Alfredo Di Filippo

Tuscia University | Tuscia · Department of Agriculture and Forest Science (DAFNE)

Canopy accession strategies reveal much about tree life histories and forest stand dynamics. However, the protracted nature of ascending to the canopy makes direct observation challenging. We use a reconstructive approach based on an extensive tree ring database to study the variability of canopy accession patterns of dominant tree species (Abies a...

Severe droughts limit tree growth and forest productivity worldwide, a phenomenon which is expected to aggravate over the next decades. However, how drought intensity and climatic conditions before and after drought events modulate tree growth resilience remains unclear, especially when considering the range-wide phenotypic variability of a tree sp...

Old-growth forests (OGF) provide valuable ecosystem services such as habitat provision, carbon sequestration or recreation maintaining biodiversity, carbon storage, or human well-being. Long-term human pressure caused OGFs in Europe to be rare and scattered. Their detailed extent and current status are largely unknown. This review aims to identify...

We investigated the dendroclimatic response of a Pinus heldreichii metapopulation distributed over a wide elevation interval (from 882 to 2143 m a.s.l.), spanning from low mountain to upper subalpine vegetation belts in the southern Italian Apennines. The tested hypothesis is that wood growth along an elevational gradient is non-linearly related to...

Calibrating land surface phenology (LSP) with tree rings is important to model spatio-temporal variations in forest productivity. We used MODIS (resolution: 250 m) NDVI, WDRVI and EVI series 2000-2014 to derive LSP metrics quantifying phenophase timing and canopy photosynthetic rates of 26 European beech forests covering a large thermal gradient (5...

In this contribution, new data concerning the distribution of native vascular flora in Italy are presented. It includes new records, confirmations, exclusions, and status changes to the Italian administrative regions. Nomenclatural and distribution updates, published elsewhere, and corrigenda are provided as Suppl. material 1.

The research presented herein explores soil organic carbon concentration (SOCC) under monodominant primeval forests of European beech trees and their association with parent material on a regional scale. Soil sampling to a maximum depth of 0.8 m was conducted in six localities in the West, East, and South Carpathians, Eastern Albanides, and Central...

Pinus halepensis dominates coastal to mountain areas throughout the Mediterranean Basin. Its growth plasticity, based on polycyclic shoot formation and dynamic cambial activity, and tolerance to extreme drought and exceptional frosts, allows it to colonize a vast array of environments. We used tree-rings from codominant pines to compare lifespan, g...

Climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme climate events, causing profound impacts on forest function and composition. Late frost defoliation (LFD) events, the loss of photosynthetic tissues due to low temperatures at the start of the growing season, might become more recurrent under future climate scenarios. Therefore, the detection of...

Land vegetation is currently taking up large amounts of atmospheric CO 2 , possibly due to tree growth stimulation. Extant models predict that this growth stimulation will continue to cause a net carbon uptake this century. However, there are indications that increased growth rates may shorten trees′ lifespan and thus recent increases in forest car...

Long‐term tree recruitment dynamics of subalpine forests mainly depend on temperature changes, but little is known about the feedbacks between historical land use and climate. Here, we analyse a southern European, millennium‐long dataset of tree recruitment from three high‐elevation pine forests located in Mediterranean mountains (Pyrenees, northea...

In this contribution, new data concerning the distribution of native vascular flora in Italy are presented. It includes new records, confirmations, exclusions, and status changes to the Italian administrative regions. Two new combinations are proposed. Nomenclatural and distribution updates, published elsewhere, and corrigenda are provided as Suppl...

Discovering, studying, and preserving old trees is a top priority for conservation biology. We used tree-ring data from a high-mountain old-growth beech forest to reconstruct long-term growth patterns in trees of maximum longevity for temperate hardwoods. In these stands, individual growth history is highly variable; one tree can take from one to s...

