Staff

1. Barni Elena (components)
2. Bouvet Daniela (components)
3. Guglielmone Laura (components)
4. Siniscalco Consolata (components)
5. Guido Teppa (components)

Contacts

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Activity

The extraordinary high biodiversity in the Northern Italian regions, and in particular in Piemonte and Valle d'Aosta, determined the collection of a huge amount of data on plant species diversity and distribution (literature, herbarium specimens and other unpublished data). More than 3700 taxa have been recorded in our region as the result of two centuries of floristic research.

These data have been validated and georeferenced in European projects (Interreg II A Project "Banca dati per la valorizzazione della biodiversità floristica delle Alpi Occidentali del Sud", Interreg III A ALCOTRA Project "Conservazione e gestione della Flora e degli Habitat nelle Alpi Occidentali del Sud") and in international (e.g. species distribution data for the "Flora Alpina" volumes, 2014) and national (in the framework of the project "Stato delle Conoscenze sulla Flora Vascolare d'Italia": "Atlante delle specie a rischio di estinzione", 2005; "Checklist of the Italian vascular flora", 2005 and 2007). 
Project on "Update of the Italian vascular Flora". The flora is continuously updated through the supplements of "Checklist of the Italian vascular flora" (the next is scheduled for 2015), the update of the "Bibliografia floristica piemontese" (next is scheduled for 2015), and the organisation of floristic surveys of poorly explored areas.

The spread of alien plant species is one of the most significative threats to biodiversity. The ongoing increase of alien species is monitored and correlated to environmental, land use or disturbance factors in order to highlight the drivers of their spread. Invasive plant traits are also analyzed to understand their invasive potential.

In the last 20 years we carried on several projects on alien species at the regional scale ( Project "Analisi territoriale regionale sulle piante invasive e sui rapporti con la flora autoctona per il mantenimento della biodiversità" and Project on the Distribution of the invasive alien plant species in Valle d'Aosta) and at the national level (Project "Censimento della flora alloctona in Italia e caratterizzazione della sua invasività con particolare riferimento alla fascia costiera marina e alle piccole isole" funded by Ministero dell'Ambiente).

One of the research products is the volume "Piante esotiche invasive in Piemonte: riconoscimento, distribuzione, impatti" (2013) which has been widely distributed to communicate the importance of prevention of the spread of the invasive species.

Since 2012 we are part of the Regional working group on alien plant species (Regione Piemonte, Direzione Ambiente, Settore Sostenibilità e Recupero Ambientale) which is working on the Black lists of invasive species (Management list, Action list and Warning list) aiming at being the base for the new regional law on conservation of biodiversity.

Projects

"Fallopia japonica traits, distribution and invasive capacity"

In this research the plant traits of the species are analyzed and the decomposition rate of leaves and stems is evaluated considering the mycological diversity during the decomposition process.

The new European Regulation of the IAS (Invasive Alien Species).

The research group will analyse the list of the plant species of European concern. The project will be carried on with Società Botanica 
Italiana, Ministero dell'Ambiente and ISPRA.