand structure
multi-taxon
sustainable management
Mostra abstract
The European biodiversity and forest strategies rely on forest sustainable management (SFM) to conserve forest biodiversity. However, current sustainability assessments hardly account for direct biodiversity indicators. We focused on forest multi-taxon biodiversity to: i) gather and map the existing information; ii) identify knowledge and research gaps; iii) discuss its research potential. We established a research network to fit data on species, standing trees, lying deadwood and sampling unit description from 34 local datasets across 3591 sampling units. A total of 8724 species were represented, with the share of common and rare species varying across taxonomic classes: some included many species with several rare ones (e.g., Insecta); others (e.g., Bryopsida) were represented by few common species. Tree-related structural attributes were sampled in a subset of sampling units (2889; 2356; 2309 and 1388 respectively for diameter, height, deadwood and microhabitats). Overall, multi-taxon studies are biased towards mature forests and may underrepresent the species related to other developmental phases. European forest compositional categories were all represented, but beech forests were over-represented as compared to thermophilous and boreal forests. Most sampling units (94%) were referred to a habitat type of conservation concern. Existing information may support European conservation and SFM strategies in: (i) methodological harmonization and coordinated monitoring; (ii) definition and testing of SFM indicators and thresholds; (iii) data-driven assessment of the effects of environmental and management drivers on multi-taxon forest biological and functional diversity, (iv) multi-scale forest monitoring integrating in-situ and remotely sensed information. © 2023 The Authors