About
111
Publications
21,775
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
3,097
Citations
Publications
Publications (111)
Permanent artificial lighting systems in tourist underground environments promote the proliferation of photoautotrophic biofilms, commonly referred to as lampenflora, on damp rock and sediment surfaces. These green-colored biofilms play a key role in the alteration of native community biodiversity and the irreversible deterioration of colonized sub...
The replacement of synthetic chemical herbicides and traditional plastic sheets is a major challenge of modern horticulture in view of a sustainable weed management. In the first step of this research, we tested the weed control efficacy of two biodegradable polymers, chitosan and galactomannan, applied to the soil surface as spray mulching, with o...
Anthropogenic activities, mainly in the form of local fuel exhausts and inputs from the coastline, heavily affect ecosystems at the interface between terrestrial and marine realms, impairing their functionality and the services they provide. Due to the central role of primary producers in trophic webs, their sessile nature and ethical concerns impl...
Coastal marine areas are threatened by different forms of pollution, among which potentially toxic elements (PTEs) represent a primary hazard. In this study, 16 Mediterranean macroalgae colonizing the upper eulittoral and infralittoral zones were studied for their PTE accumulation capabilities in order to identify possible biomonitors that could re...
Urban green planning is crucial in promoting sustainable urban ecosystems through the
mindful use of vegetation, but few approaches are currently able to account for the ecosystem services
provided by urban green planning in ex ante planning applications. The present research proposes
a methodological approach to sustainable urban planning that acc...
Charophytes are amongst the most endangered primary producers in freshwater and coastal ecosystems. In spite of the extensive research on the group and its ecological and conservational relevance, scarce information is available on Mediterranean environments, especially rivers and small water reservoirs, where charophytes face challenging summer dr...
The development of complex photosynthetic communities in underground envi-composed by photosynthetic microorganisms causes aesthetical, physical and chemical changes on the colonized rock substrates. Understanding its physiology-ably due to the production of secondary accessory pigments and to the mixo-cesses, as well as the precipitation of second...
Removing lampenflora, phototrophic organisms developing on rock surfaces in tourist cavities due to the artificial lighting, is a challenge for sustainable and appropriate long-term management of caves. Photosynthetic-based biofilms usually cause rock biodeterioration and an ecological imbalance in cave ecosystems. In this work, a detailed investig...
The exposure of plants to weak magnetic fields (MFs) of various intensities and for different times is increasingly adopted to sustainably enhance plant growth in plant-based applications such as modern agriculture, phytoremediation and biogas production. However, little is known about the effects of MF exposure on plant chemical composition, and i...
Carnivorous plants typify a mixotrophic strategy where autotrophy is supported by predation on animals, achieved through fascinating morpho-physiological adaptations and unique mutualisms. Exploring such symbiotic interactions is pivotal to understand how carnivorous plants feed upon wide ranges of resources, by relying on symbiont-mediated digesti...
Soil microbial community plays a major role in removal of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from soil, and bioremediation potentially offers an attractive and economic approach to the clean-up of polluted areas. To evaluate the contribution of different microbial groups in soil PAH degradation, enzymatic activity and phospholipid fatty acids...
Water and air flows connect underground systems to the surface, affecting the cave’s chemical and physical properties. The aim of this work was to investigate the chemical characteristics of waters in Pertosa-Auletta Cave (Italy), focusing on dripwater and on the underground Negro river, seasonally and in different areas of the cave. In particular,...
Artificial lighting in show caves causes the growth of green photosynthetic biofilms, called lampenflora, on rock surfaces. This represents a worrisome ecological problem in caves as these biofilms cause aesthetical, physical and chemical damages on the rock substrates. Finding an efficient eco-friendly control method is now a priority to carry out...
Underground ecosystems are often of interest for the tourism industry due to their important naturalistic and cultural heritage. Since these underground ecosystems are almost completely isolated, external agents (such as human presence) can easily disrupt their chemico-physical and biological processes, which can affect, sometimes irrevocably, thei...
In cave ecosystems tourists represent moving sources of discontinuous disturbances, able to induce transient system responses whose knowledge is crucial in defining appropriate conservation measures. Here we propose an approach to evaluate the amplitude and scales of cave alterations based on high-resolution air monitoring, through the use of purpo...
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) due to “long‐range atmospheric transport” can reach forest soil in areas far from anthropogenic activities. Information on microorganisms able to metabolize different PAHs helps in developing bioremediation strategies. We focused on the degradation of different molecular weight PAHs (phenanthrene, pyrene, ben...
