Ecological characterization of plant community diversity (Prof. Bacaro)

Research Strand:

Terrestrial ecology (Environmental Biology)

Prof. Giovanni Bacaro

Tel: +39 040 558 8803
Fax: +39 040 9828013
Email: gbacaro@units.it

Biosketch

Giovanni Bacaro is Associate Professor in Environmental and Applied Botany (SSD BIO03) at the University of Trieste since 2015. Professor Bacaro has a B.S. degree in Natural Science from the University of Roma “La Sapienza” and a Ph.D. in “Sciences and technologies applied to the environment” from the University of Siena. In 2014 he obtained the official qualifications as Associate Professor in Botany (Code 05/A1), in Ecology (Code 05/C1) and in Arboriculture and Forest Systems (Code 07/B2). In 2017 he obtained the National Scientific Abilitation as Full Professor in Botany (Code 05/A1).

Prof. Giovanni Bacaro was selected by the Ministry of Environment, Land and See during the Italian Presidency of the Council of the EU as one of the Government Delegate participating to the 12th Conference of the Party to the Convention on Biological Diversity (United Nations Environment Programme – CBD, Pyeongchang, Republic of Korea 3-17 October 2014), acting as Advisor and EU coordinator on Synthetic Biology and Invasive Alien Species (IAS) items.

He participated to the following European Funded projects:

EU Interreg Italia-Slovenia “SECAP - Supporto alle politiche energetiche e di adattamento climatico - Podpora energetskim in klimatskim politikam. Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste. Lead Partner: Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia. Total Budget: € 2.940.351,30
EU Interreg Italia-Austria “NO WASTE - "Biodiversità migliorata per uno sfruttamento senza rifiuti delle colture-Verbesserte Biodiversität für abfallfreie wirtschaftliche Verwertung traditioneller Kulturpflanzen”. Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste. ITAT 2022 – NO WASTE. Budget Totale: €417.825,35
Life+ Project “SELPIBIOLIFE -Selvicoltura innovativa per accrescere la biodiversità dei suoli in popolamenti artificiali di pino nero”, University of Siena. LIFE13 BIO/IT/000282.
Life+ Project “CS-MON – Citizen Science Monitoring”, Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste. LIFE13 ENV/IT/842
Life+ Project “Control of invasive alien species to restore threatened habitats in inland wetlands of northern Tuscany” (SOS Tuscan Wetlands). LIFE+11 NAT/IT/
Life+ Project “Restoring SILver-fir FORest” (RESILFOR)”. LIFE08 NAT /IT/000371
European Project FP7 “FIRESENSE: Fire Detection and Management through a Multi-Sensor Network for the Protection of Cultural Heritage Areas from the Risk of Fire and Extreme Weather Conditions, FP7-ENV-2009-1–244088-FIRESENSE”
European Project “BIO_SOS - Biodiversity Multi-SOurce Monitoring System: From Space To Species” FP/-SPA-2010-1-263435
European Project FP7 “EU-BON: Building the European Biodiversity Observation Network” FP7-ENV-2012-two-stage/ENV.2012.6.2-2

His research interests are focused on the determinants of species richness at all spatial scales, from the microcosm to the continent. He has used a variety of methods, including meta-analysis of floristic data, computer simulations, permanent plot data, and field experiments.

Other research topics are represented by:

Assessment, Evaluation and Monitoring of plant diversity in Nature Reserve Networks (Natura 2000)
Design and Analysis of Long-term Ecological Monitoring Studies
Analysis of cost-effective spatial sampling strategies
Development of Biodiversity indicators and metrics
Analysis of spatial and ecological data
Evaluation and interpretation of cross-taxa relationship

He has been awarded with the “Francesca e Luigi Brusarosco” prize by the Italian Ecological Society (Site) in 2009. He is member of the Editorial Board of the journal Diversity, and reviewer for top impact factor scientific journals.

