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.

Abandoned mining sites often act as ecological hotspots, where soil concentrations of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) exceed safe thresholds, posing ongoing risks to ecosystems and causing persistent environmental degradation. Assisted phytoremediation, by combining plants and soil amendments, constitutes a sustainable option for restoring contaminated sites. Accordingly, this study assessed whether the application of biochar (BC; 3% w/w) could promote the establishment of a natural grassland cover in a PTE-contaminated mine soil (i.e. Sb 412 mg kg-1; Cd 51 mg kg-1; Pb 2664 mg kg-1; Zn 7510 mg kg-1). Two further treatments were applied: NPK fertilizer was added to both control-soil and biochar-amended soil. Biochar addition increased soil pH (from 7.5 to 8.1), total organic C (from 1 to 6%) and CEC (from 9.6 to 12.7 cmol(+) kg-1). Labile Cd and Zn decreased by 44 and 40% respectively, versus the control, while the residual fraction of PTEs increased (e.g., Cd +16%, As +76%, Sb +11%). These changes were accompanied by an improved plant cover establishment, particularly for Lotus cytisoides L., whose growth and PTE uptake were assessed after a 28-month period. This species exhibited a strong adaptability across the treatments, reaching 100% relative frequency and up to 59% abundance in soils amended with BC and supplemented with NPK fertilizer. Translocation and bioaccumulation factors for all PTEs indicated predominant root retention in plants grown on BC-amended soils, highlighting phytostabilization as the primary remediation mechanism. Overall, BC-assisted phytoremediation improved soil safety, fertility and plant diversity, underscoring its efficacy for the ecological restoration of abandoned mining sites.

This study presents an interdisciplinary approach to monitoring vulnerable Mediterranean coastal dune habitats by integrating robotic and artificial intelligence technologies into traditional monitoring methods. The unstructured nature of coastal dunes presents a challenge for monitoring activities, leading to expensive and time-consuming actions from the human operators. Our solution uses a quadruped robotic platform, ANYmal C, to navigate unstable, irregular, and rough terrain and to adapt to dune conditions. The effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method are demonstrated through the autonomous replication of monitoring missions, which mirrors the criteria used by human operators to acquire data. The data collected can be used to draw conclusions about the conservation status of the habitats by estimating biomass and vegetation cover, and to train artificial intelligence algorithms to detect target species. When paired with traditional phytosociological surveys performed by botanists, this robotics-assisted protocol not only streamlines field operations but also enhances data acquisition, storage, and usage. This pilot framework demonstrates how legged robots can improve data acquisition efficiency and support human experts in habitat monitoring, increasing the frequency and consistency of field observations while maintaining expert oversight. The result is a proactive and scalable framework for monitoring Mediterranean dune habitats that integrates agile legged robots and artificial intelligence to assist and strengthen traditional ecological monitoring.

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.

In this editorial, we announce the journal’s return to the Scopus database following the change of its name, and we comment on its performance in the first year under the new name Vegetation Ecology and Diversity (VED), including the number and type of papers published, the authors’ nationality, and the turnaround times. Furthermore, we present the Editors’ choice article as well as articles that were both most viewed and most cited. We also present new members of the editorial board, a new permanent collection, and we thank the VED reviewers 2025. Finally, we are pleased to announce that we are seeking a linguistic editor.

Mediterranean wetlands are highly sensitive ecosystems, particularly vulnerable to human pressure and shifts in precipitation and temperature regimes. Wetland plants can be particularly threatened in Mediterranean insular contexts, where such habitats are naturally smaller and more fragmented than in their continental counterparts. This study investigated 275 species of vascular wetland plants that were considered to be at least regionally threatened across 2217 islands and islets in the Mediterranean. We provided both global and local IUCN conservation assessments (summarized in a ‘conservation concern’ index) and ‘assessment completion’ (i.e. knowledge level) for each taxon as well as a geographic distribution among islands, wetland types, and life forms. Most of wetland plants were threatened at the regional level, although assessment completion was generally low, except for endemics. Inland and endemic wetland plants were more threatened than the rest. A phylogenetic signal was detected, highlighting that Orchidaceae and Apiaceae were of particularly high conservation concern, while other families, especially Amaranthaceae, exhibited low levels of assessment completion. No geographical patterns were found in terms of conservation concern and assessment completion. Our findings provide critical insights into biodiversity patterns, identify conservation gaps and priorities and contribute to the development of targeted strategies for the protection of wetland plants, which are crucial indicators of the entire natural capital of Mediterranean island ecosystems.