Combined dendrochronology and accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (AMS ¹⁴ C) dating analyses were used in order to date an old living tree named Italus , growing in the Pollino massif in Southern Italy. Wiggle match AMS ¹⁴ C dating analysis was performed on a 320-yr-long floating chronology obtained by cross-dating four wood cores extracted f...

This study analyzed with dendrochronology 177 Heldreich's pines growing on the Pollino Massif in southern Italy for understanding climatic and human impacts on old trees. Most of the large-diameter trees currently living became established in the late Medieval to Renaissance periods under a snowy wet climate and low anthropic influence. Millennium-...

Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is the most expensive spice in the world and is used in food, cosmetic and dyeing industries. Considering that the production of saffron is increasingly widespread in medium-small Italian farms as well as the scarceness of information and studies regarding the quality of the saffron produced in Italy, the principal aim o...

Di Filippo Alfredo, Agostini Nevio, Alberti Davide, Baliva Michele, Ciampelli Paola, Presutti Saba Emanuele, Santini Luca, Zoccola Antonio, Piovesan Gianluca,2018 -“Le ricerche dendroecologiche nella faggeta vetusta di Sasso Fratino: bioclima, longevità, dinamiche di crescita e naturalità” - In Bottacci A., Ciampelli P. ( a cura di) , AGC Edizioni,...

In this work, we will report applications of the total external X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) station, a prototype assembled at the XLab Frascati laboratory (XlabF) at the INFN National Laboratories of Frascati (INFN LNF). XlabF has been established as a facility to study, design and develop X-ray optics, in particular, polycapillary lenses, as well as...

The response of forest growth to climate variability varies along environmental gradients. A growth increase and decrease with warming is usually observed in cold-humid and warm-dry regions, respectively. However, it remains poorly known where the sign of these temperature effects switches. Here we introduce a newly developed European tree-ring net...

In the process of dating the oldest trees, which are often hollow, we developed a new method that combines tree-ring crossdating and wiggle matching radiocarbon techniques on wood samples extracted from the stem and from exposed roots. The method can be illustrated by the following steps: •crossdated tree-ring series from trunk cores reveal a mult...

Overlaid to a general reduction of European beech and sessile oak tree growth over the recent decades in the Mediterranean Basin, tree-ring records from western Mediterranean populations display a stronger growth decrease than eastern populations. We investigate here to what extent the impact of sustained atmospheric circulation patterns in summert...

Bosnian pine (Pinus leucodermis Antoine) is one of the longest-lived species of Europe. This biological feature allows building long tree-ring chronologies. The aim of this study is to analyze the growth responses of long-lived trees of Bosnian pine that grows at higher altitude limit of the Monte Pollino and Serra Dolcedorme (Pollino National Park...

We present a case study illustrating a multidisciplinary approach for characterizing, mapping and monitoring the bio-ecological properties of Mediterranean mountain grasslands in extensive grazing systems. The approach was developed to provide the basis for the management plan of a cluster of Natura2000 special conservation areas in the Central Ape...

Old‐growth studies commonly emphasize structural and age conditions, selecting proxy indicators of long‐term ecological processes. Transition dynamics from mature to old‐growth status reveal how natural legacies are progressively accumulated in forests after major disturbances, including human ones. In late‐successional, multi‐aged forests, the chr...

Key message A combined Micro-FTIRS and GC analysis revealed that poplars grown under natural field conditions can accumulate HCHs in their wood when growing in contaminated areas. Abstract Micro-Fourier Transform Infrared (micro-FTIR) spectroscopy was used to evaluate possible contaminations from hexachlorocyclohexane isomers (HCHs) in poplar tree-...

Unfortunately, the column head of Table 2 of the original article was wrongly published online. The corrected Table 2 is given in the following page.(Table Presented.)

Climate predictions for the Mediterranean Basin include increased temperatures, decreased precipitation, and increased frequency of extreme climatic events (ECE). These conditions are associated with decreased tree growth and increased vulnerability to pests and diseases. The anatomy of tree rings responds to these environmental conditions. Quantit...

