Emanuele Lingua

University of Padua | UNIPD · Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry TESAF

Interactions among species determine local-scale diversity, but local interactions are thought to have minor effects at larger scales. However, quantitative comparisons of the importance of biotic interactions relative to other drivers are rarely made at larger scales. Using a data set spanning 78 sites and five continents, we assessed the relative...

Resilience against fire disturbance of Mediterranean vegetation has been frequently described. However, due to climatic change and abandonment of local land use practices, the fire regime is changing, probably leading to higher intensities and frequencies of disturbance events. The forthcoming scenario calls for a full understanding of post-disturb...

Questions What is the structure of the anthropogenic upper forest‐grassland ecotone and are there differences in the spatial relationships between the tree species involved? Location Valfurva Valley, Italian central Alps. Methods We conducted a spatial distribution and structure analysis in three 1‐ha permanent plots along an altitudinal gradient...

Treelines are sensitive indicators of global change, as their position, composition and pattern directly respond to numerous ecological and anthropogenic factors. Most studies are case-specific and treeline features vary greatly worldwide making it very difficult to model an overall pattern. Therefore, the further development of methods to accurate...

Wildland fires and windthrows represent relevant disturbances for forest ecosystems worldwide. In this context, especially for Italian catchments, the interaction between windthrows and changes in wildfire behaviour starting from ALS data processing is scarcely investigated. Therefore, this research aims to compute a multi-temporal analysis of the...

In a conifer forest in Central Italy burnt by wildfire in 2017, shallow sub-surface (topmost 5 cm) soil temperature and soil moisture (% volumetric water content) were measured during summer 2022. Various distances from downed trees (natural barriers) and log erosion barriers (artificial barriers) were sampled. Additional data on the hour of sampli...

Description of an IP-based optimization model for single tree selection suitable for cable yarding harvesting scenarios that may improve the efficiency of the forest operations by maximizing the economic benefit of timber harvest. New results of a multi-objective approach are presented too.

Wind disturbances are one of the main drivers of forest dynamics in Europe, shaping forest stands and modifying the ecosystem services provisioning. Salvage logging is often most common strategy adopted after a high-severity disturbance in managed stands. Understanding natural regeneration dynamics including their interaction with the logging opera...

Integer programming (IP)-based optimization models for tree selection can improve the efficiency of cable yarding timber harvesting operations: The selection based on tree clusters (TCS) results in a 24.9% increase in economic benefit, while selecting on a single tree base (STS) leads to an unwanted 22.9% decrease compared to the actual marking mad...

Time series analysis of medium-resolution multispectral satellite imagery is critical to investigate forest disturbance dynamics at the landscape scale. In particular, the spatial, temporal, and radiometric consistency of Landsat time series data provides unprecedented insight into past disturbances that occurred over the last four decades. Several...

The efficiency of forest logging operations can be strongly affected by the layout of the harvesting pattern, which is usually based on silvicultural constraints and technical feasibility. Specifically, individual tree volume and the spatial distribution of trees significantly impact the overall harvesting performance. Spatial optimization of tree...

The Vaia Storm had a significant impact on forests and on the related sector in North-Eastern Italy, considerably influencing forest management and the wood supply chain. Five years after the event, on October 30th 2023 in the Aula Magna of the Agripolis campus of the University of Padua, young researchers from the TESAF and DAFNAE Departments pres...

Recent observations of tree regeneration failures following large and severe disturbances , particularly under warm and dry conditions, have raised concerns about the resilience of forest ecosystems and their recovery dynamics in the face of climate change. We investigated the recovery of temperate forests in Europe after large and severe disturban...

In this study, we tested two plotless sampling methods, the ordered distance method and point-centred quarter method, to estimate the tree density and basal area in some managed Alpine forests in northeastern Italy. We selected nine independent forest stands, classified according to the spatial distribution patterns of trees (cluster, random, regul...

