Search Results (38)

Exposure to high-altitude hypoxia leads to complex physiological and molecular adaptations, particularly in skeletal muscle. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), including muscle-enriched (myomiRNAs) and hypoxia-responsive (hypoxamiRNAs), play critical roles in regulating these responses. We investigated miRNA expression changes in the skeletal muscle of healthy, non-smoking Italian adults (mean age 36.7 ± 12.4 years) participating in the Himalayan expedition “Lobuche Peak—Pyramid Exploration & Physiology” conducted in the Sagaramāthā (Mount Everest) National Park, Nepal. The peak overnight stay altitude was ≈5000 m at the Pyramid International Laboratory—Observatory. Muscle biopsies were taken before and after the expedition from Vastus lateralis, at one-third of the distance from the upper margin of the rotula to the anterior superior iliac spine. Small RNA sequencing was used to profile differentially expressed miRNAs. Several miRNAs were differentially expressed (exploratory analysis), suggesting potential involvement in hypoxia-related adaptation. These encompass both canonical myomiRNAs (e.g., miR-206, miR-486-5p) and hypoxamiRNAs (e.g., miR-378a-5p, miR-199a-3p, let-7b-5p). In enrichment analysis, we found several connections between miRNAs and pathways that may play a role in physiological regeneration or differentiation in muscle cells. Among functions, focal adhesion (p-value = 0.001), regulation of actin cytoskeleton (p-value = 0.026), Rap-1 (p-value = 0.007), cAMP (p-value = 0.017), MAPK (p-value = 0.019), and Hippo (p-value = <0.001) signaling pathways were predicted to be the most targeted. These findings provide preliminary insights into physiological adaptation, requiring confirmation in larger and controlled cohorts. Full article

Hieracium L. s. str. is a taxonomically critical genus of perennial herbaceous plants widely distributed across temperate regions of Europe, Asia, and North America. In Italy, its diversity is mainly concentrated in the Alps and northern Apennines, whereas southern Italy hosts only a limited number of relict taxa. Recent floristic surveys conducted in the Pollino National Park (southern Italy) revealed the presence of five Hieracium taxa, which were subsequently subjected to critical taxonomic evaluation. Detailed morphological analyses, supported by original herbarium comparisons and multivariate morphometric analyses, resulted in the description of a new species, here named H. petrocastellanum, the confirmation of H. pallescens subsp. tephrochlorum in the Italian flora after nearly 130 years from its discovery, and the first record for the Pollino area of H. symphytifolium, previously considered endemic to the Madonie Mountains (north-central Sicily), as well as H. pellitum subsp. pellitum and H. caesioides subsp. caesioides. The new species, Hieracium petrocastellanum, differs in having basal leaves with cuneate bases, only 0–1 cauline leaves, and bracts with sparse simple hairs and moderately dense glandular hairs. Ecological information and data on taxonomic relationships are also provided. The conservation status is assessed for H. petrocastellanum, H. pallescens subsp. tephrochlorum, and H. symphytifolium. An analytical key is presented to distinguish the new species from its closest relatives. These results confirm the Pollino National Park as a biodiversity hotspot and improve current knowledge of Hieracium. Full article

Invasive fish species pose a major threat to freshwater ecosystems by outcompeting native species and altering habitat conditions, leading to biodiversity loss. The Plitvice Lakes National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Croatia, harbors a unique but species-poor native fish community, including Danube trout (Salmo labrax), Italian minnow (Phoxinus lumaireul), Italian golden loach (Sabanejewia larvata), and Italian spined loach (Cobitis bilineata). However, human-introduced species such as rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus), chub (Squalius cephalus), and northern pike (Esox lucius) have established thriving populations, with rudd emerging as the dominant invasive species. To mitigate their ecological impact, targeted removal efforts were implemented using casting nets and electrofishing, aiming to reduce invasive populations while minimizing harm to native species. Monitoring activities, performed during the course of the removal project, revealed significant declines in invasive fish abundance, demonstrating the effectiveness of these management interventions. Rudd abundance in Prošćansko Lake decreased by 56.9% and biomass by 69.7% over three years, while rainbow trout abundance in the B-C-M system declined by 92.7%, and its distribution shrank to a single locality, indicating strong population reduction. These findings highlight the importance of implementing active conservation measures to control invasive fish populations, thereby improving the status of native fish communities and preserving ecological balance. Full article

