Riparian vegetation consists of different Structural Vegetation Types (SVTs): woodland, shrubland, and herbaceous communities. Since each SVT may respond differently to abiotic and biotic drivers, our study aimed to disentangle the independent and shared effects of these drivers on distinct SVTs. Using a stratified random sampling approach, we collected 144 plots in a Mediterranean river of central Italy. We applied RDA and va...

Wetlands are among the world’s most vulnerable ecosystems. Particularly in the Mediterranean region, farmland ponds are strongly influenced by the agricultural land use in their surroundings, though supporting unique biodiversity. This study aimed to highlight the patterns of farmland pond plant diversity across different pondscapes—networks of interconnected ponds within a landscape—and different spatial scales, from local (p...

Assessing the performance of spontaneous plants in abandoned quarries under future environmental scenarios is important for successful restoration practises. Air warming is one of the most relevant ongoing climatic changes in the Mediterranean. We tested the effects of increasing temperature on the germination of five species spontaneously colonising the abandoned sectors of a Carrara marble quarry (Tuscany, central Italy). We...

Trait‐based ecology has already revealed main independent axes of trait variation defining trait spaces that summarize plant adaptive strategies, but often ignoring intraspecific trait variability (ITV). By using empirical ITV‐level data for two independent dimensions of leaf form and function and 167 species across five habitat types (coastal dunes, forests, grasslands, heathlands, wetlands) in the Italian peninsula, we found...

The changes of agriculture led to deep transformations of arable plant diversity. The features of arable plant communities are determined by many anthropic, environmental, and geographic drivers. Understanding the relative importance of such drivers is essential for conservation and restoration purposes. In this work, we assessed the effects of agronomic, climatic, geographic, and landscape features on α-diversity, β-diversity...

Agricultural management has a great influence on biodiversity and its services in agroecosystems. In Europe, a relevant proportion of biodiversity is dependent on low-input agriculture. To assess the effects of agricultural management on biodiversity, in this study we surveyed the communities of arable plants, diurnal flying insects, and pollinators in three conventional and in two organic fields of a traditional Elephant garl...