Pietro Brandmayr, Mauro Gobbi, Stefano Scalercio, Maria Sapia, Roberto Pizzolotto MOUNTAIN ECOSYSTEMS IN SOUTHERN ITALY AND IN THE ALPS: FAUNAL COMMUNITIES THREE DECADES AFTER (1980-2010) Italian Ministery for University and Research, PRIN Project: IMPACT OF GLOBAL CHANGE ON ECOSYSTEMS, ANIMAL COMMUNITIES AND SPECIES OF ALPINE AND MEDITERRANEAN AREAS OF ITALY: MODELS, SCENARIOS AND EVALUATION FROM MACRO- TO MICROSCALE, BASED ON ECOLOGY AND PHILOGEOGRAPHY OF VERTEBRATES AND INVERTEBRATES We present here a chrono-comparative study that utilizes past (1980, data in Brandmayr & Zetto (1988) and present (2004-2010) surveys of ground beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) assemblages sampled in different habitats (from forests to high altitude) of the Dolomites (Italy) and of the Pollino National Park in Southern Italy. These studies are integrated with other taxa (butterflies, small mammals, reptiles and amphibians at a larger scale level, and this is the objective of the PRIN Project: IMPACT OF GLOBAL CHANGE ON ECOSYSTEMS, ANIMAL COMMUNITIES AND SPECIES OF ALPINE AND MEDITERRANEAN AREAS OF ITALY: MODELS, SCENARIOS AND EVALUATION FROM MACRO- TO MICROSCALE, BASED ON ECOLOGY AND PHILOGEOGRAPHY OF VERTEBRATES AND INVERTEBRATES O.U.: P. Brandmayr – Rende; V. Sbordoni – Rome 2; M. Cristaldi – Rome 1. Contents of the old study: vegetation, butterflies, carabids, Hydroadephaga, staphylinids, coprophagous scarabeids, cerambycids, chrysomelids, nitidulids, curculionids, centipedes, opolionids, nematods The carabid species known on the world are around 40.000, from Italy about 1400 taxa have been recorded so far Hi-tech instruments used for collecting carabid beetles and other soil living organisms in pitfall traps, simple plastic vessels capturing the arthropods running on the floor surface (epigeic fauna). The specimens are later sorted in laboratory, identified, measured, counted and the results expressed as «activity density», in this case as individuals/trap in the standard periodof 10 days Carabids are well known as an useful tool for evaluate the status of an ecosystem, in recent times also the interpretation of their «biological features» became easier, eg their dispersal power dynamics is used for evaluation of the disturbance level of a habitat or biocenosis: Species able to fly, as Calosoma, are frequent in man disturbed habitats, or in unstable biotopes, river banks, wetlands Species with rudimentary hind wings, like Carabus catenulatus, are considered sedentary and crowd in stable habitats, like climax forests. These species are often endemic of a smaller geographic area Omnivorous species, like Amara aenea, are indicated as opportunistic, are mainly good fliers and crowd in farmland or wasteland What is a species assemblage (or taxocenosis)? It is a selected part of a biocenosis, composed by species belonging to the same plant or animal group, that can be quantitatively censused by an automatic method. It may play within the ecosystem a homogeneous function: predator, scavenger, producer, parasite, etc. In this latter case the assemblage is called a «guild» A well selected assemblage gives us manifold information on the status of the ecosystem, its internal dynamics, its evolution or reaction towards external disturbance, etc. Normally an assemblage is sampled during an entire year, («year sample»), and it gives a «picture» of the ecosystem and its conditions during that year. An assemblage is seen as a set-subset system, where a set of species is found, and each species is represented by a number of individuals proportional to its effective population density in that habitat or site. al at h C us a O lat frac r e hu a op s ss H T hilu pic i ap re s eu t o ch b i s d u c Tr eru s o olo i c s bt r ho a p u s tic en us h n N nus i nu eb n s Pt Cyc ria iten er hr kra s os u tt tic s it eri hu a l s icu Le m s ist A ica u b n C Le s s ax s lin is p a i t Pl idiu tus nib er at m f u ar yd c lv bis er an iba C us alic rbi al ca u s at n la hu al t u s ic m Le sir ula e t C istu nte us ar s a s ns N bus ard is eb l o ria efe us S b bv C al ter rev rei Tr ath opu ico ec us s llis hu m m s on ela qu ti s ad vag ris us tri at us C DAa An example of our