The biodiversity of wild bees (Hymenoptera: Anthophila) in southern Italy—particularly in Calabria and Basilicata—remains poorly documented despite the region’s high species richness. This study addresses this gap by assessing bee fauna through field surveys conducted across diverse habitats, including national parks, reserves, and agroecosystems, between 2016 and 2023. Bees were collected using hand nets or traps, and DNA barcoding was applied to 63 specimens to support species identification. A total of 223 species were recorded, including 10 new records for Basilicata, 57 for Calabria, 20 for southern Italy, 3 for the Italian mainland, and 1 for Italy, Eucera (Eucera) colaris Dours, 1873 (Apidae). The results reveal the unexpected presence of several central European species in mountainous areas of southern Italy, co-occurring with Mediterranean taxa. These findings indicate that these regions act as important refugia for species from both Mediterranean and Central European biogeographic zones, contributing to high regional diversity. DNA barcoding also revealed notable genetic divergence in several species compared to other European populations, highlighting the uniqueness of southern Italian bee fauna. Continuous monitoring and habitat protection are urgently needed in light of agricultural intensification and climate change. Full article

Protected areas play a fundamental role in the implementation of international environmental strategies in order to ensure effective management systems that support the conservation of biodiversity and the provision of ecosystem services. However, the actual capacity of national parks to generate a specific “park effect” remains an open question. This study aims to assess whether the transformations observed in Italian national parks between 1960 and 2018 can be attributed to a specific park effect or are instead the result of other territorial dynamics. We analyzed long-term changes in land use and land cover (LUMCs) and variations in ecosystem services (ES), both inside and outside park boundaries, taking into account the SNAI classification. The results show a significant expansion of forest areas (+52%) and sparse vegetation (+56%), alongside a marked decline in arable land (−60%) and permanent crops (−26%). At the same time, the overall value of ES remains stable at around EUR 4 billion per year, with regulating services—accounting for 80% of the total—increasing by 20% between 1960 and 2018 and provisioning services declining by 41%. Italy’s national parks represent strategic socioecological laboratories capable of generating benefits both locally and globally. To fully realize this potential, more integrated management is needed, enabling their transformation from mere conservation areas to drivers of territorial resilience and social cohesion. Full article

Minor Southern Italian population centers present a fragmented and uneven urban landscape, resulting from abandonment and depopulation phenomena that have led, especially in historic city centers, to urban voids scattered with rubble, buildings in a state of ruin, and others with evident structural collapses. Within a broader urban regeneration strategy for these centers, aligned with current national and European policies, the recovery of these vacant spaces can play a decisive role in enhancing urban quality and the desired touristic appeal, with social, economic, and environmental implications. These areas may also become valuable resources for innovating the urban core in a green transition process, contributing to carbon neutrality goals while improving residents’ quality of life. This paper addresses the importance of pocket parks as systems of resilience against climate change and hydrogeological risks, as well as rainwater drainage systems in densely built urban areas with strong historical character. The study includes a case study application focusing on a location in the Sicilian hinterland, notable for its historical and architectural value. The urban center under examination, Naro in the province of Agrigento, has experienced significant depopulation over the past fifty years, and the designation of its provincial capital as the Italian Capital of Culture 2025 could provide the opportunity for revival through small-scale, low-cost, and sustainable actions. Full article

China and Italy, both ancient civilizations, have numerous traditional villages that bear witness to history and support the transmission of cultural heritage. However, these villages face challenges such as homogenized development, population outflow, and disruptions in cultural continuity. While both Chinese and Italian traditional villages have received considerable scholarly attention, their comparative study remains relatively limited, leaving the transferability of respective solutions across different legal, heritage and planning contexts to be fully explored. This study aims to adapt and transfer Italy’s contiguous protection, integrated operation, national park designation, and community partnership policies to China in order to establish a comprehensive mechanism for preservation and revitalization of traditional villages. A cross-case study of Cinque Terre (Italy) and Jiande (China), incorporating on-site mapping, governance analysis, and interviews, reveals that Italy’s integrated community-based approach markedly outperforms China’s fragmented state-led model in sustaining population, culture and tourism quality. These findings provide a globally replicable paradigm for traditional village preservation. Full article