At the University of Trieste he is:

Coordinator of the bachelor degree in Science and Technology for the Environment and the Nature
Member of the scientific board of the PhD program in Environmental Life Sciences
Member of the Didactic Commission for the Degree in Global Change Ecology
Local Coordinator of the Scientific Degree Programme (PLS) in Natural and Environmental Sciences

He is supervisor of one PhD student (Dr. Francesco Liccari) and many bachelor and master students’ thesis.
Professor Bacaro has published more than 80 papers on international scientific journals.
The complete list of his pubblications can be found here:

Google Scholar

ResearchGate

Info

Research

The research unit “Ecology and Diversity of plant communities” coordinated by Professor Giovanni Bacaro is focused on the impact of global changes on plant species. In particular, we are involved in the comprehension of diversity patterns over large areas; how biological invasions are shaping plants communities and cross-taxon relationships. We are also interested in multiple-scale approaches (from local to biogeographical scale) aimed to improve efficiency in sampling strategies. We exist in a time of rapid environmental changes, understanding how plants respond to change is, therefore, crucial to help us to predict impacts of change on natural systems and the human societies that depend on them.

In.Man.A.C.E. - An integrated management to the control of Ailanthus altissima in Central Europe

Ailanthus altissima (Mill.) is considered one of the most problematic invasive plant species in Europe and its detrimental effects on biodiversity and civilisation artefacts (buildings, monuments, archaeological sites) have been extensively described. Although the A. altissima problem afflicts all the countries taking part to the project consortium, an effective framework to respond jointly to this common territorial challenge is missing.

The primary objective of the In.Man.A.C.E. project is to create a transnational policy network for the management of A. altissima in Central Europe. As a project outcome it is expected that environmental policies based on guidelines will be translated into specific actions for the containment of A. altissima in the geographic area considered: these actions will contribute to a sustainable environmental governance.

The main project modus operandi will focus on the participation of stakeholders (from public and private sectors) to technical meetings in order to agree on shared policies and managements activities. Considering that Ministries and local administrations are involved in the project, it is expected that project outcomes will take effect widely at different spatial scales, from local, to national up to the transnational level. Project innovations consist in the harmonization of environmental management concepts and tools to be applied in the management of A. altissima at the transnational level. These achievements will be obtained by sharing good practices and prior experiences in the management of A. altissima between participating countries and all the other subjects participating to the process.

A specific Citizen Science approach will allow participation of citizens to collect data and to discuss program of activities; more important, they will contribute to implement an integrated environmental protection of natural resources by actively contributing to the control of A. altissima spread.

Mechanisms underlying biological invasions in plants communities

Nowadays, it has been widely demonstrated that Invasive Alien Species (hereafter IAS) pose serious threats for worldwide biodiversity; they have strong impacts on ecosystem services and socio-economic sectors in particular in agriculture, fisheries and forestry. In Italy, alien taxa account for 13.4% of the total Italian vascular flora. One of the most exposed environments are coastal dunes habitats. In the last decades, these have experienced heavy loss of biodiversity and habitat simplification. Furthermore, IAS can start competitive exclusion processes carrying the community to a loss of native species (they often host endemism) and to a simplification of the ecosystem. Despite the great power to cope with stresses, these environments have little resilience power since modest disturbs may cause long-term alterations and abrupt change; moreover the response to IAS is not uniform. Therefore, it is crucial to better understand the mechanism underlying these processes.

Thus, the main goals of the study are:

describe the impact of IAS in two coastal Adriatic sites
confront the impact of IAS in different zones of Italy (Adriatic vs Thyrrenian sea)
explore plants diversity (taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic aspects) of invaded vs not invaded communities
compare cross-taxa relationships in natural and invaded communities

A better comprehension of these drivers will enable us for improved predictions of IAS impacts on native plants populations in the light of climate change and biological invasions. These findings may promote the development of better management strategies and focused conservation efforts that should allow these fragile environments to cope with global changes.

Functional traits as a tool to predict invasive potential by alien species in different native communities

Goal: The detrimental effects of invasive plant species on ecosystems are well documented. While much research has focused on discovering ecological influences associated with invasiveness, it remains unclear how these influences interact, causing some introduced exotic species to become invasive threats. A number of recent studies on biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships have suggested that the functional composition is a main driver of ecosystem processes, but so far the relative effects of functional identity (or community-weighted mean traits) and trait variation (or functional diversity) remained mostly untested and the identification of relevant functional traits for different ecosystem processes has largely been ignored. Based on these considerations, general aim of the proposed project is to develop a framework that incorporates the influences of functional traits, propagule pressure, resource competition and spatial scale of interactions. We expect that these ecological influences interact in complex ways, resulting in expected outcomes ranging from inability to establish, to naturalization, to conditional invasion dependent on quantity and spatial distribution of propagules, to unconditional takeover.