approach gives an idea of the problem: Imagin we sampled the carabid assemblage of a beech forest stand on the Pollino massif 1977. After 27 years (orange columns) we do the same and check the differences in the species and abundance structure Photophobic element 100 10 1 pedogenesis 1977 2004 Photophilic element Termophilous elements * Soil acidification 0,1 Wood mass lowering specie * * * * * 0,01 1973-1983 Eastern Alps (48 sites) all published‫‏‬ 1977-1990 Karst, Trieste (60 sites)‫‏‬unpublished 1977: Terminillo Mount and Southern Apennine (14 sites) published‫‏‬ 1977 – 2006: Mt. Pollino Natl. Park, 40 sites partly published 1987- present: Calabria (115 sites)‫‏‬published partly 1980-1988 Sicily (25 sites)‫‏‬ published partly The status of the knowledge of carabid assemblages in Italy 1973-1983 Eastern Alps and Dolomites (48 sites)‫‏‬ The same seen across the Italian BIOMES 1977 Terminillo Mount, Maiella, Pollino (14 sites) CNR Survey‫« ‏‬Zoocenosi Terrestri» 1977-1990 Carso di, Trieste (60 sites)‫‏‬ 1987-present Calabria (115 sites)‫‏‬ 1980-1988 Sicily (25 sites)‫‏‬ The consequence of the climate warming on the biocoenosis is one of the most studied topics in macroecology and in global change biology (Kerr et al., 2007). There is a wide agreement that climate change can affect organisms both directly via physiological stress and indirectly via changing relationships among species (assemblages composition) (Harley 2011). These effects, and others, have been well described in many review papers (e.g. Parmesan 2006). Animal population and assemblages response to climate warming, e.g. by upward shifting, and by changes on the species phenology, are occurring and will occur over broad spatial scales (Walther et al., 2002; Parmesan and Yohe 2003). On the other hand Kerr et al (2007) pointed on the importance of the local processes discovered on local scale to predict how global changes might proceed and how they can scale up in surprising ways to illuminate macroarea trends. Since late 19th to early 21st century the Alpine region has shown an overall annual temperature increase of about 2.0 °C. During the past 25 years, winters and summers have warmed at comparable rates, leading to an annual mean temperature increase of 1.2 °C, an increase unprecedented in the instrumental record (Zebisch et al., 2008). While temperature changes have followed similar patterns across the Alps, trends at the sub-regional scale are different for precipitation. Over the past two centuries, there has been a trend of increasing precipitation in the north-west Alps (eastern France, northern Switzerland, southern Germany, western Austria) and a decreasing precipitation in the southeast (Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, south-east Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina) (Auer et al., 2005). Also in predictive models, mountains were shown to be disproportionately sensitive to climate change (e.g. Schröter et al., 2005, Thuiller et al., 2005) as the sensitivity of mountain ranges to climatic change mainly depends on the macrotopography, land-cover, latitude and continentality of the mountain groups and human land-use. Recognising the sensitivity of alpine environments and the potential vulnerabilities of these environments to climate change, the scientific community has increased research on global change in the Alps. These researches have been conduced both at the highest elevations like at the lowest. In the former case, most of the studies focused on the effects of retreating glaciers on vegetation and invertebrate colonization patterns. Examples for the Swiss Alps are in Burga et al. (2010), and Schlegel and Riesen (in press), for the Austrian Alps in Kaufmann (2001) and Erschbamer et al. (2008), for the Italian Alps in Caccianiga and Andreis (2004), and Gobbi et al., (2006a). In the latter case researches concerned their attention to the impacts of anthropogenic activities on biodiversity (e.g. Grandchamp et al., 2005; Marini et al., 2009), and their potential link with climate change (Huber et al., 2005; Kearney et al., 2010). The climate change effect on the Italian Alps is widely studied from the glaciological point of view (Citterio et al. 