Mediterranean coastal dunes have undergone substantial transformations over the last 70 years due to increasing anthropogenic pressure and environmental change. However, most studies on dune vegetation dynamics have been conducted at local scales, limiting our understanding of long-term plant diversity trends across broader regions. Here, we present the first national-scale assessment of long-term vegetation changes in Italian coastal dunes, based on ReSurveyDunes, a collaborative resurvey initiative. We analysed 519 vegetation plots originally surveyed on average 30 years ago and resampled in 2023-2024 along the entire Italian coastline. We quantified temporal changes in species richness and community composition, with a focus on ecological guilds, and analysed habitat transitions over time across three key dune habitats: upper beach, shifting dunes, and dune grasslands. Species richness increased across all habitats. However, this trend masked a marked decline of habitat-specialist psammophilous species, particularly in early-successional habitats. Upper beach and shifting dunes showed strong reductions in occurrence and cover of diagnostic species, accompanied by increases in ruderal taxa and species typical of more stabilised or inland habitats. These patterns reflect a redistribution of species along the coastal zonation gradient. Accordingly, nearly one-third of plots changed EUNIS habitat type or disappeared, indicating the coexistence of inland-directed succession and stabilisation with localised degradation and habitat loss, especially in foredune habitats. Our results show that apparent increases in species richness can conceal profound compositional and habitat-level changes. This highlights the importance of long-term, large-scale resurveys and of complementing richness-based metrics with compositional and habitat-level indicators when evaluating vegetation changes in dynamic coastal dune ecosystems.

Biological invasions represent a major threat to freshwater ecosystems, yet their long-term spatial and temporal dynamics are often poorly documented. Herbarium data represent a valuable resource to reconstruct invasion patterns. This study aims to use herbarium specimen metadata to reconstruct the invasion histories of six invasive alien aquatic and riparian plant species in Italy, detecting spatial and temporal invasion patterns. We analysed herbarium specimens collected over more than two centuries from national and international collections, using standardized georeferencing procedures and spatial aggregation to reconstruct distribution patterns. Temporal dynamics were assessed using cumulative invasion curves and generalized additive models; spatial patterns were examined using time-sliced distribution maps. We found pronounced heterogeneity among species, ranging from long-established invaders with extensive spread and recent stabilization, to species still in early invasion stages or characterized by fragmented introductions. In several cases, invasion trajectories showed distinct lag, expansion and plateau phases, whereas others displayed limited or discontinuous spread. Northern and central regions were affected earlier than southern areas, reflecting both ecological drivers and sampling biases. These findings demonstrate the value of herbarium data for reconstructing invasion dynamics and highlight their relevance for early detection, risk assessment and management of invasive alien plants in freshwater ecosystems.

Carabid beetles are widely used as bioindicators because they respond rapidly to changes in near-ground microclimate, litter and understory structure, and habitat continuity. In the Classical Karst of the North Adriatic region, forest management is shaped by two concurrent trajectories: the aging of Pinus nigra stands established during late 19th-century afforestation and the recovery of secondary thermophilous broad-leaved forests. Pine plantations, although now old and prone to biotic and abiotic disturbances, have played an important role in shaping present forest ecosystems, and their future is currently debated. To evaluate the effectiveness of pioneer pine plantations in reconstructing forest conditions, we assessed differences in carabid species composition and functional structure between the two forest types using long-term pitfall-trap data collected across multiple sites and years. We quantified taxonomic diversity through richness-based comparisons, rarefaction and additive partitioning, and examined compositional turnover using beta-diversity contribution metrics and ordination with permutation-based testing. Functional structure was evaluated using distance-based functional diversity indices, functional rarefaction based on expected Rao's Q and decomposition of functional alpha-beta-gamma components, and a ternary framework separating dominance, functional diversity and redundancy. Finally, we used indicatororiented analyses (species-level and trait-informed) to identify taxa associated with each forest type. Overall, broad-leaved and pine stands showed limited divergence in mean richness and in conventional functional indices, whereas clearer differences emerged in turnover, site uniqueness and diagnostic species subsets. Functional rarefaction indicated that expected functional diversity may differ even when aggregate indices appear similar. Overall, results support the contribution of black pine stands to the maintenance of forest grounddwelling biodiversity and functional structure in karst forests and suggest that conversion strategies should prioritise continuity of microhabitat conditions and microclimatic buffering rather than assuming that replacement by broad-leaved stands will automatically increase biodiversity.

