Flavio Marzialetti

• PhD in Science Technology and Biotechnology to Sustainability
• Researcher at University of Sassari

Anthropogenic alteration of tropical and subtropical forests is a major driver of biodiversity loss; notably, the Chaco Forest, which is the largest dry forest in the Americas, is among the most impacted regions. Sustainable forest management, a key objective of the UN’s 15th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), underscores the need for advanced mon...

Several studies have highlighted the global decline of pollinator insects, with Lepidoptera being particularly affected in large parts of Europe in recent decades. Given the important biogeographic and conservation implications from faunal studies on the large Mediterranean islands, we focused on assessing butterfly diversity within the Culuccia Pe...

Shrub encroachment in alpine and subalpine environments has raised concerns in recent decades, particularly due to climate change and shifts in land use. This study investigates the varying impacts of shrub invasion on different alpine and subalpine herbaceous communities and analyzes the spatial characteristics of shrub invasion. Three sites in th...

Invasive alien plants (IAPs) are a great challenge for biodiversity conservation and management. Multi-temporal landscape analysis has a great potential for describing plant invasion, however conservation solutions accounting of landscape dynamics are still limited. This research aims to explore the spatial-temporal pattern of the IAP Carpobrotus s...

Given the high number of non-native plants that are being introduced worldwide and the time required to process formal pest risk analyses, a framework for the prioritization of management actions is urgently required. We therefore propose a framework for a replicable and standardized prioritization for management actions (eradication, control and m...

Shrub encroachment in alpine and subalpine environments has raised concerns in recent decades, particularly due to climate change and shifts in land use. This study investigates the varying impacts of shrub invasion on different alpine and subalpine herbaceous communities and analyzes the spatial characteristics of shrub invasion. Three sites in th...

Biological invasions threaten biodiversity and cause significant economic and ecological damages. Effective management of invasive species is crucial, as highlighted by the European Community's Regulation 1143/2014 on Invasive Alien Species (IAS). This study focuses on coastal dune ecosystems, particularly assessing the time and cost-effectiveness...

Land-cover change dynamics were investigated in a Mediterranean coastal wetland to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of nature reserve management. A multitemporal analysis of land cover maps was conducted, utilizing visual interpretation of aerial orthophotos from the summer seasons of 1996, 2008, 2015, and 2021. Landscape changes were evaluated...

Land-cover change dynamics were investigated in a Mediterranean coastal wetland to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of nature reserve management. A multitemporal analysis of land cover maps was conducted, utilizing visual interpretation of aerial orthophotos from the summer seasons of 1996, 2008, 2015, and 2021. Landscape changes were evaluated...

Monitoring city boundaries and extents is a mandatory task so as to achieve the 11th Goal of sustainable development agenda 2030. This work aims at exploring the potential of the SAR dataset recorder by the SIASGE constellation for mapping urban areas and their extent. In particular, urban maps have been produced by applying the Urban EXTent algori...

Land-cover change dynamics were investigated in a Mediterranean coastal wetland to evaluate long-term effectiveness in nature reserve management. A multitemporal analysis of land cover maps was derived from visual interpretation of aerial orthophotos in the 1996, 2008, 2015 and 2021 summer seasons. Landscape changes were evaluated by transition mat...

Citation: Villalobos Perna, P.; Di Febbraro, M.; Carranza, M.L.; Marzialetti, F.; Innangi, M. Remote Sensing and Invasive Plants in Coastal Ecosystems: What We Know So Far and Future Prospects. Land 2023, 12, 341. https://doi. Abstract: Coastal environments are highly threatened by invasive alien plants (IAP), and Remote Sensing (RS) may offer a so...

Coastal dune ecosystems are highly threatened, and one of the strongest pressures is invasive alien plants (IAPs). Mitigating the negative effects of IAPs requires development of optimal identification and mapping protocols. Remote sensing offers innovative tools that have proven to be very valuable for studying IAPs. In particular, unmanned aerial...

Uncontrolled and unsustainable urban sprawl are altering the Earth’s surface at unprecedented rates. This research explores the potential of active remote sensors for mapping urban areas, for monitoring urban expansion processes and for depicting landscape pattern dynamics in a metropolis of South America. Based on multi-temporal urban cover maps o...

Invasive alien plants (IAPs) are increasingly threatening biodiversity worldwide; thus, early detection and monitoring tools are needed. Here, we explored the potential of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images in providing intermediate reference data which are able to link IAP field occurrence and satellite information. Specifically, we used very hi...