2007), while its effect on the biocoenosis is quite underconsidered yet. Several studies have been performed on the phytocoenoses, while zoological studies, in particular on insect assemblages, are just at the beginning. Specifically, the overall knowledge on insects is patchy, though groups such as the Lepidoptera, Coleoptera and Araneae are better documented (Brandmayr et al., 2003a) The Dolomites can be considered a perfect study area to test the effect of climate warming on insect assemblages due to their relative low average elevation respect to other mountain groups of the Italian Alps, and their condition of aridity determined by low hydro retention of the soil. These conditions make more difficult for the species to find cold micro-habitat where refuge to respond to the temperature increase. On the other hand carabid beetles are a key-taxon with well known alpine ecology, and biodiversity patterns (Brandmayr et al 2003b), and they clearly react to alpine climate warming (Gobbi et al 2007; Gobbi et al 2010, Gobbi et al 2011). The sampled sites 1979/80 crowded around the Rolle Pass, m 1980 a s l The vegetation map is rich of units, and goes from the spruce climax forest to the alpine grass mats, across a wide belt of anthropogenic pastures Piceetum subalpinum Larix and Pinus mugo treeline forest Alpine open lands, climax grass mats Man made pastures, nardetum , etc. Bare rock and glaciers 1979 we worked b/w 2008: in colors, but with the same hard burden Does hard work change with climate change? Travignolo glacier 1937 1948 The Travignolo glacier disappears decade after decade, leaving a mass of unstable moraines or rock debris 2001 The snow in the fall may sometimes deceive the non expert, but in summer the hard truth is like here below: the ice mass retreated of more than 400 metres 2008, August S. Martino di Castrozza Bellamonte Rolle P. Predazzo On the whole, all precipitation trends are negative, the venetian side anyway more rainy The calcareous grass mats (Caricetum firmae) are typical above treeline alpine «prairies» We concentrated our work on these first six stations F2 (2250m)‫‏‬ F1 (2200m)‫‏‬ Alpine prairies at lower altitudes are substituted by anthropogenic pastures, here probably derived from a larch/swiss pine forest (Larici-Cembretum) (Station NA1, m 2150, Nardetum) At lower heigth (Malga Rolle surroundings) the nardetum pasture derives from the spruce forest, often mixed with larch and swiss pine. The dominant grass, Nardus stricta (mat grass, moor grass), is poorly appetized by cattle. St. NA2, m 1920 PS1, 1979 Around1600/1700 m finally the forest stations, that reveal outstanding changes: the lower sampling site, Piceetum subalpinum sphagnetosum lost nearby all the Sphagnum cover, the soil appears well drained and humus and leaf litter rich, in the past it was water rich and oligotrophic 2008 PS1 (1650 m, Sphagnum acutifolius: 2.3, 1980)‫‏‬ Less Sphagnum – rich and more open is PS2, HomogynoPiceetum myrtilletosum, growing at 1780 metres a.s.l. Altitude Alpine «prairies» and pastures local extinction altoalp., periglaciale ghiaioni umidi shifting species alpine grass mats grazing dependent 2250 2200 2170 1910 1780 F2_08 F21980 F1_08 F1_1980NA1_09 NA1_80 NA2_09 NA2_81 PS2_08 30 42 Nebria germari Trechus dolomitanus 0,03 Nebria diaphana 3,52 16 Carabus bertolinii 0,46 38 Pterostichus morio 2,64 4 Amara alpestris 40 Pterostichus schaschli 7 Amara praetermissa 6 Amara lunicollis 5 Amara erratica 13 Calathus melanocephalus 12 Bembidion lampros 29 0,57 0,20 0,02 0,02 2,93 1,62 0,03 0,48 0,17 0,71 1,14 0,37 0,02 6,87 0,39 2,25 0,04 0,00 0,02 1650 PS2_80 PS1_08 PS1_80 0,02 1,56 0,18 0,99 0,20 0,50 0,07 0,46 0,57 0,15 0,70 0,94 0,81 2,03 0,98 0,31 0,14 0,70 0,02 0,01 0,22 0,07 0,45 0,00 0,40 0,06 0,01 stable Nebria gyllenhali 26 Dyschirius globosus 43 Trechus obtusus 35 Poecilus versicolor 31 0,17 0,08 habitat reduction? hygrophilous Notiophilus aquaticus 39 Pterostichus rhaeticus 8 Argutor diligens 3 Agonum muelleri 10 Bembidion bipunctatum 11 Bembidion glaciale ? 