Trait-based approaches are becoming pivotal in predicting vegetation changes and linking ecosystem structures to functions at varying geographical scales. Moreover, spatially explicit plant functional trait measurements for scarcely sampled species including infraspecific variation could be instrumental to better understand how plant functional traits mediate species’ responses to changing environmental conditions. Here we present a dataset of four functional traits measured at the individual level for 67 plant species native to coastal habitats of Tuscany and Liguria (central-northern Italy) including fore- and back dunes, dune slacks, saltmarshes, rocky cliffs, and anthropized coastal environments. We followed standard protocols to make a total of 698 measurements. For each species, we measured traits including leaf area (LA), specific leaf area (SLA), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), and plant vegetative height (H) from multiple individuals to capture local intraspecific variability. This dataset adds to the valuable resources for studying plant strategies in Mediterranean coastal systems, assessing trait-environment relationships, and modeling plant community dynamics under environmental change. The data set is openly available for non-commercial purposes.

Dataset containing species and trait data used in the manuscript "Multiple environmental filters reduce between-species trait diversity but foster intraspecific variability for specific leaf area". The dataset contains also the R file with the codes used to run the analysis.This dataset is a subset of large published dataset:Chelli, S., Bricca, A., Petruzzellis, F., Tordoni, E., Calvia, G., Acosta, A. T. R., Bacaro, G., Beccari, E., Bernardo, L., Bonari, G., Bolpagni, R., Boscutti, F., Campetella, G., Cancellieri, L., Canullo, R., Carbognani, M., Carboni, M., Carranza, M. L., Castellani, M. B., … Puglielli, G. (2025). Dataset for: ITV-net: a dataset of intraspecific leaf traits data across major Italian habitats [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15642699 For more information see Chelli et al. (2025). Please do not use this reference but the original ones (i.e., Chelli et al., 2025).

This paper presents a novel approach to forest habitat monitoring using robotics and advanced data analysis techniques. We introduce a quadrupedal robot with LiDAR and onboard cameras to collect detailed data about forest structure and composition. The data is then processed using a combination of data analysis techniques and machine learning algorithms to perform a comprehensive dendrometric and floristic survey. Our approach provides an efficient and accurate method for assessing the ecological health of forest ecosystems. This work contributes to the ongoing efforts in habitat conservation and offers a promising tool for future environmental monitoring tasks.

To better monitor and protect fragile and naturally dynamic Mediterranean coastal habitats we need to achieve a better understanding of their spatial extent and communities’ properties by applying methods that allow accurate assessments with a reasonable sampling effort. In this context, available remote sensing data that can capture multiple vegetation features in a standard and replicable way across time and space is pivotal for predictive habitat modelling. Here, we aim at providing relevant information to improve our knowledge on the relationships between plant communities’ features and their spectral properties and commonly employed vegetation indices, that can represent a valuable baseline for a reliable mapping of coastal habitats and their condition. Tuscany coast, central Italy. In this study, we analysed data from 647 vegetation plots covering six different EUNIS habitats located along the coast of Tuscany, central Italy. We assessed plots’ spectral signature and vegetation indices values leveraging freely available Sentinel-2 images. We then compared habitats’ spectral properties to identify significant differences. Finally, we modeled with the multivariate Random Forest algorithm the relationships between habitats’ spectral signature and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) with the community-weighted means (CWMs) of functional traits that we selected based on their connection with the main axis of ecological variation and relationships with salt tolerance, to identify the most relevant phenological characteristics driving habitats remotely sensed spectral properties at a community level. Habitats, except embryonic and shifting dunes, displayed relevant differences in terms of both spectral signature and vegetation indices values. Spectral properties of habitats were mostly related to leaf thickness (LT), leaf density (LD) and percent vegetation cover. The results of this study provide valuable information for coastal habitats mapping and conservation, pivotal in ensuring the provision of ecosystem services, such as coastal protection or CO2 sequestration.