Caves are usually oligotrophic ecosystems, where the organic matter represents a limiting factor to the hypogeal community and sediments are often a significant energy source. With a view to identifying the energy input influencing the ecological processes occurring in caves, as well as the potential alteration sources of the natural equilibriums,...
The intensive exploitation of agricultural land has caused a depletion of soil organic carbon (SOC) and a decline in soil fertility, with a consequent decrease in the productivity of agroecosystems, also contributing to atmospheric GHG emissions. The ability of soil to storage organic carbon (OC) depends on its persistence and susceptibility to dec...
The intensification of agriculture has been distorting the perception of fertility, with a great attention on its chemical component, reinforced by the use of chemical fertilizers as a major option to manage soil fertility. The consequent decline in soil organic matter content is a threat to the sustainability of intensive agricultural systems. Imp...
Anthropogenic pressures can affect the distribution of species and elicit the appearance of spatial patterns that provide insights into the species’ responses to environmental filtering, mediated by their functional traits. Due to the functional redundancy in ecological communities, the spatial variations of species and functional traits can occur...
Evaluating the relative weight of the choice of cultivar and soil fertilization on potentially toxic elements (PTEs) accumulation is crucial in promoting informed decisions in the framework of regenerative agriculture. To this end, 11 PTEs (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, Pb, Zn) were determined in both leaves and roots of six cultivars (Stylist...
Soil stability includes both resistance, the ability to withstand a perturbation or stress, and resilience, the ability to recover to pre perturbation levels. The functional stability of soil microbial communities is of paramount importance for the ecosystem functioning. We investigated the differences in the stability (resistance and resilience) o...
With a view of shedding light on the accumulation capability of the epigeous organs of common reed (Phragmites australis), employed worldwide in metal biomonitoring, an accumulation study of Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn was performed, focusing on leaves belonging to different whorls and culms. To this end, in five sampling sites on the littora...
In this study, soil organic matter (SOM), as well as the structure and function of soil microbial communities in three forest systems (holm oak, black pine and beech) widely distributed in the Mediterranean area, were analyzed to assess the effects of different canopies on microbial community. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, combine...
The microbiota associated with vermiculations from karst caves is largely unknown. Vermiculations are enigmatic deposits forming worm-like patterns on cave walls all over the world. They represent a precious focus for geomicrobiological studies aimed at exploring both the microbial life of these ecosystems and the vermiculation genesis. This study...
Conventional fertilization practices in agroecosystems concern the supply of bioavailable nutrients, such as mineral fertilizers. A consolidated alternative to restoring the long-term fertility of agricultural soils is their amendment with organic fertilizers. Soil amendment with biowaste compost or sewage sludge represents a sustainable strategy t...
At the core of the adaptive ecosystem management paradigm, environmental monitoring, especially using biomonitors, mandates the search for tools and approaches to overcome its current limitations, both in terms of novel species and analytical techniques to extract information from the data. In this context, a large field biomonitoring study was per...
In statistics, the identification of environmental criticalities, one of the primary goals of environmental monitoring and management, translates into the detection of spatial outliers. Detected in relation to purposely defined sets of indicators, both global and local outliers are pivotal in the identification not only of the severity and spread o...
Caves are often subject to tourist adaptations, causing an irreversible impairment of the bio-geochemical equilibria, which are still not entirely understood, due to the scarcity of information. Between the most worrisome consequences, there is the development of photoautotrophic and mixotrophic communities, called “lampenflora”, growing because of...
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are hazardous organic compounds with mutagenic, genotoxic and carcinogenic properties. Although PAHs in soil can cause toxicity to microorganisms, the microbial community is able to degrade these compounds. For this reason, it is important to study acute and short-term effects of PAH contamination on soil mic...
Environmental monitoring in sensitive areas is crucial to develop and adapt governance policies. In this context, biomonitoring provides information not only on environmental contamination gradients, but also on the actual pollutant bioavailabilities and, using bioaccumulators, on their possible transfer through the food webs. The spatial distribut...
Copper is an essential element for all living organisms; however, it becomes toxic at high concentrations due to its ability to participate in many redox reactions. This vital micronutrient balance plays an important role in the battle between host and pathogen, due to its use by the host to intoxicate pathogens. In this study, we explore the effec...
The effects of long-term soil fertilizations on nutrient and non-essential element concentrations in edible parts of three crops important in human diet were investigated repeating four treatments (biowaste compost, biowaste compost plus mineral nitrogen, mineral NPK, unfertilized control) for seven consecutive years (2007–2014). Fruits of Solanum...