34 Patrobus septentrionis 32 0,02 0,31 0,24 0,13 0,03 0,01 0,03 0,01 0,08 At first glance, all species react according to their ecological requirements Altitude 2250 2200 2170 1910 1780 F2_08 F21980 F1_08 F1_1980NA1_09 NA1_80 NA2_09 NA2_81 PS2_08 1650 PS2_80 PS1_08 PS1_80 forest or euryhypsic shifting or expanding 17 thermophilous 18 36 41 thermophilous 33 thermophilous 14 15 Carabus creutzeri 0,32 0,02 0,92 Carabus germari Pterostichus jurinei Pterostichus unctulatus Notiophilus biguttatus 0,03 Calathus micropterus Carabus auronitens 0,12 0,04 0,02 0,86 0,00 0,14 0,29 0,55 0,08 0,04 0,77 0,03 0,25 0,03 7,15 0,02 1,80 1,86 5,74 0,23 6,00 3,12 0,53 0,01 0,02 2,91 0,14 0,11 0,66 0,19 0,55 0,03 0,16 0,08 0,55 0,59 0,01 12,75 0,03 hygrophilous 24 27 Cychrus attenuatus Leistus nitidus In the spruce forest the changes are of strong evidence, as we expected looking at the forest floor, some thermophilic species show «explosive» density increase, for other taxa the explanation is not so‫‏‬easy…‫‏‬ Species balance in the six sampling sites: 1979/80: 32, 2008/09: 27, 9 of the past disappeared, 4 are «new entries» «disappeared» at 2008/9 (pitfalls only): Nebria germari, microtherm endemic species of East. Alps and Balkans Nebria beetles have long legs and often they are able to run on the ice of snow fields and glaciers and many other microtherm or hygrophilic elements: habitat reduction? 32 Notiophilus aquaticus 39 Pterostichus rhaeticus 8 Argutor diligens 3 Agonum muelleri 10 Bembidion bipunctatum 11 Bembidion glaciale ? 34 Patrobus septentrionis Appeared 2008: Carabus auronitens Trechus pallidulus and two “thermophilic vagrants”: 25 Cychrus caraboides 22 Clivina fossor Population extinct Note that the behaviour of the two Nebria species is clearly diverging, the first species of SAD remains dominant The highest station, F2, shows worrying changes Not only N. germari is extinct, but Trechus dolomitanus, a stenoendemic species, is retreating. Species of drier sites nevertheless increase, suggesting that higher temperatures favour colonization of plants and praedatory beetles The difference of reaction between N. germari and diaphana is striking: the first lives more on the soil surface, the latter is a little depigmented and finds its optimum deeper in the soil of the scree, where the temperature is always stable and very low, and the humidity remains high An entire bioclimatic belt is at the edge of collapse? 4 Nebria germari – Trechus dolomitanus, pioneer 3 Carabus alpestris – Cymindis vaporariorum, siliceous 2 Nebria germari – Amara quenseli, pioneer cushions 1 Nebria atrata, subnival Carabus bertolinii – Amara alpestris, calcareous 9 Leistus nitidus – Calathus micropterus, Piceetum subalpinum to 6,87 ind./trap in 10 days 2,25 The first two species of SAD remain dominant F1 is richer of hygrophilic species. Here four microtherm or hygrophilic taxa disappear and 5 thermophilic ground beetles appear, some of them preferring soils with lower humidity, as Amara praetermissa. And Amara alpestris. These species live at the expense of gramineous plant seeds and live in xeric calcareous prairies in the so called SeslerioSempervirentetum. The 7° sp. becomes the first! The 5° sp. becomes the first! The 8° sp. becomes the first! The first species doesn’t change PS2_79 PS2_08 Pterostichus jurinei >7 Pterostichus unctulatus >5 Calathus micropterus >12 In the spruce subalpine forest three species show a massive population increase, reaching aAD of 5, 7 and 12 individuals/trap in ten days, four new thermophilic elements appear (Carabus germari, auronitens, creutzeri, Notiophilus biguttatus, an efficient springtail praedator); The carabid biomass increases of a factor 10! Leistus nitidus Cychrus attenuatus Notiophilus biguttatus Carabus creutzeri Carabus germari Carabus auronitens (never sampled before)‫‏‬ Carabus auronitens , ,5 1 1,5 2 Now we should look at the six stations ordered along an altitude gradient – The carabid biomass increases highly in forests, is more or less stable or it drops down in pastures and alpine open lands 30.00 Annual Activity density 25.00 stazioni 1980 20.00 15.00 stazioni 2008 10.00 5.00 0.00 m 2260 m 1650 How to try a first synthesis? More data will be gathered this year, first clustering attempts based on presence/absence algorhythms show that old and new communities don’t diverge too much The species assemblages at the moment are easy