Maurizio G Paoletti

University of Padua | UNIPD · Department of Biology

Terrestrial isopods are generally considered as detritivore invertebrates, but in recent years and in different parts of the world they seem to become potential agricultural pests for different crops. The crops affected so far have been mainly arable crops, but damages to few horticultural crops were also documented. Until now, no referenced proble...

Conversion of semi-natural habitats, such as field margins, fallows, hedgerows, grassland, woodlots and forests, to agricultural land could increase agricultural production and help meet rising global food demand. Yet, the extent to which such habitat loss would impact biodiversity and wild species is unknown. Here we survey species richness for fo...

The genus Eophila Rosa, 1893 has been one of the most controversial in the taxonomy of Lumbricidae. The most accomplished earthworm experts from the last century accepted, rejected or split it into different genera depending on the studied species or morphological characters. In order to delimit a monophyletic, evolutionary significant Eophila, its...

Traditionally, earthworms are considered one of the most frequently used bioindicators to evaluate the sustainability of soil use. Therefore a new index, called QBS-e (Soil Biological Quality Index based on earthworms) has been provided in order to improve the monitoring of the soil’s biological fertility in the rural environment, as well as for us...

Annex 2 of Manno N. et al 2018. Edible insects and other chitin-bearing foods in Indigenous Peru: accessibility, nutritional acceptance and food-security implications

This study concerns the ecological and economic features of a particular category of complementary foods in ethnic Peru-comprising of insects, crustaceans, snails, and mushrooms- grouped as chitin-bearing foods (CBFs). Data collection was through participatory methods and semistructured interviews with 242 individuals in eight communities/villages...

Several Leptodirini beetles (Leiodidae) are known to dwell in hygropetric habitats where films of water run down the cave walls, but observations of their behaviour are lacking. The ultra- specialised hygropetricolous beetles belonging to the genera Cansiliella and Hadesia are biogeographically and phylogenetically unrelated leptodirines. As the sp...

Several Leptodirini beetles (Leiodidae) are known to dwell in hygropetric habitats where films of water run down the cave walls, but observations of their behaviour are lacking. The ultra- specialised hygropetricolous beetles belonging to the genera Cansiliella and Hadesia are biogeographically and phylogenetically unrelated leptodirines. As the sp...

Through their activities earthworms and especially the long, deep-burrowing and anecic species, may modify the chemical-physical, biological and mechanical properties of the soil. They build mull soils. Their presence has a key role in soil ecology relating to its quality in agricultural ecosystems and especially in orchards, on vineyards and in wo...

The study aims to analyse the effects of the herbicide glyphosate (Roundup 360®) on three key earthworm species. The taxa collected from treated and untreated sites were subsequently bred in uncontaminated soil terraria with serial concentrations of the herbicide. The chosen taxa included two anecic (Lumbricus terrestris and Octodrilus complanatus)...

Biodiversity is expected to be an assurance for the maintenance of agroecosystem, being fundamental to preserve basic ecosystem services (ESS). To examine in depth this topic, the present research aimed at: a) evaluating environmental sustainability by measuring the efficiency of some key ESS in agroecosystems with different management; b) searchin...

Habitat descriptors are cost effective biodiversity indicators demanded by stakeholders and required for regional and global biodiversity monitoring. We mapped 195 farms of different types in twelve case study regions across Europe and tested 18 habitat descriptors for scientific validity, information content and ease of interpretation. We propose...

E' ampiamente accettato che entro il 2050 il mondo ospiterà 9 miliardi di persone. Per accogliere questo numero, la produzione alimentare attuale dovrà quasi raddoppiare. La terra è insufficiente ed ampliare l'area dedicata all'agricoltura è difficilmente una soluzione valida o sostenibile. Gli oceani sono sovrasfruttati e il cambiamento climatico...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0151799.].

Eophila tellinii morphological and anatomical details. a)Livery pattern in Travesio specimen and b) peristomial detail (Ragogna 1 specimen); c)7.98 µm and 4.35 µm ventral, dorsal and lateral views of specimen (Ragogna 2); d)virtual sections of hindmost segments: schematic and transversal sections of last ten segments lacking typhlosole, hindmost bo...