Aim: Invasive species provide an opportunity to study biogeography in action, allowing us to observe how species adapt and fill their environmental niche when introduced to new ecological settings. Here we use sea spurge-a foredune specialist plant species native to Europe which has recently spread across Australia's southern coasts-as a model syst...

Alien plants represent a significant threat to species diversity and composition in natural habitats. Nevertheless, little is known about the dynamic of the invasion process and how its effects on native species change over time. In this study, we explored vegetation changes that occurred in invaded coastal dune habitats over the last 10–15 years (...

The macro-site includes the following research sites along the Apennine mountain range: LTER_EU_IT_022 – Central and Southern Apennine: Majella-Matese LTER_EU_IT_025 – Central Apennine: Velino-Duchessa LTER_EU_IT_024 – Central Apennine: Gran Sasso LTER_EU_IT_023 – Northern Apennine It consists of “orographic islands” with high elevation vegetation...

Remote Sensing (RS) is a useful tool for detecting and mapping Invasive Alien Plants (IAPs). IAPs mapping on dynamic and heterogeneous landscapes, using satellite RS data, is not always feasible. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) with ultra-high spatial resolution data represent a promising tool for IAPs detection and mapping. This work develops an op...

Combining field collected and remotely sensed (RS) data represents one of the most promising approaches for an extensive and up-to-date ecosystem assessment. We investigated the potential of the so called spectral variability hypothesis (SVH) in linking field-collected and remote-sensed data in Mediterranean coastal dunes and explored if spectral d...

Many invasive plants are threatening the already highly vulnerable habitats of coastal dunes in Europe. Setting priority target species to control is mandatory for an effective planning of invasion management strategies at European level. This can be possible after identifying the species that currently have greater invasion success, in considerati...

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-021-02103-2

The present work analyses the main weather patterns over the period 1981-2010 in the Central Apennines (Italy), drawing upon data from 23 monitoring stations spanning a wide elevation range (260-1750 m asl). Cluster analysis was used to identify homogeneous units and to verify the effectiveness of the bioclimatic classification by crossing the resu...

Coastal dunes are found at the boundary between continents and seas representing unique transitional mosaics hosting highly dynamic habitats undergoing substantial seasonal changes. Here, we implemented a land cover classification approach specifically designed for coastal landscapes accounting for the within-year temporal variability of the main c...

The present study aimed to investigate the role of propagule pressure (P), abiotic (A), and biotic (B) factors (collectively indicated as PAB) on the suitability of the Mediterranean island of Sardinia (Italy) to be invaded by the tree Acacia saligna, recently included in the list of invasive alien species of European Union concern. To this aim, a...

In the Mediterranean sandy coasts, urban expansion mainly occurs to support seaside tourism, causing a drastic loss of natural coastal dune habitats and the associated ecosystem services. We investigated on a representative tract of the Mediterranean coast to which extent land conversion into urban areas affected natural dune ecosystems and the rel...

Coastal areas harbor the most threatened ecosystems on Earth, and cost-effective ways to monitor and protect them are urgently needed, but they represent a challenge for habitat mapping and multi-temporal observations. The availability of open access, remotely sensed data with increasing spatial and spectral resolution is promising in this context....

Invasive Alien Species (IAS) pose a major threat to biodiversity and ecosystem services worldwide. Even if preventing biological invasions should be the most cost-effective way to minimise the impact of IAS on biodiversity, new efforts are necessary to identify early signs of invasion and to assess invasion risk. In this context, the implementation...

Coastal sand dunes are complex transitional systems hosting high levels of biodiversity and providing important benefits to society. In this paper we aimed to evaluate the multi-service nature of ecosystem services (ES) supply in the dunes of the Italian Adriatic coastwithin Natura 2000 (N2K) sites. We i) identified ES indicators and assessed the s...

Coastal sand dunes are complex transitional systems hosting high levels of biodiversity and providing important benefits to society. In this paper we aimed to evaluate the multi-service nature of ecosystem services (ES) supply in the dunes of the Italian Adriatic coast within Natura 2000 (N2K) sites. We i) identified ES indicators and assessed the...

Coastal sand dunes are complex transitional systems hosting high levels of biodiversity and providing important benefits to society. In this paper we aimed to evaluate the multi-service nature of ecosystem services (ES) supply in the dunes of the Italian Adriatic coast within Natura 2000 (N2K) sites. We i) identified ES indicators and assessed the...