to recognize, like 30 years ago, alpine grass mats on carbonatic soils (A) remain well separate from Nardetum pastures (C) and from the subalpine forests (B) As we can see in this species/station matrix based on simple presence/absence blocks… A problem arises: how we can measure ecosystem changes through species assemblages and their SAD’s (species abundance distributions)? A simple way is to measure the similarity, eg the percentage similarity (or Renkonen index), and related algorhythms. Many people prefer diversity indices, like the Shannon-Wiener index, etc. We tried a new way, and calculated the amount of species ranking changes, an attempt to quantify the changes in RAD’s, the relative abundance distributions. The index ICC (index of community change) focuses on how in the «later» community the order of abundance of each species is maintained, assigning positive values to each shift of the same species, and sounds: (∑ |rankiA - rankiB| + ∑ rank lostiA + rank newiB) / (A U B) Disappeared species an increasing value was given starting from the lowest in abundance: 1, 2 …n. The value of new entries was weighted in the same way, assigning 1 to the lowest in abundance and the highest value to the most abundant. All these positive numbers were summed up and divided by the union set: eg PS1 U PS1_08. If a community is compared with itself, all the differences are zero, and the ICC index = 0. In case of identical abundance of two species, the priority is assigned to the smallest one, assuming that small species have normally denser populations and are less easily caught in pitfalls. The ICC index seems well related to community changes after 30 years, and its pattern is more or less specular to the percentage similarity. pS IICC PS1 F2 The minor changes have been registered in the less disturbed ecosystems F2 and PS1!!! Some doubt about the disturbance level? Carabids are extremely sensible indicators of disturbance, wingless species crowd only in climax or stable environments. Grazing and water instability affect especially the two Nardetum pastures, as expected F1 and PS2 are much less disturbed , but sometimes grazed by cows. Provisional conclusions for the Dolomites 1 – Climate change after 30 years has deeply modified the species structures of the carabid assemblages, the ICC index seemingly suggests that disturbed ecsystems are more reactive to the change 2 – above tree line microtherm species and hygrophilic ones disappeared from the study area, the guide species Nebria germari shows local extinction of a large population 3 – new thermophilic species and vagrants appeared, especially at the forest upper border 4 – hygrophilous species decline in the pastures, where xerophilic seed eaters (Amara) generally grow up 5 - in the boreal type spruce forest (Piceetum subalp.) increased wamth and higher evapotransipration transformed the forest floor and the soil from «sphagnetosum» to humus rich and well drained (mesotrophic?), the soil invertebrate biomass shows strong increase thanks to the enhanced space use of detritivorous and predatory guilds. 6 – forest ecosystem services may have changed as a consequence 7 – the community gradient and its structure remains the same (no «ecological catastrophe») and is still well characterized, but the “uphill shift” seems run «happy and glorious» also at ecosystem level: Firmetum pioneer mats tend to become more or less continuous Seslerietum prairies. Hereto what we see on the Dolomites. And in the South? Animal communities of the Southern Appennine are poorly known, during the same campain of the «Progetti Finalizzati» of the CNR, 1977, (Terrestrial Zoocenoses, chief Prof. Marcella La Greca) we were able to visit more times in one year the Mt. Pollino massif, that will become only 1993 the largest National Park of Italy, with about 192.000 hectares territory. In this area only Lepidopterans (butterflies) and carabids have been investigated from the point of view of the species assemblages (Balletto et al, 1977; Brandmayr & Zetto, 1986). “Annual mean temperatures in Europe are likely to increase more than the global mean. Seasonally, the largest warming is likely to be in northern Europe in winter and in the Mediterranean