Outdoor mega-events are increasingly promoted in natural and semi-natural settings through claims of sustainability, local economic benefit, and limited ecological disturbance. Yet direct field tests of those claims remain rare. We evaluated the ecological effects of a high-attendance beach concert in a Mediterranean coastal dune system using a paired before-after survey design, with sampling conducted before site closure for event preparation and immediately after reopening following structure removal and cleanup. Vegetation was resurveyed in plots later classified as impacted or non-impacted according to the realized event footprint, and plastic contamination was assessed through paired sampling of microplastics and macroplastics in plot subsets. Impacted plots showed marked structural degradation of dune vegetation, including reduced cover and richness, frequent transition to bare ground, and stronger compositional change than non-impacted plots. Plastic sampling showed that post-event cleanup did not eliminate residual contamination, with the strongest statistical evidence in the microplastic fraction and a weaker but directionally consistent macroplastic increase within impacted plots. Selective habitat avoidance and cleanup therefore did not maintain ecological compatibility; they only confined the most severe damage to the portion of habitat left available for infrastructure. For discretionary recreational events, these findings suggest that the policy focus may need to extend beyond mitigation measures alone and include careful consideration of site selection. In particular, the results raise concerns regarding the environmental compatibility of infrastructure-intensive mega-events in natural or recovering coastal dunes and other disturbance-sensitive habitats where ecological impacts may be reasonably foreseeable.

Observer-related uncertainty can affect vegetation surveys, but its magnitude and ecological consequences remain poorly quantified in forest understories. We assessed observer-expertise-related variation using independent presence–absence records collected by three observer categories differing in botanical experience, calibration history and familiarity with nested permanent plots in six Tuscan forest stands. The design combined three spatial grains (1, 10 and 100 m2), replicated stands within forest type and repeated observations of identical sampling units. We quantified effects on pooled taxon records, stratum-specific floristic record richness, three-observer concordance, pairwise pseudoturnover and species composition. Differences among observer-expertise categories were measurable but strongly context dependent. Effects on record-based richness were statistically significant in only two of eighteen site × grain combinations, indicating limited richness effects rather than a general expert–novice gradient. By contrast, concordance and pseudoturnover revealed broader disagreement in species detection: agreement was highest in beech forests and lower in species-rich, structurally complex oak stands. Plot size altered disagreement, but the direction and magnitude of this effect depended on forest context. PERMANOVA showed that site and plot size explained most compositional variation, whereas observer-expertise-related compositional differences were restricted to oak forests and were primarily site dependent. Thus, observer-expertise variation did not override the main ecological gradients, but it affected field outputs, reduced concordance, inflated apparent turnover and altered some compositional comparisons. Because each expertise category was represented by a single observer team, these effects should be interpreted as observer-expertise-related variation rather than as bias among observers with comparable expertise.

Riverine habitats play a vital ecological role, offering key ecosystem services, regulating hydrology, and supporting high biodiversity, including species and habitats of conservation concern. This study aimed to identify Annex I habitats under the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) within a former protected area along the mid-upper Elsa River (Tuscany, central Italy). From 2021 to 2023, 85 vegetation relevés were collected to classify habitats, map their distribution, and assess major threats. Multivariate analyses revealed 15 Annex I habitats, including 32A0, reported here for the first time in Italy, and three priority habitats (7220*, 91E0*, 91AA*). Habitat 32A0, officially included in Annex I following the accession of Croatia to the EU, shows distinct ecological and structural features compared to habitat 7220*, despite sharing some bryophyte species. While the two often occur in close proximity or form mosaics, habitat 32A0 develops in active waterfalls with constant flow and low carbonate deposition, whereas habitat 7220* forms in slow-dripping areas with high tufa accumulation. The absence of habitat 32A0 from the Italian Habitat Manual underscores the need to revise national habitat classifications to improve identification accuracy and conservation strategies. Our study enhances knowledge of riverine habitats and stresses the importance of adaptive management to safeguard the Elsa River ecosystem. Key actions include continuous monitoring and control of invasive alien species. Incorporating the area into a nearby Special Area of Conservation would strengthen long-term protection in line with the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030.

