LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY

BIO/02 - 6 CFU - 2° Semester

Teaching Staff

GIANPIETRO GIUSSO DEL GALDO


Learning Objectives

Provide scientifically sound information about the relationships occurring between (a)biotic factors and plants. Describe the modern approach for vegetation analyses, together with its applied use in the frame of environmental studies. Finally, provide in-depth knowledge about the inter-correlations between climate, vegetation and landscape.



Detailed Course Content

Introduction and definitions . Flora and vegetation: floristic diversity, life forms, chorotypes of the Italian flora, phytosociology (quali-quantitative approach), plant community, phytocoenoses analyses, vegetation succession and dynamism, brief history of the vegetation and vegetation mapping. Vegetation complexes and geosigmeta: Italian landscapes, plant landscape of Sicily. Management and conservation: Landscape as operational unit, environmental restoration, man and environment, human impacts and Mediterranean ecosystems, landscape ecology as a tool for urban development planning, main strategies for biodiversity and (semi-)natural landscape conservation (priority habitats and species according to the Habitat Directive 43/92/CEE, Natura 2000, etc.) Practical activities: evaluation of landscape structure and functions, evaluation of natural and semi-natural environments. Examples of some vegetation series. Phytosociological investigations. Role played by nature reserves and SCIs for landscape conservation. Anthropogenic modifications of landscapes. Laboratories.



Textbook Information

Pignatti. S. Ecologia del paesaggio. UTET 1994
Turner & Gardner. Landscape Ecology in theory and practice: pattern and process. Springer 2015
Sestini A. Il paesaggio. T.C.I. 1963
Primack R.B. Conservazione della natura. Zanichelli 2003
Blasi C. (ed.). La vegetazione d’Italia. Palombi & Partner, Roma 2010




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