area in summer. Minimum winter temperatures are likely to increase more than the average in northern Europe. Maximum summer temperatures are likely to increase more than the average in southern and central Europe. Annual precipitation is very likely to increase in most of northern Europe and decrease in most of the Mediterranean area. In central Europe, precipitation is likely to increase in winter but decrease in summer. ... The annual number of precipitation days is very likely to decrease in the Mediterranean area. Risk of summer drought is likely to increase in central Europe and in the Mediterranean area. The duration of the snow season is very likely to shorten, and snow depth is likely to‫‏‬decrease‫‏‬in‫‏‬most‫‏‬of‫‏‬Europe.” Percentage variation of the precipitations hypothesized for the months JJA in the next 80-90 years in the area from Sardinia to Greece and Anatolia. The summer precipitations could decrease until 50% (Christensen et al., 2007) Christensen, J.H., B. Hewitson, A. Busuioc, A. Chen, X. Gao, I. Held, R. Jones, R.K. Kolli, W.-T. Kwon, R. Laprise, V. Magaña Rueda, L. Mearns, C.G. Menéndez, J. Räisänen, A. Rinke, A. Sarr and P. Whetton, 2007: Regional Climate Projections. In: Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Solomon, S., D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, M. Tignor and H.L. Miller (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. Nardeti, pascoli a Meum athamanticum, doline innevate ed altri biotopi non sono visibili dal versante meridionale Prati di vetta a Festuca di Bosnia Pascoli montani calcarei Faggete Querceti, bioma delle caducifolie Leccete, bioma delle sclerofille Garighe a Stipa austroitalica The Pollino National Park lies at the boundary between Calabria and Basilicata, and reaches a maximum altitude on the peak of the Serra Dolcedorme (m 2267) and of Mt. Pollino (m 2248) The Park represents an area of strong vegetation reprise, especially at lower heights. The Colloreto old monastery gives more or less the . boundary between sclerophylls and temperate forest, here in a photo of Ruffo, in Tamanini (1950) Today, seen from the highway. The OrnoQuercetum ilicis (Holmoak forest) tends to cover the ruine. The Petrose are Stipa austroitalica garigues, extremely rich of birds (especially larks) and orthopterans. Many of this lower altitude protected habitats derive from the evolution of old cultivated lands. Melanargia arge («Habitat» Directive 43/92) and Ephippiger are some of the most relevant macroinsects, together with Saga pedo, Prionotropis, many mantids, etc. The peak of the Serra del Prete is the largest high-altitude area of the Park. It dominates the polje of Piano Ruggio, that encloses some of the best Festuca violacea pastures. The Meo-Asphodeletum facies means overgraziong…. All around, old growth beech forests The flat tip on the Serra del Prete June1954 and in the same month at 1977. Today the snow cover rarely lasts until June 15. Photo Ruffo Carex k. mats Licinus italicus Zabrus costai Sinkhole Cycrhus attenuatus latialis High Mountain Scree Festuca bosniaca – grasslands with Amara equestris, Carabus violaceus picenus grassland Calathus sirentensis, Notiophilus aestuans Meum athamanticum montane pastures Asyneumati-Fagetum Pterostichus bicolor Trichotichnus nitens Beech-forest Calathus montivagus Aquifolio-Fagetum Synuchus vivalis pastures originated from submediterranean forests or from the sclerophyll biome Garigues Cymindis axillaris Notiophilus aestuans Cymindis axillaris, Metadromius nanus The habitat sequence of the zoosociological table reflects the main ecological gradient of the Pollino Natl. Park RESULTS (Carabidae) The results that are significant for a climate change study refer to only three quantitatively sampled sites, two beech forests and one montane pasture, all censused in 1977 and a second time in 2004. 