Aim Do multiple environmental conditions filter plant communities in non-native plantations similarly to the natural forests? Do upper forest layers act as additional filters on understory plant diversity? How do multiple environmental conditions and forest structure affect rewilding?Location Trentino region (Italy).Methods Using a stratified random sampling design approach encompassing different elevations and aspects in non-native old-established black pine plantations of the eastern European Alps, we sampled 55 plots over 6200 km2 in which we collected data on abiotic conditions and species cover for each forest layer (tree, shrub, herb), and forest regeneration (i.e., woody juvenile species). We adopted structural equation models (SEMs) to investigate the causal relationships between multiple environmental conditions and forest layer interactions on alpha and beta plant diversity. Furthermore, we ran redundancy analysis (RDA) to test for the effect of multiple environmental conditions and forest structural parameters on the ecology of the herbaceous communities.Results High- and low-elevation sites had reduced alpha diversity likely because of frost and drought climatic constraints. Shaded conditions due to tree canopy cover directly reduced alpha shrub diversity, and indirectly the herb diversity. Beta diversity of each layer was mainly influenced by slope and elevation. The composition of trees set off a cascading effect, shaping shrub communities and, in turn, the herbaceous and juvenile layers below.Conclusions Non-native old-established plantations close to the native range of black pine showed high diversity coupled with scarce regeneration. Our insights are crucial for understanding the rewilding of old-established plantation forests. Future plantation programs should consider both the multiple spatial scales of the environmental conditions of the sites and the interaction among vegetation layers to achieve effective rewilding.

Surveying vegetation is essential for documenting plant diversity, especially for coastal vegetation that results among the most threatened ecosystems globally. To support conservation and management programs, we developed the SALt-affected vegeTatIon dataset of Tuscany coaStal Habitats (SALTISH). This dataset comprises 734 newly sampled vegetation plots of 4 m 2 (2 m × 2 m) from the Tuscany region in central Italy, including 569 sand dune plots and 165 salt marsh plots, recorded between 2018 and 2023. In total, the dataset contains 4,541 occurrences of vascular plant taxa. Overall, it comprehends 257 vascular plant taxa belonging to 165 genera and 56 families. The Poaceae family is the most diverse, represented by 50 taxa, while the most represented genus is Juncus , with seven species. Species richness within individual plots ranges from one to 55 species, with 622 plots (84%) containing fewer than 10 species. Juniperus macrocarpa emerges as the most frequent and dominant species in the dataset. Helichrysum stoechas , Festuca fasciculata , and Medicago littoralis are present in over 20% of the plots, whereas 157 taxa are recorded in fewer than 1% of plots. The dataset includes noteworthy taxa: four Italian endemics ( Centaurea aplolepa subsp. subciliata , Limonium etruscum , L. multiforme , and Solidago virgaurea subsp. litoralis ), eight taxa listed as threatened in the Italian Red List, and 18 archaeophyte and neophyte alien species. SALTISH provides critical data for monitoring and conserving threatened coastal habitats in Tuscany. This resource will facilitate comparisons of biodiversity status and vegetation changes over time and will aid in identifying habitats harboring rare and endangered plant species.