Tree rings are natural archives of climate and environmental information with a yearly resolution. Indeed, wood anatomical, chemical, and other properties of tree rings are a synthesis of several intrinsic and external factors, and their interaction during tree growth. In particular, Intra-Annual Density Fluctuations (IADFs) can be considered as tr...

Tree rings provide information about the climatic conditions during the growing season by recording them in different anatomical features, such as intra-annual density fluctuations (IADFs). IADFs are intra-annual changes of wood density appearing as latewood-like cells within earlywood, or earlywood-like cells within latewood. The occurrence of IAD...

L’Unesco è l’agenzia delle Nazioni Unite creata nel 1945 con lo scopo di promuovere la pace e la comprensione tra le nazioni tramite l’istruzione, la scienza, la cultura, la comunicazione e l’informazione, come definite e affermate dalla Carta dei Diritti Fondamentali delle Nazioni Unite. L’Unesco, inoltre, attraverso l’apposita convenzione, si pre...

The sessile oak forest (Quercus petraea subsp.austrothyrrenica Brullo, Guarino & Siracusa) of Pomieri (PA), represents for Sicily a great scientific, naturalistic and landscape-based interest woodland, because it is the only woodland of significant extension located in the southern Europe at the southern limit of its distributional area. Main purpo...

We compared the multivariate patterns of tree ring chronologies with those of floristic composition (and of its associated E llenberg indicator values – EIV s) across the whole elevation gradient of F agus sylvatica forests in C entral I taly (from 300 to 1900 m a.s.l.). Both data sets were also compared with bioclimatic parameters obtained from re...

Understanding the factors controlling the expression of longevity in trees is still an outstanding challenge for tree biologists and forest ecologists. We gathered tree-ring data and literature for broadleaf deciduous (BD) temperate trees growing in closed-canopy old-growth (OG) forests in the Northern Hemisphere to explore the role of geographic p...

The sessile oak forest (Quercus petraea subsp. austrothyrrenica Brullo, Guarino & Siracusa) of Pomieri (PA), represents for Sicily a great scientific, naturalistic and landscape-based interest woodland. In fact, it is the only woodland, of significant extension located in the southern part of mainland Europe at the southern limit of its distributio...

The sessile oak forest (Quercus petraea subsp. austrothyrrenica Brullo, Guarino & Siracusa) of Pomieri (PA), represents for Sicily a great scientific, naturalistic and landscape-based interest woodland, because it is the only woodland of significant extension located in the southern Europe at the southern limit of its distributional area. Main purp...

Analisi strutturali dendroecologiche su popolamentidi Quercus Petraea subsp. austrothyrrenica brullo, guarino e siracusa nel parco regionale delle Madonie (Sicilia).

We investigated the variability of the climate-growth relationship of Aleppo pine across its distribution range in the Mediterranean Basin. We constructed a network of tree-ring index chronologies from 63 sites across the region. Correlation function analysis identified the relationships of tree-ring index to climate factors for each site. We also...

Identifying tree growth releases is crucial to understand forest stand dynamics, their drivers (including climate change), and their interactions with other long-term ecosystem processes. We tested how bioclimate and geologic substrate affect the application of boundary line release criteria, which are based on scaling percent growth change to prio...

In a network of six old-growth and three managed beech forests, distributed over a wide altitudinal range in the Central Apennines, we used principal component analysis to analyse a set of 15 commonly used structural and chronological indicators of old-growthness, related to both live trees and deadwood. Our goals were to (1) quantify the effective...

In order to assess the response of the radial growth of Pinus pinea L. to climatic variability in Central Italy, dendrochronological and dendroclimatological analyses were carried out on five different populations scattered along the Tyrrhenian coasts of the peninsula. The aim of this study is to contribute to the understanding of the ecological de...