Specifically, we aim at proposing a way to predict the likelihood of these four possible outcomes, for a species recently introduced into a given target plant community. Such information could enable conservation biologists as well as nature managers to craft strategies and target remediation efforts more efficiently and effectively in order to help maintain biodiversity in ecological communities.
One of the specific project objectives aims at producing an analysis of territorial differences in the distribution of important alien species and, possibly, to address specific regional needs for its management. The achievement of this objective will be produced by a series of activities aiming at increasing the knowledge on physiological/ecological characteristics of the invasive alien species pool in the investigated area as well as of those factors enhancing/reducing their invasive ability.

Another important project objective will relay with the optimization of sampling parameters for the characterization of functional variability within species and populations: specifically, we will evaluate the level of variation that occur for each single functional trait, aiming at decomposing it in its component due to spatial, genotipic and environmental variation. Once assessed, we will test different sampling protocol aiming at maximizing the collection of such an outlined variation. This step will be very important for ecologists and biologists since we expect to provide general guidelines for the optimization of functional trait assessment in the field. Further developments of this project rely on the analysis of the spectral response of natural plant communities in relation to the spread of invasive alien species: we will test different satellite vegetation indices and, in particular, some of the brand new index of humidity recently proposed in the ecological literature. Aim of this project is also related with the identification of relevant traits and the relative impacts of functional identity of dominant species. Considering the wide range of environmental conditions that will be evaluated (two extremely different natural areas), a project expectation is the development of methodological guidelines to be extended to other than those here considered. Finally, we expect that our modelling framework may contribute to resolve the controversy about mechanisms behind biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships in experimental biodiversity research, providing a tool to identify the relevant components of biodiversity for the maintenance of ecosystem functioning in natural systems.

People

Current group members

Research Assistants

dr. Enrico Tordoni

Email: etordoni@units.it

I have a PhD in plant community ecology. I am particularly interested in how biological invasions influence plant communities both from a taxonomic and a functional point of view, especially in coastal environments and across spatial scales. Besides biological invasion, I am also interested in spatial ecology and biodiversity monitoring techniques.

PhD students

Dr. Francesco Liccari
Email: f.liccari@hotmail.it

I have a master degree in Environmental Biology. I am interested in plants communities and in green infrastructures. In particular, I am focused on understanding and mapping vegetation and GI through GIS software along with other tools to analyze and measure ecosystem services. Currently I am working on development of an integrated approach for the analysis and optimization of Green Infrastructures under a scenario of climate change.

External Collaborators

Daniele Da Re (PhD student)
Email: daniele.dare@uclouvain.be Researchgate

Msc in Environmetal Biology, I am currently a PhD student at the Université catholique de Louvain (BE) and co-supervised by the Université Libre de Bruxelles (BE). I am interested in spatial analysis and spatial modelling applied to biodiversity and epidemiology. I am working on modelling the spatial distribution of livestock at global scale and on the estimation of arthropods’ environmental drivers through Remote Sensing, both for epidemiological purposes.

Dr. Rossella Napolitano
Email: rossellanapolitano@gmail.com

I have a PhD in “Biomonitoring methodologies of environmental changes” and a master degree in Natural Science. I am a GIS and remote sensing expert focused on vegetation studies. Currently, I am working on a project aimed at monitoring birds and bats, and vegetation in the Trieste Harbor, funded by Trieste Port Authority. I’m studying the variation of species composition of urban vegetation in the port area, taking into account the proportion of native vs invasive species.

Publications

The complete list of publications can be found in:

Google Scholar

ResearchGate

Selected papers

1. DA RE, D., Tordoni, E., De Pascalis, F, Negrín-Pérez, Z., Fernández-Palacios, J.M., Arévalo, J.R., Rocchini, D., Medina, F.M., Otto, R., Arlé, E., Bacaro, G. (2020). Invasive fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum (Forssk.) Chiov.) increases its potential area of distribution in Tenerife island under future climatic scenarios. Plant Ecology, in press.

