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EU priority habitats: rethinking Mediterranean coastal pine forests

  • Vegetation Science and Habitats Directive
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Abstract

EU habitats knowledge is essential to better protect nature and to yield well-aimed management decisions. In this study, we analysed a debated habitat influenced by past human planting activities. We compared the Pinus halepensis and the P. pinea forests, belonging to the priority EU habitat 2270*, by means of ecological features provided by the Ellenberg indicator values and diagnostic species selected from “Vegetation of Europe” classes and the “Italian Interpretation Manual of the Dir. 92/43/EEC”. We used 159 vegetation plots in the Italian Peninsula, covering a wide range of this habitat in Italy. We found consistent ecological dissimilarities between Pinus halepensis and P. pinea forests and different diagnostic species. Moreover, P. halepensis forests hosted more diagnostic species of foredune habitats. Finally, we suggest that diagnostic species are a good indicator for studying EU habitat types resemblance, and we highlight the importance of the EU habitat 2270* in Italy, proposing two different subtypes.

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate the useful suggestions provided by Milan Chytrý in the early stage of this study. We thank Flavia Landucci and Silvia Cannucci for data preparation, the editor and two anonymous reviewers for useful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Adam Kenny and Luca Cilibrasi revised the English.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany and Zoology, Masaryk University, Kotlarska 2, 611 37, Brno, Czech Republic

    Gianmaria Bonari

  2. Department of Sciences, University of Roma TRE, V.le Marconi 446, 00146, Rome, Italy

    Alicia Teresa Rosario Acosta

  3. Department of Life Sciences, University of Siena, Via P.A. Mattioli, 4, 53100, Siena, Italy

    Claudia Angiolini

Authors
  1. Gianmaria Bonari
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  2. Alicia Teresa Rosario Acosta
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  3. Claudia Angiolini
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Correspondence to Gianmaria Bonari.

Additional information

This peer-reviewed contribution is from the European Vegetation Survey working group established in 1992 by Alessandro Pignatti and colleagues in Rome.

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Bonari, G., Acosta, A.T.R. & Angiolini, C. EU priority habitats: rethinking Mediterranean coastal pine forests. Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei 29, 295–307 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-018-0684-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-018-0684-9

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