The full extent of the ecological threat posed by non-native invasive leguminous N-fixing trees to Italian ecosystems has not been thoroughly documented at the national level. This study, conducted by the Working Group on Alien Species of the Italian Botanical Society, aims to develop a comprehensive dataset that provides information on invaded and non-invaded areas, supporting multi-scale ecological analyses on the impact of black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) and different Acacia sensu lato species across Italy. We conducted paired vegetation surveys across 18 distinct invasion contexts, comparing invaded and non-invaded plant communities. These invasion contexts were selected opportunistically by the participating research groups, based on the availability of well-documented sites where the focal species were already established and exerting ecologically relevant effects. Overall, we conducted 342 vegetation surveys across 10 Italian administrative regions and identified 824 plant species. Our surveys highlighted areas affected by five invasive species, including A. dealbata, A. mearnsii, A. saligna, Vachellia karroo, and R. pseudoacacia. Most of the surveys focused on areas invaded by A. saligna. The plant formations investigated fall under 23 EUNIS habitat codes and 10 Natura 2000 habitats. The most frequently occurring vegetation types under the EUNIS code are temperate and Mediterranean-montane scrub, and the most frequently investigated habitat is priority habitat 2250*: Coastal dunes with Juniperus sp. pl. This dataset provides a robust baseline that can facilitate more detailed assessments of the impacts of these invasive species on native ecosystems.

Understanding the drivers of extinction risk is essential for effective conservation planning. Within the Mediterranean Basin, Italy supports high plant diversity, yet the key correlates of extinction risk in its flora remain insufficiently explored. To address this gap, we analysed the most comprehensive dataset currently available for the Italian flowering flora, comprising 472 species with IUCN Red List assessments and standardised geographic and ecological data. Extinction risk was modelled as an ordinal response variable based on IUCN Red List categories, as a function of geographic variables, habitat type, and species traits within a phylogenetic framework. Extinction risk was highest in species with narrow geographic and elevational ranges and in species associated with coastal and wetland habitats. In contrast, species traits related to dispersal, competitive ability, and reproduction showed limited predictive power, suggesting that species with contrasting strategies may experience similar pressures. Extinction risk was also strongly phylogenetically structured, indicating that vulnerability is not randomly distributed across the phylogeny. These findings provide useful indications for future conservation planning and prioritisation by identifying combinations of range restriction and habitat vulnerability associated with extinction risk, while highlighting the need for finer-scale habitat data and datasets covering more species and functional traits.

Autonomous remote-sensing technologies are increasingly contributing to biodiversity monitoring by enabling scalable, repeatable, and minimally invasive data collection. We present a ground-based robotic remote-sensing framework that integrates artificial intelligence and standardized quality assurance to support the derivation of decision-ready ecological indicators. Using European coastal dunes as a case study, we deployed an AI-enabled quadruped robot equipped with near-ground imaging sensors to monitor the host-herbivore interaction between Pancratium maritimum and Brithys crini. In this citizen-to-robot pipeline, expert-verified citizen-science imagery was used to train lightweight detection models for on-board inference and higher-capacity models for offline auditing, ensuring reproducibility and transparency across missions. Field trials demonstrated that the system achieved consistent image quality, accurate detections, and low-disturbance operation under natural conditions, capturing spatially explicit evidence of herbivory and host condition. By coupling standardized protocols with robotic autonomy, this approach implements a proximal remote-sensing layer that complements aerial and satellite observations. The workflow is designed to support transferable quantification of species interactions and habitat condition across sites and seasons, contributing to the integration of robotics and ecological remote sensing for biodiversity assessment and conservation management.

Small Mediterranean islands are biodiversity hotspots hosting many endemic and specialized species but remain highly vulnerable to habitat loss, biological invasions, tourism, and climate change. Coastal dunes are among the most fragile habitats, providing key ecological functions and supporting diverse plant communities. Monitoring long-term vegetation dynamics is therefore essential to detect biodiversity loss, community shifts, and habitat degradation. Resurveys of permanent or quasi-permanent plots offer a robust approach to track such changes. This study analysed six coastal dune sites in La Maddalena Archipelago (Italy), an area of high geomorphological fragility and intense anthropogenic pressure. Vegetation plots sampled in 2011 were resurveyed in 2023 using 1 × 1 m plots along transects. Species were identified, abundance recorded with Braun Blanquet scores, and taxa classified as typical, ruderal, alien, or other. Habitat types were assigned following the Habitats Directive. Temporal changes were evaluated using species richness, Jaccard dissimilarity, rank abundance curves, and alluvial diagrams to quantify diversity trends, turnover, and habitat transitions. Results revealed a marked decline in species richness and widespread losses of typical dune taxa. Community composition shifted substantially, with high turnover and replacement of former dominants. Early successional dunes were most affected, while the site under lower human pressure retained higher diversity. Frequent habitat transitions often produced unvegetated areas, indicating severe degradation. The resurvey showed substantial biodiversity loss, habitat decline, and major shifts in community structure in small insular Mediterranean dunes. These findings highlight the extreme sensitivity of these ecosystems to disturbance and the need for targeted conservation measures.