A seven-year horticultural crops sequence in open field was carried out to study the feasibility to manage soil fertility by biowaste compost amendment integrated or not with reduced N mineral rates. Three effects are discussed: SOC balance in relation to the different compost rates applied; soil Nmin concentrations at 0-30 cm soil layer as indicat...
Reconstructing spatial and temporal pollution gradients in natural and anthropogenic areas is of paramount importance to undertake proper mitigation strategies. To this end, air biomonitoring based on chemical analysis of selected bioaccumulators, provides useful information not only on the pollutant concentration gradients, but also on their possi...
Microbial degradation is the main responsible for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) removal from contaminated soils, and the understanding of this process is pivotal to define effective bioremediation approaches. To evaluate the contribution of several microbial groups in soil anthracene and benzo[a]pyrene degradation, the analysis of phospho...
Caves constitute fascinating ecological niches for microorganisms, among which the chemolithoautotrophic constitute the main primary producers of these ecosystems. The role of cave microbiota in the formation of speleothems and other structures like vermiculations is still debated. Vermiculations are enigmatic deposits of incoherent particles, obse...
Fetida Cave is an active sulfuric acid cave influenced by seawater, showing abundant microbial communities that organize themselves under three main different morphologies: water filaments, vermiculations and moonmilk deposits. These biofilms/deposits have different cave distribution, pH, macro- and microelement and mineralogical composition, carbo...
Aim
Understanding and quantifying the seasonal patterns in biodiversity of phytobenthos, macro‐zoobenthos and fishes in Mediterranean coastal lagoons, and the species dependence upon environmental factors.
Location
The study was carried out in the “Stagnone di Marsala e Saline di Trapani e Paceco,” the largest coastal lagoon system in the central...
Unlike the spectacular speleothems that can often be found in numerous caves, vermiculations are rather un-assuming formations, whose origin and evolution still subject of several heated debates. In order to provide a quantitative basis for the understanding of the nature and evolution of vermiculations in karst environments, the geochemical proper...
Vermiculations are little known structures occurring in underground environments. They are thin, irregular and discontinuous deposits of incoherent particles, with diverse morphology (dots, dendritic, hieroglyphic…), colour (red, brownish, grey, white…) and size (1), typically found on walls and roofs of natural or artificial caves all over the wor...
By increasing landscape patchiness and habitat loss, urbanization threatens biodiversity. Its adverse effects may be mitigated by urban parks, in which conditions that promote structural and functional biodiversity contribute to preserve ecosystem processes. Therefore, deep knowledge of urban park biodiversity and of patterns driving species assemb...
Caves are largely unknown environments, hosting in their peculiar ecological niches a wide diversity of extremophile microorganisms, highly specialized and adapted to the prohibitive conditions of caves (1). The role of cave biota in the formation of enigmatic structures occurring in underground environments, like vermiculations, is still largely u...
The river Sarno is known for its serious pollution. After years of environmentalist battles, a parliamentary commission of inquiry and several extraordinary commissioners, some significant works have been carried out, but much remains to be done. "Goletta del fiume Sarno" is a campaign to monitor the waterways of the Hydrographic Basin and active c...
The Sarno River is considered the most polluted river in Europe and one of the ten most polluted rivers in the world. So far, its quality has been usually evaluated by water and sediment analyses of either inorganic or organic pollutants. However, a biomonitoring approach would be of paramount importance in the evaluation of river quality, since it...
A frequent side-effect of soil treatment with organic amendments is the slow release of harmful metals deriving from the initial matrices, mainly municipal waste and manure from intensive farming. Contamination is amplified by repeated treatments, which is a common practice to maintain soil fertility. The aim of the present research was to compare,...
Antibiotics are emerging pollutants released into the environment through wastewater and manure or effluents from livestock plants. Compared to the wide literature on the effects of antibiotics on the development of drug-resistant bacteria and on the adverse effects on animals and human beings, the effects on plants are less investigated. Here we e...
Urban parks provide esthetic and recreational services and improve the quality of life in cities. Sometimes considered as biodiversity hot-spots in cities, they are subjected to different management practices which may affect soil biological quality. This is the first study - performed in urban parks of Naples (southern Italy) - aiming to evaluate...
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are produced by incomplete combustion of organic matter and hydrocarbon fuels, but also by natural processes. PAHs are released to the environment causing the contamination of soil with subsequent risks for humans and ecosystems. Soil PAH degradation depends on biotic and abiotic factors and the composition a...