Background and Aims Climate change, particularly the increased frequency of extreme climatic events, poses significant challenges to the biodiversity and functionality of semi-natural grasslands. However, the response of plant functional traits of grassland communities to climate extremes is still an unresolved issue. Using data from a long-term experiment, we aimed to characterize the functional response of a grassland community to simultaneous long-term effects of grazing and climate extremes.Methods For a 20-year period, we monitored the species composition of grazed and ungrazed grassland plots. We measured functional traits defining the leaf economics spectrum (LES) and the hydraulic safety-efficiency (HSE) trade-offs, and we identified the temporal dynamics of single traits at the community level as well as the changes in functional strategies among grazed and ungrazed communities. Then, we assessed the role of climatic extremes in driving the changes in functional composition.Key Results Grazed plots, in the first few years, were dominated by fast-growing species with more acquisitive strategies compared with ungrazed plots. However, both communities showed a reorganization in functional structure over time, pointing towards a selection of trait combinations favouring more conservative, stress-tolerant strategies. The joint effect of grazing and climate extremes significantly altered the functional composition of the grazed community, leading to a shift from species with grazing-tolerant traits to species with grazing-avoidant, and drought-tolerant, traits.Conclusions We found that grazing pressure generally promoted functional diversity but led to rapid shifts in community composition when combined with prolonged drought events. In contrast, the ungrazed community, dominated by species with conservative resource-use strategies, showed more stable functional richness and divergence, as well as a reduced sensitivity to climatic extremes. These results underscore the importance of carefully evaluating grazing in the context of climate change, particularly to guide restoration and conservation efforts.

Studying historical herbaria is invaluable for botanical research. This work analysed Biagio Bartalini’s Herbarium, a late eighteenth-century multi-taxon collection from Siena and its surroundings (central Italy). We revised taxonomic identifications, updated nomenclature, digitised associated information, created a high-resolution photographic database, and uploaded the dataset on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) portal. The Herbarium includes 676 specimens of 588 species and infraspecific taxa: 567 vascular plants (474 taxa), 77 bryophytes (70 taxa), 29 lichens (27 taxa), one alga, and one fungus. Most of Bartalini’s identifications were confirmed. Originally following Tournefort’s nomenclature, Linnean names were also included in a catalogue. The past flora features many species of conservation concern, such as freshwater, segetal, and red-listed taxa, with few non-native species compared to current floras. Specimens were largely collected in urban and agricultural areas, within the city walls or in their surroundings. The analysis of the collection sites suggests significant environmental changes in the study area across the centuries, particularly habitat loss due to urbanisation. The Herbarium is among the earliest collections documenting regional biodiversity rather than focusing on medicinal plants. This study provides a comprehensive understanding of Bartalini’s Herbarium, making it accessible to modern researchers, with the data now available online and freely accessible through the GBIF portal, and laying the groundwork for future multitemporal floristic studies.

Forests sustain high levels of biodiversity and essential ecosystem services, yet the impact of management practices on below-ground functioning remains difficult to assess. A comprehensive evaluation of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungal diversity is, therefore, required to better understand ecosystem dynamics. This study, conducted within the SelpiBioLife project, examined ECM community structure in two Pinus nigra J.F. Arnold forests in central Italy by integrating above- and below-ground sampling. Across 108 plots, ECM fruiting bodies (EMFb) were recorded during one fruiting season, and 54 soil cores were collected to characterize ECM root tips (EMRt) through morpho-anatomical analyses and ITS sequencing. Species richness and community composition were compared using rarefaction, PERMANOVA, NMDS, Mantel tests, and SIMPER analysis. A total of 70 EMFb species and 54 EMRt morphotypes were identified, displaying significant differences between sites and sampling types. EMFb surveys revealed greater richness, whereas EMRt reached sampling saturation only at one site, suggesting additional hidden diversity. Distinct community patterns were detected in ordination space, and weak correlations emerged between EMFb and EMRt dissimilarities, indicating complementary ecological information. These findings show that single-method monitoring underrepresents ECM diversity. Combined above- and below-ground investigations provide a more accurate basis for evaluating silvicultural impacts and maintaining forest ecosystem resilience.