The study of a country's flora is an open-ended work influenced by environmental changes, advances in taxonomical research, and the development of new data collection methods. In Italy, floristic research has evolved from early botanical records to digital databases allowing real-time updates. This study, conducted within the Italian Botanical Society, aimed at verifying, updating and expanding knowledge on species with uncertain, extinct, or excluded status. Starting in 2021, researchers from all regions of Italy collaborated to review literature, herbarium specimens, and field data. Their efforts culminated in 839 regional-level assessments of 628 taxa, leading to 276 changes in regional status and 25 at the national level. These updates are of great significance for nature conservation efforts by confirming species presence in some regions while verifying extinctions, particularly in fragile aquatic habitats. This research also underscores the importance of botanical collections and historical records to reconstruct the history, dynamics, and current distribution of plant species, and addresses challenges such as limited access to the collections. This study is not only a milestone in Italian floristics but also provides a replicable methodology for updating national floras globally.

The current issue is the first one of the journal Vegetation Ecology and Diversity , formerly Plant Sociology , the international peer-reviewed journal of the Italian Society of Vegetation Science (SISV). Vegetation Ecology and Diversity (VED) publishes original research articles covering all aspects of vegetation, ranging from plant communities to landscapes, including dynamic processes and community ecology. It prioritizes papers that emphasize plant community ecology and vegetation surveys to advance ecological models, interpret and classify vegetation, map ecosystems, assess environmental quality, manage and conserve plant biodiversity, and interpret and monitor European habitats. All the articles are freely available in Open Access (OA). In the present Editorial, we introduce the new journal name, the new Editorial Board and Social Media Team, several Topical Collections, and initiatives to support young researchers.

This contribution presents new data on the distribution of Annex I Habitats in Italy. A total of 10 records are reported, including 6 within Natura 2000 sites and the addition of 15 new cells to the EEA 10 km × 10 km reference grid. The new records refer to the administrative regions of Apulia, Marche, Piedmont, Sardinia, Sicily, Tuscany and Veneto.

The vegetation resurvey is considered a valid approach for assessing how species composition, abundance, and distribution have evolved in response to anthropogenic pressures, climate change, and habitat alterations over recent decades. ReSarDu – Resurvey Sardinian Dunes – is the first regional database compiled from resurveys of coastal dune systems across Sardinia (Italy). It includes 418 resurveys ranging in size from 1 to 400 m2, collected between 2023 and 2025, based on 188 historical phytosociological relevés dating back to the 1970s. ReSarDu has been created to understand long-term vegetation changes in Sardinian coastal dune systems. By integrating historical and newly collected phytosociological data, we provide a comprehensive tool for assessing biodiversity trends and supporting effective conservation and restoration strategies.

In this paper we introduce and study a new mathematical model that describes the interaction between invasive and native plants in competition for resources and space. The first are represented by Carpobrotus sp. pl. while the second by the native coastal area species. Following the terminology used in modeling, we have used the term “population” to refer to the set of plants, i.e. native and alien invasive. Differently than in a classical Lotka–Volterra competition model, here we assume that the invasive species grow following a generalized logistic growth law while the native population a logistic one. Moreover, in the competition term we take into account the fact that the two populations of plant interact in a 3D space and the interaction occurs on the borders of the vegetation patch and/or volume, meaning that both densities will be characterized also by two exponents. A complete mathematical analysis of the proposed model was done by studying also some particular cases of it. The model is characterized by the presence of different equilibrium points such as the trivial equilibrium point, where both populations get extinct, the Carpobrotus-free equilibrium, the native-plant-free equilibrium and the coexistence, where both plant populations coexists. Computational simulations show that different bistability scenarios exist but also the tristability of the last three equilibrium introduced above was studied. The obtained results suggest that external factors, due to human intervention, that leads to a decrease in the initial population of Carpobrotus sp. pl. and/or increase of the native population might help in having the stability of the Carpobrotus-free equilibrium or the coexistence equilibrium.

The use of organic amendments to restore the functionality and biodiversity of sites contaminated by potentially toxic elements (PTEs), such as abandoned mining lands, represents one of the most modern eco-sustainable strategies. Short-term laboratory-scale studies showed that compost from municipal solid waste (MSWC) can reduce PTEs mobility and increase soil fertility, functionality, and plant growth. However, its long-term impact in the open-field has been rarely evaluated (and is essentially unknown). For this purpose, different biochemical and microbial endpoints and plant diversity were evaluated six years after the addition of different MSWC amounts to a PTE-contaminated mine soil (i.e., Sb 416 mg center dot kg(-1); Pb 2653 mg center dot kg(-1) and Zn 7666 mg center dot kg(-1)). The addition of increasing amounts of MSWC (i.e., 0.0 %; 1.5 %, 3.0 %, and 4.5 % w/w: T0, T1, T2, and T3, respectively) enhanced microbial respiration (e.g., similar to 5.1-fold in T3 compared to T0) as well as selected enzyme activities (e.g., dehydrogenase similar to 12-fold, beta-glucosidase similar to 11-fold and urease similar to 4-fold in T3 compared to T0, respectively). Moreover, the bacterial communities of MSWC-treated soils showed a higher Shannon alpha-diversity index compared to T0. Surveys of the vegetation in the field identified 56 plant species, with therophytes as the dominant life form (61 %). Non-metric multidimensional scale and Permanova analysis revealed differences between the vegetation of the amended and control plots, but not between the plots amended with different MSWC amounts. Overall, MSWC addition can be an effective and long-lasting environmental management strategy to improve soil fertility and promote the restoration of (micro) biological function and diversity of PTE-contaminated soils.