Background: Changes in disturbance regimes triggered by land use and climate change can significantly alter forest ecosystems by modifying the distribution of some species and hindering post-disturbance tree regeneration dynamics. Applied nucleation (AN) could be a valuable active restoration approach for promoting natural recovery in forest ecosys...

The accurate assessment of discharge in vegetated floodplains during floods is a persistent challenge in river engineering due to the difficulty of acquiring hydraulic data, the variability in vegetation roughness, and the limitations of on-site vegetation characterization. This study introduces a novel approach that combines the continuous slope-a...

After large and severe wildfires, the establishment of tree regeneration, particularly for species without specific fire-adaptive traits, can be challenging. Within harsh environments, the presence of favorable microsites, as those provided by deadwood, enhancing microclimatic conditions, is crucial to the re-establishment of forest cover and thus...

Due to the associated fire risk, the wildland–urban interface (WUI) has drawn the attention of researchers and managers from a range of backgrounds. From a land management point of view, it is important to identify the WUI to determine areas to prioritise for fire risk prevention. It is also important to know the fire risk mitigation measures avail...

The risk of wind damage to European forests is expected to increase due to the changed climate. Research efforts in forestry have been focussing on the development of analytical and modelling tools to aid with the evaluation and the prediction of forests' vulnerability to wind damage, and ultimately to inform forest management decisions aimed at pr...

The European biodiversity and forest strategies rely on forest sustainable management (SFM) to conserve forest biodiversity. However, current sustainability assessments hardly account for direct biodiversity indicators. We focused on forest multi-taxon biodiversity to: i) gather and map the existing information; ii) identify knowledge and research...

Salvage logging operations often occur after large disturbances and usually leave behind a substantial quantity of residues, which is fundamental for maintaining soil fertility and facilitating ecosystem dynamics. This study aims to estimate the amount of logging residues following salvage operations categorized by two wood harvesting systems: Cut-...

The accuracy assessment confirmed the validity of the method for classification. The volume correlation for CWD depicts the high variability in the considered areas, showing the limitations of the adopted model in terms of correcting classified pixels and therefore true-positive volume. The method, with solid overall accuracy (HF = 0.84; CC = 0.8...

Background The Mediterranean basin is currently facing major changes in fire regimes as a result of climate and land-use changes. These alterations could affect the ability of forests to recover after a fire, hence triggering degradation processes and modifying the provision of fundamental ecosystem services. Examining patterns and drivers of post-...

We present the first high-resolution Holocene pollen, plant-macrofossil, and charcoal records from the upper-montane zone in the central Dinaric Alps. Drawing on these new records from well-dated lacustrine sediments of Zminje Jezero (ca. 1500 m a.s.l.; Montenegro) and on independent chironomid-inferred summer temperatures, we explore long-term eco...

The use of UAV-based images in forestry allows for the coverage of large areas with a high level of detail. The combination of this information with machine learning (ML) techniques provides significant data for management and forest operations. This study focuses on evaluating the potential of UAVs based images and the use of ML algorithms to asse...

Increasing knowledge on tree stability in the forest environment has two major objectives: the first is to provide detailed information to help the decision-making processes that aim to maximize the efficiency of localized silvicultural interventions; the second is to provide useful information and safety guidelines for those who operate in these f...

The Dinaric Mountains are a region considered as a hotspot for late-successional montane mixed Abies alba-Fagus sylvatica-Picea abies old-growth forests. This is likely due to historical deforestation levels being presumably lower than in other European regions. This paper provides new insights into the long-term vegetation dynamics and possible le...

Fire is a common phenomenon in many forests and is considered an important ecological tool. Fire severity mapping presents an effective way to assess post-fire management intervention and is helpful in environmental and climate change research. The objective of this study was to determine the severity of a forest fire event that occurred from 24th...

Landslide susceptibility maps are often not validated after significant landslide events. In this work, we analyse the impact of the Vaia windstorm on landslide activity in Belluno province (Veneto Region, NE, Italy). The storm hit the area on October 27-30, 2018, causing 8,679 ha of damaged forests and widespread landslides. As shown in the case o...