When site factors reduce growth rates, tree lifespan tends to increase. This study investigates processes leading to such inverse relationship in Fagus sylvatica stands distributed along two elevation gradients, with an emphasis on climatic response, suppression periods, and growth trends. Dendrochronological records from old-growth beech populatio...

Tree size distributions of old-growth forests are a fundamental tool for both scientific analysis and conservation management. In old-growth forests the diameter distribution shape may depend on spatial scale, but theoretical models often show fundamental similarities that suggest general underlying mechanisms controlling regeneration, mortality, a...

This paper describes the experience of developing an educational trail inside an old-growth beech forest in central Italy. In the last 150years local people exploited this stand almost exclusively for recreational purposes and now the beechwood has acquired new ecological value after having reached old-growth status. Despite the cultural-historical...

• We combined stem volume increment analysis with dendroecological tools to address two unresolved issues concerning oak dieback in Mediterranean areas: early detection of changes in stand growth, and identification of mechanisms for observed growth declines. • We reconstructed productivity of a stored coppice formed by Turkey oak (Quercus cerris)...

We analyzed the carbon stock and forest structure of nine beech forests (three old-growth forests and six managed) in Italy. In each site, we made ten circular plots of 20 meter of radius (1257 m²). For each tree (living or dead) we measured the diameter at breast height (> 2.5 cm dbh), the relative position by polar coordinate from the plot center...

In the past 15 years several European countries have defined regions of provenance for forest species, to achieve better management of genetic resources and to detect and certificate plant material origin. The main methods involved the use of ecological parameters (e.g. pedological, phytoclimatic), presumed to be homogeneous within each area, thus...

In the framework of the Project of National Interest (PRIN) "Climate change and forests -Dendroecological and ecophysiological responses, productivity and carbon balance on the Italian network of old-growth beech forests", 9 old beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forests were sampled in the eastern Alps and in the central Apennines to assess: i) the degree...

Understanding the ecological mechanisms that allow a species to transition from an occasional understory component to the dominant type in the forest canopy is essential for predicting future shifts in the distribution of species. We investigated this issue with regard to yew, also because mature yew trees have been reported to inhibit self-regener...

Productivity of old-growth beech forests in the Mediterranean Basin was measured by average stem basal area increment (BAI) of dominant trees at two mountain sites in the Italian Apennines. Both forests could be ascribed to the old-growth stage, but they differed markedly with regard to elevation (1000 vs. 1725m a.s.l.), soil parent material (volca...

Aim To identify the dominant spatial patterns of Fagus sylvatica radial growth in the Eastern Alps, and to understand their relationships to climate variation and bioclimatic gradients. Location Fourteen beech stands in the Eastern Alps, growing between 200 and 1500 m a.s.l. in Italy, Slovenia and Austria. Methods At each site, trees were sampled u...

The oldest beech forest of Europe was found in the Apennines. The stand is located in valle Cervara (Abruzzo national Park) and it covers about fifty hectares from 1 400 to 1 800 m a.s.l. The forest is characterized by a mosaic of patches in different phases of development from seedlings to senescent and dead trees. Some trees reach five hundred ye...

The oldest beech forest of Europe was found in the Apennines. The stand is located in valle Cervara (Abruzzo national Park) and it covers about fifty hectares from 1 400 to 1 800 m a.s.l. The forest is characterized by a mosaic of patches in different phases of development from seedlings to senescent and dead trees. Some trees reach five hundred ye...

A network of 24 beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) tree-ring chronologies has been developed for the Italian peninsula. Principal component and cluster analyses were used to identify geographical and altitudinal patterns of tree growth. Correlations and response functions were then applied to the main modes of tree-ring variability to uncover climatic sign...

Question: Which are the structural attributes and the history of old-growth Fagus forest in Mediterranean montane environments? What are the processes underlying their structural organization? Are these forests stable in time and how does spatial scale affect our assessment of stability? How do these forests compare to other temperate deciduous old...