1) - Asyneumati-Fagetum, the so called «cold beech forest» of the Southern Appennine 2) - Aquifolio-Fagetum, the «warm beech forest» of the same area, marked by the abundance of Ilex aquifolium, the holly 3) The mountain pasture located in the Piano Ruggio polje (karstic depression) (Festucion violaceae), heavily grazed mainly by cows. al at h C us a O lat frac r e hu a op s ss H T hilu pic i ap re s eu t o ch b i s d u c Tr eru s o olo i c s bt r ho a p u s tic en us h n N nus i nu eb n s Pt Cyc ria iten er hr kra s os u tt tic s it eri hu a l s icu Le m s ist A ica u b n C Le s s ax s lin is p a i t Pl idiu tus nib er at m f u ar yd c lv bis er an iba C us alic rbi al ca u s at n la hu al t u s ic m Le sir ula e t C istu nte us ar s a s ns N bus ard is eb l o ria efe us S b bv C al ter rev rei Tr ath opu ico ec us s llis hu m m s on ela qu ti s ad vag ris us tri at us C DAa After 27 years five new thermophilic elements appeared, despite the forest became darker and darker, the canopy closer, the soil deeper. Note that the species structure is poorly modified. Photophobic element 100 10 1 pedogenesis 1977 2004 Photophilic element Termophilous elements * Soil acidification 0,1 Wood mass lowering specie * * * * * 0,01 A forestry cycle model was constructed 1977 2004 The main changes during a forestry cycle are: 1. Closing of the canopies 2. Reduction of light intensity reaching the forest soil 3. Increase of humidity 4. Increase of the humus layer and nutrients 5. Changes of soil pH 6. Reduction of the decaying log mass on the forest floor 7. Reduction of understory and scrubs Ca la th us Pt er fra os ca tic ss hu i s m ica Ne ns br ia k St ra er tte Ca op ri la us th m us el ro as tu nd Cy ico ch Ab llis r ax us pa ita lic ra us lle Ca le la pi th pe us du m s on Pe tiv ag rc us us Pt bi er lin os ea tic tu hu s s Ca bi co ra Ca lo bu r lo s so pi ce m a Ac nu sy te s co ni pu ph s an ac ta u t Ca an la gu th lu us s f u Tr s cip ec Ha hu es pt s od ob er tu us su s ap e Sy nn nu in ch us Tr us ich vi ot va ic Tr lis hn ec us hu ni s te qu No ns ad tio r ph ist ria ilu s tu su s bs Ca tri ra at bu us s Ca le fe ra bv bu re s i co ria ce us DAa The warm beech forest shows more marked changes, biomass and species diversity rise, thanks the relevant amelioration of the soil after the end of wood exploitation, many new entries are typical elemnts of the lower forest belt (Quercetum) 100 Aquifolio-fagetum 10 1977 2004 1 0,1 0,01 0,01 0,01 0,01 specie In the Ruggio pasture, on the contrary, the change looks as a little ecological catastrophe! The RAD or dominance structure is totally disrupted, thermophilic species from lower heights invaded the area, and a new species becomes the dominant!!! Pascolo a Meum athamanticum 1977 2004 100,0 DAa 10,0 1,0 * 5 * * 9 * * 0,1 C al a th u s Am m ara el sic a C n o c ul a a e N lath ph ot al u io u s ph fra s i ca lu C s al ss at a i hu es t ua s sir ns Z a ent e b C ru nsi ar s s ab N c us eb os t r a vio ia e k la ce rat te u ri St s p ice er op nu Pt u er s os s m tic el as u H Syn s bi ap c u o c to de hus lor ru viv s Pe ap alis en rc ni u Tr i c s bi nus h lin Ps o eu tich eat N ot us n d u io op ph ho s ni ilu nu ten s s s qu ad rufi C p ym ri e in pun s di c ta s s t C ym cap us u in la d r C al is e is at t r us hu ca s fu sc ip es 0,0 Specie July 2004 no cattle was able to front the summer drought in the Ruggio plain, they were forced to visit higher altitudes Gruppi ecologici Matrice specie/stazioni Species of high mountain grasslands Mountain pastures apennine‫“‏‬cold”‫‏‬ beechwoods deciduous forests mainly forest dwellers sclerophyllous forest dwellers riparian forest Pastures of european and mediterranean biome Pastures and garigues of mediterranean biome only Brandmayr & Zetto, 1984. Le comunità a coleotteri geoadefagi di alcune faggete ed abetine appenniniche, dal Casentino al M. Pollino (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Rhysodidae). Biogeographia, Lav. Soc. It. Biogeogr., X (n.s.), 1984, pp.685-699 Brandmayr P., Mingozzi T., Scalercio S., Passalacqua N., Rotondaro F., Pizzolotto R (2002).- Stipa austroitalica garigues and mountain pastureland in the Pollino National Park ( Calabria, Southern Italy); in: Redecker B., Finck P., Härdtle W., Riecken U., Schröder E.- Pasture Landscapes and Nature Conservation. Springer : pp. 53-66 This small «ecological catapstrophe» is confirmed by the study of the “uphill shift”‫‏‬of‫‏‬communities. Correspondence analysis shows that today the Meum pasture‫‏‬of‫‘‏‬shifted ita position at the level of the thermoxerophilic “Petrose”.