With the publication of a Decree that has established a List of the Italian old-growth forests, we have analyzed, using text mining software, the state of the art of Italian research in this field. We have analyzed 188 ISI and 72 non-indexed papers or reports. The analysis has identified 165 locations of which more than 50% are on pure beech or mix...

Mountain forest dynamics and ecosystems services are critically influenced by disturbances, in particular storm events. After extensive disturbance, the large amount of deadwood lying on ground and the necessity for restoring the forest cover with natural regeneration are two critical issues to be dealt with. Salvage logging is the most common post...

Deriving burn severity from multispectral satellite data is a widely adopted approach to infer the degree of environmental change caused by fire. Burn severity maps obtained by thresholding bi-temporal indices based on pre- and post-fire Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) can vary substantially depending on temporal constraints such as matched acquisition...

Old-growth forests (OGFs) are extremely valuable relict ecosystems for studying natural disturbance dynamics. Small-scale disturbances caused by tree crown mortality of one or few individuals, i.e. gap dynamics, are the most frequent events occurring in OGFs. Understanding these processes requires information on the spatial arrangement of forest pa...

Windstorms represent one of the main large-scale disturbances that shape the European landscape and influence its forest structure, so post-event restoration activities start to gain a major role in mountainous forest management. After a disturbance event, biological legacies may enhance or maintain multiple ecosystem services of mountain forests s...

The multitemporal acquisition of images from the Sentinel-1 satellites allows continuous monitoring of a forest. This study focuses on the use of multitemporal C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data to assess the results for forest type (FTY), between coniferous and deciduous forest, and tree species (SPP) classification. We also investigated t...

Protection forests can be severely affected by natural disturbances, whose consequences could greatly alter the fundamental ecosystem services they are providing. Assessing and monitoring the status of the protective effects, particularly within disturbed stands, is therefore of vital importance, with timing being a critical issue. Remote sensing t...

This paper reports a semi-automated workflow for detection and quantification of forest damage from windthrow in an Alpine region, in particular from the Vaia storm in October 2018. A web-GIS platform allows to select the damaged area by drawing polygons; several vegetation indices (VIs) are automatically calculated using remote sensing data (Senti...

Root reinforcement is a mechanism through which forests contribute to the prevention and mitigation of shallow instabilities in soils, one of the main hazards in mountain areas. This study aims to assess how spatial tree distribution and whether thinning operations affect root reinforcement in the most common forest types of the European Southern A...

Worldwide, mountain forests represent a significant factor in reducing rockfall risk over long periods of time on large potential disposition areas. While the economic value of technical protection measures against rockfall can be clearly determined and their benefits indicated, there is no general consensus on the quantification of the protective...

After natural forest disturbances such as wildfires, windstorms and insect outbreaks, salvage logging is commonly applied to reduce economic losses and mitigate subsequent disturbance risk. However, this practice is controversial due to its potential ecological impacts, and its capacity to mitigate or increase the risk of subsequent disturbances re...

The management of Italian chestnut coppices has gradually been suspended after World War II, causing a widespread overaging of the concerned stands. In recent years, the renewed interest in coppice wood products increased the need of a solid knowledge on the most suitable restoration practices of overaged coppices. In this context, a key issue is a...

Fire scenarios may pose serious risks and induce severe damages to anthropic structures, activities and business. These can be represented by typical fires in industrial facilities or also atypical scenarios involving differentiated targets as in the case of interface fires. Risk assessment of atypical scenarios requires improved approaches since a...

Tree roots can prevent landslides through root reinforcement. Modelling root reinforcement means combining density and biomechanical properties of the roots. Slope stability analysis requires the estimation of root reinforcement on large areas. In the present study, we analyze the relationship between a spatially explicit model of root reinforcemen...

