Search results for " forest vegetation"
showing 5 items of 5 documents
Finite Mixture Model-based classification of a complex vegetation system
2020
Aim: To propose a Finite Mixture Model (FMM) as an additional approach for classifying large datasets of georeferenced vegetation plots from complex vegetation systems. Study area: The Italian peninsula including the two main islands (Sicily and Sardinia), but excluding the Alps and the Po plain. Methods: We used a database of 5,593 georeferenced plots and 1,586 vascular species of forest vegetation, created in TURBOVEG by storing published and unpublished phytosociological plots collected over the last 30 years. The plots were classified according to species composition and environmental variables using a FMM. Classification results were compared with those obtained by TWINSPAN algorithm. …
Circummed pine forest database: An electronic archive for mediterranean and submediterranean pine forest vegetation data
2019
Large thematic databases of vegetation plots are increasingly needed for vegetation studies and biodiversity research. In this paper, we present the CircumMed Pine Forest Database (GIVD ID: EU-00-026), which in November 2018, comprised records from 6317 pine-dominated vegetation plots (relevés) and associated vegetation types from 20 countries of the Mediterranean Basin, Near East and Crimea. These vegetation plots were collected through a detailed literature search for plots not previously included in the European Vegetation Archive (EVA), in order to fill geographic gaps in data coverage. The database comprises Mediterranean (including Oromediterranean) pine-forest vegetation plots from b…
Last tesserae of a fading mosaic: floristic census and forest vegetation survey at Parche di Bilello (south-western Sicily, Italy), a site needing ur…
2021
This paper illustrates the botanic heritage of Parche di Bilello, a site located in the municipality of Castelvetrano. The study area hosts several woodland fragments dominated by Olea europaea var. sylvestris, Quercus suber and Quercus ilex, respectively. According to historical data, these nuclei represent the last remnants of an open forestland which covered a much wider coastal area between Mazara del Vallo and Sciacca until the end of Middle Age. Phytosociological relevés were focused on these forest nuclei, probably the most representative of south-western Sicily, which correspond to three habitats included in the 92/43 EEC Directive (9320, 9330 and 9340, respectively) and represent t…
Evolution of the forest landscape in the Punic Eparchy area (West Sicily): the importance of cork oak in natural residual vegetation for the purposes…
2018
The natural forest vegetation in the territory of the western provinces of Sicily (Palermo, Trapani and Agrigento) has almost completely disappeared. This area coincides with the ancient administrative ter- ritorial unit that precedes the division into three "valleys" of the most inhabited island of the Mediterranean: it is the Val di Mazara, remembered by archaeologists as "Punic Eparchy". As a seat of important Greek cities (Himera, Solunto, Entella, Agrigento, Gela, Eraclea Minoa, Segesta, Selinunte, Erice, Lilibeo, Mozia, etc.), it was a Punic domain before being abandoned. Due to the lack of a marked relief and the benefit of climate, agriculture was practiced for three millennia. In t…
Classifying plant communities and mapping their potential distribution using very large, heterogeneous, georeferenced datasets: the case study of the…
2014
In recent years, the scientific community has made significant efforts in order to create georeferenced vegetation databases (Global Index of Vegetation Plot Databases). These databases are useful to carry out assessments of the state of bio diversity, conservation of species and habitats, dispersion of alien species and as a support for the planning of land and protected areas. In this context, Italy has given birth to its own project called VegItaly, coordinated by the Italian Society of Vegetation Science and conducted by several research groups, in order to develop a uniform database for the entire country. Within this framework we have created a georeferenced database of phytosociolo…