The ongoing decade of UN restoration matches with the European goal of bringing nature back into our lives, including in urban systems, and Nature Restoration Regulation. Within such a framework, this work is aimed at highlighting the ecological rationale and strategic value of an NRRP measure devoted to forest restoration in Italian Metropolitan Cities, and at assessing respective preliminary results. Therefore, the measure’s overarching goal (not to create urban parks or gardens, but activate forest recovery), geographic extent and scope (over 4000 ha and more than 4 million planted trees and shrubs across the country), plantation model (mandatory use of native species consistent with local potential vegetation, density of 1000 seedlings per ha, use of at least four tree and four shrub species in each project, with a minimum proportion of 70% for trees, certified provenance for reproductive material), and compulsory management activities (maintenance and replacement of any dead plants for at least five years), are herein shown and explained under an ecological perspective. Current implementation outcomes were thus assessed in terms of coherence and expected biodiversity benefits, especially with respect to ecological and biogeographic consistency of planted forests, representativity in relation to national and European plant diversity, biogeographic interest and conservation concern of adopted plants, and potential contribution to the EU Habitats Directive. Compliance with international strategic goals and normative rules, along with recognizable advantages of the measure and limitations to be solved, are finally discussed. In conclusion, the forestation model proposed for the Italian Metropolitan Cities proved to be fully applicable in its ecological rationale, with expected benefits in terms of biodiversity support plainly met, and even exceeded, at the current stage of implementation, especially in terms of the contribution to protected habitats. These promising preliminary results allow the model to be recognized at the international level as a good practice that may help achieve protection targets and sustainable development goals within and beyond urban systems. Full article

The Mediterranean trout (currently referred to as Salmo ghigii for Corsican and Italian-native populations) is listed as Endangered in the IUCN Red List, due to fragmented distribution and declining populations across its whole range, and is included in Annex II of the European Habitat Directive. The widespread genome introgression from the invasive Atlantic trout (Salmo trutta), overexploitation, and habitat alterations represent major threats to the persistence of native populations. The LIFE18NAT/IT/000931 STREAMS project aims to enhance conservation status of Mediterranean trout in 6 Italian pilot areas (Maiella, Sibillini Mountains, Casentino Forests and Pollino National Parks, Montemarcello-Magra-Vara Regional Park, and Sardinia with five sites of the Natura 2000 Network), and in 19 transferability areas covering almost the whole Italian species range. To achieve this, the following conservation strategies were implemented: (i) the identification of residual native populations; (ii) eradication of entirely Atlantic-exotic populations and removal of hybrids in admixed populations; (iii) restocking/reintroduction of native populations; (iv) monitoring/improving the Mediterranean trout habitats quality; (v) production of the “Guidelines for the conservation and management of native Mediterranean trout and its habitat”; and (vi) the prevention of illegal stocking. Here, we present the project rationale, major outcomes on demographic and genetic characterization of wild populations, and summary results from conservation actions. Full article

Despite its global importance for the maintenance of healthy ecosystems and its contribution in providing economic benefits to human society, the clade Anthophila is in severe decline worldwide. In this context, counteracting the decline in Apoidea is of fundamental importance. Honey bee density and beekeeping are believed to negatively impact wild bee populations, mostly through competition for food sources. In this study, interspecific trophic competition was investigated using the still seldom exploited approach of a palynological analysis combined with a metabarcoding analysis of the pollen gathered by both managed honey bees and wild bees in three Italian national parks. The entire trophic network was identified as highly specialized (H2′ = 0.933). The results obtained suggest that, overall, wild bee species are sustained by different pollen sources than honey bees. This low sharing of resources could be due to the natural trend occurring in natural populations, where species tend to minimize the competitive overlap through niche differentiation or niche complementarity as a result of coevolution. National parks play a fundamental role in animal and plant species protection and conservation. Therefore, plans should focus on evaluating honey bee densities in the interests of achieving less intensive, more traditional, and sustainable beekeeping, as well as habitat restoration, to promote the survival and reproduction of wild bee populations. Full article

Puya raimondii Harms is a charismatic species discovered in the Cordillera Blanca (now Huascarán National Park, Peru) in 1867 by the great Italian-born Peruvian geographer and naturalist Antonio Raimondi. The importance of this plant is due to its imposing size, the rare and extreme ecosystem that depends on it, and the fact that it is linked to the name Antonio Raimondi. Four studies on its genetic diversity revealed a range of patterns, with a fixation index of 0.740 as weighted mean and gene flow as low as 0.02–0.03. In fact, the vast majority of the total genetic variation was documented between populations, with very low genetic variation found within populations (weighted mean genetic diversity as low as Hs = 0.072 and mean genetic similarity very high, ranging from 96% up to 99%). We hypothesize that the narrow genetic base of P. raimondii populations may be due to a combination of factors: (i) an inbreeding-based reproductive strategy (i.e., mating between individuals related by common ancestry), which leads to homozygosity and genomic uniformity; (ii) strong environmental selective pressure (e.g., day–night temperature excursion, long dry period, etc.), which favors only the highest fitness individual genotypes; and (iii) a long life cycle, which hampers recombination events and reduces genetic diversity. Overall, these factors suggest that P. raimondii is a genetically fragile, fragmented, and endangered species. Full article