2. D’ANTRACCOLI, M., BACARO, G., TORDONI, E., BEDINI, G., PERUZZI, L. (2020). More species, less effort: designing and comparing sampling strategies to draft optimised floristic inventories. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, in press

3. MARIGNANI, M., LUSSU, M., MURRU, V., BACARO, G., COGONI, A. (2020). Effect of invasive alien species on the co-occurrence patterns of bryophytes and vascular plant species – the case of a Mediterranean disturbed sandy coast. Diversity, 12(4), 160. Open access article

4. TORDONI, E., PETRUZZELLIS, F., NARDINI, A., BACARO, G. (2020). Functional divergence drives invasibility of plant communities at the edges of a resource availability gradient. Diversity, 12(4), 148. Open access article

5. MACCHERINI, S., BACARO, G., TORDONI, E., BERTACCHI, A., CASTAGNINI, P., FOGGI, B., GENNAI, M., MUGNAI, M., SARMATI, S., ANGIOLINI, C. (2020). Enough Is Enough? Searching for the Optimal Sample Size to Monitor European Habitats: A Case Study from Coastal Sand Dunes. Diversity, 12(4), 138. Open access article

6. LANDI, S., TORDONI, E., AMICI, V., BACARO, G., CARBONI, M., FILIBECK, G., SCOPPOLA, A., BAGELLA, S. (2020). Contrasting patterns of native and non-native plants in a network of protected areas across spatial scales. Biodiversity and Conservation, 29: 2035–2053.

7. TORDONI, E., CASOLO, V., BACARO, G., Martini, F., ROSSI, A., BOSCUTTI, F., (2020). Climate and landscape heterogeneity drive spatial pattern of endemic plant diversity within local hotspots in South-Eastern Alps. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, 43: 1255122.

8. CACCIATORI, C., TORDONI, E., PETRUZZELLIS, F., SERGIO, C., GARCIA, C., CHIARUCCI, A., BACARO G. (2020). Drivers of distance-decay in bryophyte assemblages at multiple spatial scales: dispersal limitations or environmental control? Journal of Vegetation Science, 31: 293-306.

9. Bartolucci, F., Domina, G., Ardenghi, N.M.G. , Bacaro, G., Bacchetta, G., Ballarin, F., Banfi, E., Barberis, G., Beccarisi, L., Bernardo, L., Bonari, G., Bonini, F., Brullo, S., Buono, S., Buono, V., Calbi, M., Caldararo, F., Calvia, G., Cancellieri, L., Cannavò, S., Dagnino, D., Esposito, A., Fascetti, S., Filibeck, G., Fiorini, G., Forte, L., Galasso, G., Gestri, G., Gigante, D., Gottschlich, G., Gubellini, L., Hofmann, N., Lastrucci, L., Lonati, M., Lorenz, R., Lunardi, L., Magrini, S., Mainetti, A., Maiorca, G., Mereu, G., Messa Ballarin, R. T., Minuto, L., Mossini, S., Musarella, C.M., Nimis, P.L., Passalacqua, N.G., Peccenini, S., Petriglia, B., Podda, L., Potenza, G., Ravetto Enri, S., Roma-Marzio, F., Rosati, L., Ruggero, A., Spampinato, G., Stinca, A., Tiburtini, M., Tietto, C., Tomaselli, V., Turcato, C., Viciani, D., Wagensommer, R.P., Nepi, C. (2019) Notulae to the Italian native vascular flora: 8. Italian Botanist 8: 95-116.

10. UBONI, C., JUGOVIC, J., TORDONI, E., PIZZUL, E., RISERVATO, E., BACARO, G. (2020). Dragonfly (Odonata) diversity patterns in mixohaline coastal wetlands. Estuaries and Coasts, 43: 375-386.

11. BACARO, G., TORDONI, E., MARTELLOS, S., MACCHERINI, S., MARIGNANI, M., MUGGIA, L., PETRUZZELLIS, F., NAPOLITANO, R., DA RE, D., GUIDI, T., BENESPERI, R., GONNELLI, V., LASTRUCCI, L. (2019). Cross taxon congruence between lichens and vascular plants in a riparian ecosystem. Diversity, 11, 1-22. Open access article

12. RICOTTA, C., ACOSTA, A.T.R., BACARO, G., CARBONI, M., CHIARUCCI, A., ROCCHINI, D., PAVOINE, S. (2019). Rarefaction of Beta Diversity. Ecological Indicators, 107: 1056062.

Notices

We are looking for a master student interested in analysing the alien flora of Trieste and the pathways responsible for alien species spread.
Required skills: basic knowledge in GIS and in geostatistical modelling

Last update: 11-01-2024 - 23:30

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