Chilean territory is recurrently affected by severe wildfires, which drastically reduce the forest cover and promote runoff, soil erosion and slope instabilities. To understand how the geomorphic system responds to wildfires in terms of sediment dynamics, the assessment of sediment connectivity, i.e. the property describing the relationships betwee...

Considering the importance of forest fires problem in Italy, It is essential to improve the tools available for forest fire prevention, beginning with a correct and detailed fire risk evaluation. At present most part of forest fire plans at national level, do not consider, when dealing with forest fire risk analysis, fire’s behavior and potential p...

Among the functions provided by forests, protection has always been considered one of the preeminent in mountain areas. In order to fulfil, maximize, and sustain this function, specific forest structures should be obtained and maintained through properly designed forest management. A specific management goal should be defined with a well-defined fo...

This report presents results from a survey on forestry students’ opinions of the evaluation procedures adopted at University of Padova for forestry-related courses. The poll was organized by the forestry students’ association – AUSF. The data allowed a better understanding of the student’s perspective regarding their engagement in quality assessmen...

High severity stand-replacing wildfires can deeply affect forest ecosystems whose composition includes plant species lacking fire-related traits and specific adaptations. Land managers and policymakers need to be aware of the importance of properly managing these ecosystems, adopting post-disturbance interventions designed to reach management goals...

On October 29, 2019, the Vaia storm hits the North-Eastern regions of Italy by wind gusts exceeding 200 km h-1. The forests in these regions have been seriously damaged. This contribution illustrates the methodology adopted in the emergency phase to estimate forest damages caused by Vaia storm, both in terms of damaged forest areas and growing stoc...

This research project aims to compare and evaluate different surveymethods for the data collection targeted to the characterization of a rockfall protection forest. The types of survey analyzed are: i) a traditional forest survey; ii) a mobile laser scannersurvey; and (iii) a UAV photogrammetric survey.The results show how the examined remote sensi...

It is widely recognized that THE PRESENCE OF FOREST CAN REDUCE RUNOUT DISTANCES OF ROCKFALL, but the quantification of this reduction is still an issue. Numerical deterministic ROCKFALL SIMULATION MODELS may give interesting results in this field. However, the validation of these models is mandatory to significant achievements. VALIDATION can be pe...

LiDAR technology is finding uses in the forest sector, not only for surveys in producing forests but also as a tool to gain a deeper understanding of the importance of the three-dimensional component of forest environments. Developments of platforms and sensors in the last decades have highlighted the capacity of this technology to catch relevant d...

Wildfires, insect outbreaks, and windstorms are increasingly common forest disturbances. Post-disturbance management often involves salvage logging, i.e., the felling and removal of the affected trees; however, this practice may represent an additional disturbance with effects on ecosystem processes and services. We developed a systematic map to pr...

Taking advantage of facilitation mechanisms to counteract harsh environmental conditions may prove to be a successful strategy in the restoration of degraded man-made ecosystems. Seed sowing is often a viable and less expensive technique to restore forest cover in environments subjected to heavy anthropic disturbance. In this context, nurse plants...

Detection of tree spatial patterns and structural attributes in a forest stand can provide critical information on occurring dynamics, and steer management decisions. However, since tree spatial distribution depends on factors that operate at different scales, including environmental heterogeneity and tree-to-tree interactions, both the extent to w...

Over the last 50 years, many unfavourable factors have led to the abandonment of the traditional management of many chestnut coppices. This generated a general aging of the stands and a related reduction of the slope stability, emphasizing the importance of natural regeneration for future forest management. Natural regeneration from seed contribute...

In this study, airborne laser scanning-based and traditional field-based survey methods for tree heights estimation are assessed by using one hundred felled trees as a reference dataset. Comparisons between remote sensing and field-based methods were applied to four circular permanent plots located in the western Italian Alps and established within...

Remote sensing supports carbon estimation, allowing the upscaling of field measurements to large extents. Lidar is considered the premier instrument to estimate above ground biomass, but data are expensive and collected on-demand, with limited spatial and temporal coverage. The previous JERS and ALOS