‫‏‏‬It looks like these xeric communities shifted 500 metres up m 1280-535 m 1540 m 1485-2260 Da: Pizzolotto et al., in press. A georeferenced biodiversity databank for evaluating the impact of climate change in Southern Italy mountains Georeferenced biological databases as a tool for Understanding Mountain Biodiversity, part II GMBA-GBIF workshop, Copenhagen, 26-28 Sept. 2007 In the Southern appennine the response of ecosystems seems basically not so far from what we stated for the Dolomites, but the difference between climax forest and anthropogenic open land is much stronger  It is perhaps too early for definitive conclusions, but in the south the ICC index is higher, and the absolute peak so far has been found in a montane pasture located in a karstic valley, a biotope that we could expect to be protected by nocturnal thermic inversion. All the other markers speak for a strong ecosystem change: 7,59 43,18 N° species 13 14 17 brachypterous sp. (%) 71 47 italian or appennine endemics (%) 57 annual AD, all species 21,18 108,94 107,39 118,82 17 19 18 82 82 74 67 53 50 50 44 0 40 20 0 0 0 6 european (%) 29 20 24 33 28 28 palearctic or holarctic (%) 14 20 24 17 22 22 mediterranean (%) pasture Warm beech forest Cold beech forest  Dolomites and Southern Appennines show both evident changes in their species assemblages.  Drought and temperature increase are undoubtely the driving factors, as shown by the analysis of indicator species  Insects seem to react faster than vegetation (hi hi)  Each ecosystem reacts differently, according to its dependence from abiotic factors and biota living in it  In both areas man influenced habitats show higher sensitivity and (perhaps) minor resilience  Southern mountain pastures seem the most affected and may show serious problems in ecosystem services (cattle raising) A final big question remains: will we get mushrooms enough in the next 30 years? Soil pore explorer, Pter. metallicus Surface Runner Notiophil us Surface walker, Calosoma sycophanta Forme biologiche larvali: 1) Surface runners 2) Surface walkers 3) Soil pore explorers 4) Spermophagous PS2 PS2_08 (spp) 4,5 4 Nelle foreste un nuovo uso dello spazio sembra dare un forte incremento alla produttività, il suolo è divenuto profondo ed arieggiato 3,5 3 2,5 2 1,5 1 0,5 0 spermoph surf walker soil p expl PS2 surf runner PS2_08 (DAa) 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 spermoph surf walker soil p expl surf runner The consequence of the climate warming on the biocoenosis is one of the most studied topics in macroecology and in global change biology (Kerr et al., 2007). There is a wide agreement that climate change can affect organisms both directly via physiological stress and indirectly via changing relationships among species (assemblages composition) (Harley 2011). These effects, and others, have been well described in many review papers (e.g. Parmesan 2006). Even though the animal population and assemblages response to climate warming, e.g. by upward shifting, and by changes on the species phenology, are occurring and will occur over broad spatial scales (Walther et al., 2002; Parmesan and Yohe 2003). On the other hands Kerr et al (2007) pointed on the importance of the local processes discovered on local scale to predict how global changes might proceed and how they can scale up in surprising ways to illuminate macro-area trends. Gli studi inerenti i cambiamenti spaziali e temporali, indotti dal global warming sulle zoocenosi, fino ad ora sono stati condotti con approccio di tipo prevalentemente qualitativo. Sulle Dolomiti ci si è proposti il censimento quali-quantitativo dei coleotteri Carabidi della Valle Venegia (Passo Rolle, provincia di Trento) col fine di confrontare le comunità dei differenti ecosistemi con quelle descritte a seguito dei campionamenti effettuati nel 1980 da P. Brandmayr e T. Zetto nell’ambito‫‏‬dei‫‏‬Progg. Finalizzati CNR degli anni ‘70‫(‏‬Zoocenosi‫‏‬terrestri,‫‏‬coordinatore:‫‏‬Marcello‫‏‬La‫‏‬Greca): BRANDMAYR P. & T. ZETTO BRANDMAYR (con la collab. di R. Pizzolotto), 1988 - Comunità a Coleotteri Carabidi delle Dolomiti Sudorientali e delle Prealpi Carniche. Studi trent. Sci. nat. 64, Acta biol. suppl.:125-250