Mapping habitats on coastal dunes, crucial yet highly vulnerable ecosystems, requires objectivity and repeatability, which are still lacking in the implementation of the Habitats Directive. Although remote sensing offers promising solutions, the effectiveness of distinguishing habitats on coastal dunes from satellite imagery remains uncertain. In this study, we compare crisp and fuzzy classification approaches using WorldView-3 imagery to map coastal dune habitats in two Natural Parks of Tuscany (Italy).Field-collected vegetation data were classified into Annex I habitats of Habitats Directive and EUNIS habitats. Using field data as reference, we performed image classifications with a crisp method (Random Forests) and three fuzzy methods, namely Random Forests, Spectral Angle Mapper and Multiple Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis. Metrics of overall accuracy and Mantel tests were used to compare the results.EUNIS habitats exhibited the best performance in terms of classification accuracy, likely due to the simpler classification system. We observed a great disparity among habitats, with coastal dune scrubs and white dunes generally achieving the highest accuracy. Fuzzy classifications, despite yielding lower overall accuracy than the crisp classification, provided a more realistic representation of vegetation patterns, highlighting the inherent fuzziness of vegetation in coastal dunes. Despite challenges related to image resolution and habitat heterogeneity, combining satellite imagery with field surveys proved valuable for mapping coastal dune habitats, contributing essential data to the conservation of these fragile ecosystems. We provide a novel and effective tool, which will reduce the economic and physical efforts needed for habitat search and sampling in the field.

Over the last decades plant ecology has greatly benefited from open data on functional traits. Nowadays, several national and international trait databases are available, but trait data from Southern European countries are generally missing or underrepresented. In addition, most of the available databases lack detailed trait information at the intraspecific level, an important source of trait variation linked to species potential for adaptation. Data were gathered from 21 Italian research groups. Individual measurements of leaf area (LA) and specific leaf area (SLA) for the most abundant vascular plant species were provided at the plot level using standardised protocols of trait measurement. The ITV-net dataset includes 8,518 records of leaf area (LA) and specific leaf area (SLA) in 1,043 georeferenced plots spanning most of the Italian peninsula and eight EUNIS habitat types. Individual LA and SLA measurements are available for 709 native and alien species (77 families, 353 genera). The ITV-net dataset is freely available in the Zenodo repository and will contribute to expanding research on a largely underrated source of trait variation and on its ecological consequences.

The present data descriptor presents a dataset designed for the detection of plant species in various habitats of the European Union. This dataset is based on images captured using multiple different hardware including quadrupedal robot ANYmal C, referring to ecologically important species to assess the presence and conservation status in Annex I habitats 2110, 2120, 6210*, 8110, 8120, and 9210*. Plant scientists and robotic engineers gathered the data in key Italian protected areas and labeled it using YOLOtxt format. Researchers in vegetation science, habitat monitoring, robotics, machine learning, and biodiversity conservation can access the dataset through Zenodo. The ultimate goal of this collaborative effort was to create a dataset that can be used to train artificial intelligence models to assess parameters that enable robotic habitat monitoring. The availability of this dataset may enhance future studies and conservation initiatives for Annex I habitats inside and outside the Natura 2000 network. The dataset and the methods used to obtain it are fully described, highlighting the significance of interdisciplinary cooperation in habitat monitoring.

European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forests can have a high variability in plant species richness and abundance, from monospecific stands to highly species-rich communities. To understand what causes the low plant diversity observed in some beech forests, we analyzed the drivers of plant community completeness in 155 vegetation plots. Data were collected in mature, closed-canopy beech forests in Tuscany, central Italy. Site-specific species pools were estimated based on species co-occurrences. We used Generalized Least Squares linear modeling to assess the effects of anthropogenic and environmental drivers on the community completeness of whole communities and on the set of specialist species of beech forests. We also tested the response of the total cover of the herb layer to the selected predictors and related both the predictive and response variables to species composition in a Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling ordination. The community completeness of whole communities and that of beech forest specialists were negatively affected by total beech cover and positively influenced by slope. Moreover, the community completeness of whole communities was negatively impacted by elevation and positively influenced by disturbance frequency. The cover of the herb layer decreased with increasing beech cover, elevation, and precipitation. High community completeness and high cover of the herb layer were associated with the presence of thermophilic species of mixed deciduous woods in low-elevation beech forests. Our results suggest that a low plant community completeness and a low cover of the herb layer are mainly due to the competition by beech itself when it forms pure forests in its ecological optimum. Such competition is better exerted at upper elevations and in sites with low slopes, where beech litter accumulation is a limiting factor for understory species. Such evidence suggests that species absence in mature beech forests is mainly due to natural drivers and should therefore not be considered an indicator of ecological degradation of the forest.