A syntaxonomical revision of the plant communities of the Isoëto-Nanojuncetea class occurring in Sardinia is provided. Within this class, the ephemeral herbaceous hygrophilous associations linked to temporarily submerged surfaces occur, which are widespread in the European, Mediterranean, and Macaronesian countries. It groups plant communities floristically characterized by a rich set of annual hygrophytes or more rarely hemicryptophytes and geophytes, which are also physiognomically, ecologically, and structurally well differentiated. Within this class, two orders are recognized in Sardinia, such as Isoëtetalia and Nanocyperetalia, which are represented by several alliances. In particular, four alliances can be referred to as Isoëtetalia (Isoëtion, Menthion cervinae, Cicendio-Solenopsion laurentiae, and Agrostion pourretii), while a single alliance (Verbenion supinae) belonging to Nanocyperetalia has been identified. Within these alliances, several associations already described have been surveyed, while several other unpublished ones, are here proposed as new to science. Overall, 35 associations are recognized, 18 of which are described for the first time. Each higher-rank syntaxa and related associations are examined from a nomenclatural, floristic, ecological, and chorological point of view. In particular, the more significant phytosociological relevés regarding the examined associations were processed using cluster analysis, DCA ordination, optimclass diagram in order to highlight the correlations between them. As regards the floristic aspects, a checklist of the species occurring in the phytosociological relevés is provided.

Anatomical and metabolomic variability in marine plants can provide valuable insights into species adaptive strategies and resilience to environmental changes. This study explores the anatomical characteristics and metabolomic profiles of Posidonia oceanica fruits, a key Mediterranean seagrass species, collected from three areas in Sardinia (Alghero, Oristano, and Olbia). Anatomical analyses of pericarps assessed cuticle thickness and intercellular spaces. Additionally, metabolomic analyses were performed using UPLC-HRMS on both the pericarps and the seeds. Significant differences in the percentage of intercellular spaces among pericarps from the different areas were found, with those from Alghero, exhibiting a higher percentage. Metabolomic analyses highlighted distinct profiles across areas, with Alghero pericarps showing greater metabolomics complexity, characterized by high levels of chicoric acid, hydroxycinnamate and hydroxybenzoate derivatives, while seeds exhibited an abundance of procyanidins, benzoic and caffeic acids and quercetins. Interestingly, seeds from Olbia presented a higher abundance of lipids. This study provides the first comprehensive metabolomic characterization of P. oceanica pericarps and seeds, highlighting significant variability that may influence seed dispersal, germination, and species adaptability. Our findings offer new perspectives for the conservation and management of this key species, which are particularly relevant in the context of global climate change.

Biodiversity data are expanding rapidly, yet often exhibit significant biases that are rarely mapped or systematically analyzed to understand underlying drivers. This issue is particularly pressing in the era of citizen science, which now contributes a substantial share of biodiversity records. In this study, we assessed taxonomic, temporal, and spatial biases in vascular plant occurrence records from Sardinia, a Mediterranean biodiversity hotspot, using all available occurrence data for the region retrieved from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). The dataset encompasses a range of sources, from structured inventories to citizen science platforms.Biases were quantified using metrics such as species richness completeness, Pielou’s evenness, and the Nearest Neighbor Index (NNI). After mapping these biases, we used Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) to explore their environmental drivers, including road density, the standard deviation of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and topographic roughness. Additionally, we evaluated the influence of structured data sources (e.g., Wikiplantbase) versus citizen science platforms (e.g., PlantNet and iNaturalist) on observed bias patterns.Spatial bias was the most prominent, followed by temporal and taxonomic biases. Road density and NDVI influenced both temporal and taxonomic biases, while topographic roughness affected temporal and spatial biases. Structured data mainly contributed to temporal bias, whereas citizen science data were more associated with spatial bias.Our findings highlight the importance of addressing biases in biodiversity data, particularly those introduced by citizen science, and provide a replicable framework for improving data quality and biodiversity monitoring at both sampling and interpretation stage.

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.