Arcangelo Scacchi (1810–1893) one of the greatest Italian geoscientists known worldwide, especially for his contributions in the fields of mineralogy and volcanology, dedicated his early years to malacological and zoological works. This paper aims to pay homage to a lesser-known side of the scientist, focusing on a malacological work related to fossils from his hometown, Gravina, in Puglia (southern Italy), located within the boundaries of the MurGEopark, which is aspiring to become a UNESCO Global Geopark (aUGGp), and at the border of Parco Nazionale dell’Alta Murgia (Alta Murgia National Park). Among others, Arcangelo Scacchi described 16 new species of molluscs but his precious collection, hosted in Naples, in the Real Museo Mineralogico (Royal Mineralogical Museum), now Museo di Paleontologia dell’Università di Napoli Federico II (Museum of Palaeontology of the University of Naples Federico II), was partly lost. In recent years, research has allowed the resampling of some species he described for the first time in 1835. Starting from this material, the figure of Scacchi was highlighted to the public through the temporal exhibitions and the use of 3D digital models of these resampled fossils. This activity represents: (i) a tribute to the first modern geoscientist who worked in the area of the MurGEopark, (ii) an instrument to preserve palaeontological remains of international importance, and (iii) a public opportunity to know this kind of geocultural heritage enriching the potential examples of (geo)dissemination in the MurGEopark. Full article

This paper proposes an unusual method for the dissemination of geological sciences and the promotion of geotourism: a scientific documentary, where a representative itinerary of geological and geomorphological evolution of the Umbria and Marche regions was presented. The considerations that led to the identification of the geological route proposed to the editorial staff of FOCUS TV are presented in detail. At each stop, there was an explanation by academic professors and researchers, mainly from the Geology Division of the University of Camerino (MC), who explained the outcrops in detail. During the episode, insights were also given into the anthropogenic frequentation of the epigean caves in Frasassi (AN), ancient places of frequentation and worship thanks to their suggestiveness and the sense of magnificence that they can elicit. In addition to the illustration of the individual stops, the article offers further insights into the geomorphology of the most important geosites depicted, all of which are in natural parks or protected areas and characterized by a high landscape value. The result was the production of an episode of the television program ‘Geological Wonders of Italy: the Marche and Umbria Regions’, which was broadcast in October 2022 by the Italian national Mediaset group. Full article

The southern Italian peninsula has been suggested to be an important European district for lampreys’ genetic diversity. All lamprey species ever described throughout the Italian peninsula are protected within European legislation and listed in Annex II of the EU Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) and Annex III of the Bern Convention (82/72/CEE) as species of conservation concern, and the Habitats Directive ensures the designation of “sites of community interest” (SICs) for threatened species. During a survey to collect preliminary data on lampreys’ presence in the Cilento, Vallo di Daino, and Alburni National Park (PNCV) located in the Campania region, where 28 sites of community interest (SICs) have been established by the EU Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), two specimens of sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus, Linnaeus, 1758) were detected for the first time. The specimens were genetically characterized through the sequencing of the mtDNA control region locus. The study highlighted the significant importance of the Campania region for lampreys, which, concerning Lampetra sp., was found to have peculiar genetic characteristics and unique alleles that have not been described elsewhere. Furthermore, the recognition of the sea lamprey, P. marinus, emphasized the value of this area, especially in terms of laying the groundwork for future habitat protection strategies. Full article

The livestock sector is facing serious challenges in combatting the increasing predation of domestic livestock. In this scenario, wild carnivores, especially wolves, represent key predators. To allow the coexistence of wild and domestic animals, defense methodologies consisting of multiple integrated antipredator strategies must be tested and implemented based on the geographical management context of each farm. This study investigated the potential of a novel antipredator method (PAN, Project Farmers-Nature in Italian) in protecting livestock (goats and horses) from wolves on a farm located in the Sibillini Mountains National Park, over a three-month period (June–September 2022). The PAN field approach involved two phases: (1) interviews with farmers and inspections of how the farm and pasture are structured and (2) monitoring predator abundance using camera traps and transects in order to understand the wildlife habits. Information on predator movement around the grazing area was shared with the farmer, who was actively involved in implementing strategies to protect livestock. The stable presence of one pair of wolves was confirmed in the grazing area, placing grazing livestock at risk. The farmer was advised to strengthen the existing antipredator strategy (herd protection dogs) by introducing two trained Maremma-Abruzzese sheepdog puppies to protect his animals. The implemented actions demonstrate how professional experts can serve as a strategic intermediary between livestock and wildlife conservation in the management of the current conflicts. Full article