In order to validate the use of compost in soil PAH bioremediation, the degradation of anthracene and benzo(a)pyrene was monitored in soils artificially contaminated and incubated in mesocosms under controlled conditions. The dynamics observed in compost amended soil were compared to those observed in soil added with a fungal consortium and untreat...
Concentrations of four heavy metals (HMs) (Cd, Cr, Fe, Pb) and four polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) (fluoranthene, phenanthrene, chrysene, benzo[a]pyrene) in Quercus ilex L. leaves collected at the Campania Region (Southern Italy) in previous air biomonitoring studies were employed to (1) test the correspondence with an a priori site subdiv...
Agricultural soils of semi-arid Mediterranean areas are often subjected to depletion of their chemical, physical, and biological properties. In this context, organic fertilization, in addition to providing nutrients for a longer time in respect to mineral fertilization, improves many other characteristics related to soil fertility. Moreover, the co...
Choosing native vascular plants as nutrient and toxic element accumulators for passive biomonitoring of urban river quality is not an easy task in Mediterranean rivers, due to the particular climate determining high variations in river hydrology. To identify potential biomonitors for this area, the roots of seven species (Angelica sylvestris, Apium...
Pollution by metal and metalloid ions is one of the most widespread environmental concerns. They are non-biodegradable, and, generally, present high water solubility facilitating their environmental mobilisation interacting with abiotic and biotic components such as adsorption onto natural colloids or even accumulation by living organisms, thus, th...
Background:
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most important vegetables in the world and represents a key crop in southern Italy. With the aim to evaluate the nutritional characteristics of tomato fruits in relation to NPK and compost fertilization, the concentrations of the main nutrients, toxic elements, primary metabolites and tota...
Phylogeographical scenario for the diversification of the Soldanella genus during the Pleistocene.
Figure S1. Abaxial (left) and adaxial (right) side of the leaves of Soldanella sacra.
Figure S2. (a) stalked glandular hair of leaf petioles, (b) stalked glandular hair of pedicels and (c) non-stalked glandular hair of the adaxial side of calyx lobes. Glandular hairs in (c) are morphologically similar to the non-stalked glandular hairs of leaf pet...
Background: The populations of Soldanella (Primulaceae) of the southern Apennines (Italy) are unique within the genus for their distribution and ecology. Their highly fragmented distribution range, with three main metapopulations on some of the highest mountains (Gelbison, Sila and Aspromonte massifs) of the area, poses intriguing questions about t...
Chemometric analysis applied to diffuse reflectance spectroscopy is increasingly proposed as an effective and accurate methodology to predict soil physical, chemical and biological properties. Its effectiveness, however, largely varies in relation to the calibration techniques and the specific soil properties. In addition, the calibration of UV-Vis...
A vegetation analysis was carried out on a degraded agricultural soil of the Mediterranean area (Campania region, southern Italy) in order to study the effects of different fertilization practices (quality compost, mineral fertilizers, mixed fertilization, and no fertilization) on the whole spontaneous vegetation community. The study was performed...
Translocation processes between the inner and outer rings of lichen thalli, as well as between lichens and bark substratum, induce zonation patterns, with a dynamic stratification of pollution history memory which is often affected by the intensity of the atmospheric events. Two experiments of passive biomonitoring are presented, aimed to measure m...
We determined genetic variation and metal and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon
concentrations in Leptodon smithii moss collected in holm oak stands at cities, outskirts
and remote areas of Campania and Tuscany (Italy) to investigate if anthropogenic
pressure (pollutant emissions and land use change) affects moss genetic richness. In
both regions, me...
Litter decomposition is an important process occurring in forest ecosystems, where it affects the carbon balance as a whole. In Mediterranean area, seasonal changes and climate variations associated to latitude and structural characteristics of forest stands have a real effect on decomposition rates. Current leaf litter decomposition models are fre...
The investigation of the relationships between litter decomposition and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is important to shed light not only on the effects of these pollutants on fundamental ecosystem processes, such as litter decomposition, but also on the degradation of these pollutants by soil microbial community. This allows to understan...
Copper is an essential yet toxic metal and its overload causes Wilson disease, a disorder due to mutations in copper transporter ATP7B. To remove excess copper into the bile, ATP7B traffics toward canalicular area of hepatocytes. However, the trafficking mechanisms of ATP7B remain elusive. Here, we show that, in response to elevated copper, ATP7B m...