Eophila tellinii ecological details. Wood near Travesio (PN) in which Eophila tellinii was found along with its casts. (DOC)

Eophila crodabepis sp. nov. anatomical details. a)7.98 µm on ventral, dorsal and lateral views and 3.08µm from Crevada (Crevada 6); b)virtual sections of hindmost segments: schematic and transversal sections of last ten segments where no typhlosole occurs; hindmost body segment- (middle) mesial-middle section (upper right), and sagittal medial sect...

A new Italian earthworm morphologically close to the similarly large and anecic Eophila tellinii (Rosa, 1888) is described. Distribution of Eophila crodabepis sp. nov. extends over 750 km2 from East to West on the Asiago Plateau and Vittorio Veneto Hills, from North to South on mounts Belluno Prealps (Praderadego and Cesen), Asiago, Grappa and onto...

Geographical and ecological information for each specimen analyzed. (DOC)

Morphological and anatomical features from the literature. (DOC)

Morphology and anatomy of specimens inspected and from the literature. (DOC)

Eophila crodabepis sp. nov. anatomical details. 7.98 μm on ventral, dorsal and lateral views and 3.08μm from Crevada (Crevada 6). DataViewer´s virtual sections of hindmost segments: Schematic and transversal sections of last ten segments where no typhlosole occurs; hindmost body segment- (middle) mesial-middle section (upper right), and sagittal me...

Eophila tellinii morphological and anatomical details. Livery pattern in Travesio specimen and peristomial detail (Ragogna 1 specimen). 7.98 μm and 4.35 μm ventral, dorsal and lateral views of specimen (Ragogna 2); virtual sections of hindmost segments: Schematic and transversal sections of last ten segments lacking typhlosole, hindmost body segmen...

Eophila tellinii ecological details. Wood near Travesio (PN) in which Eophila tellini was found along with its casts. (DOC)

Farmland is a major land cover type in Europe and Africa and provides habitat for numerous species. The severe decline in farmland biodiversity of the last decades has been attributed to changes in farming practices, and organic and low-input farming are assumed to mitigate detrimental effects of agricultural intensification on biodiversity. Since...

Wild bees, spiders, earthworms and plants contribute considerably to biodiversity in grasslands and provide valuable services to agriculture, such as pollination, pest control and maintenance of soil quality. We investigated the responses of these four taxa to geographic location, practices and surrounding landscape variables using a dataset of 357...

Summary 1. To evaluate progress on political biodiversity objectives, biodiversity monitoring provides information on whether intended results are being achieved. Despite scientific proof that monitoring and evaluation increase the (cost) efficiency of policy measures, cost estimates for monitoring schemes are seldom available, hampering their inc...

Soil microbial processes play important roles in maintaining soil structure and ecosystem functions where microbiota is influenced by management, plant cover and invertebrates. Comparing the extent of divergence between soil bacteria in vineyards and in semi-natural margins in the same areas was the key objective of this work. Soil samples were col...

Background Soil chemical and physical properties, which are determined both by pedo-climatic factors and by management, can significantly influence microbial communities. Objectives Scope of this work was to assess whether given features can specifically influence defined microbial taxa in a man-managed environment such as the vineyard. Methods...

Wild bees, spiders, earthworms and plants contribute considerably to biodiversity in grasslands and fulfil vital ecological functions. They also provide valuable services to agriculture, such as pollination, pest control and maintenance of soil quality. We investigated the responses of wild bees, spiders, earthworms and plants to geographic locatio...

Insect species intended for human consumption should be selected, managed, and prepared by taking into account traditional knowledge acquired in countries where insect consumption is customary. Existing evidence indicates that edible insects reared under controlled conditions are expected to pose no additional hazards compared with traditional anim...

Forty percent of the EU land area is currently considered to be agriculturally managed (utilised agricultural area - UAA - Eurostat Agricultural Census 2010), and attention to the environmental performance of farming practices is growing. To determine the performance of agricultural practices, farm-scale monitoring programmes are required but their...

Biodiversity is fundamental to preserve soil ecosystem services (ES). In 2012-2013 in five organic and five conventional horticultural fields in Venice and Treviso provinces (North Italy), several bioindicators have been chosen providing basic ES. 1. earthworms, soil structure promoters, responsible for air and water soil circulation and for organi...

The human genome encodes a gene for an enzymatically active chitinase (CHIT1) located in a single copy on Chromosome 1, which is highly expressed by activated macrophages and in other cells of the innate immune response. Several dysfunctional mutations are known in CHIT1, including a 24-bp duplication in Exon 10 causing catalytic deficiency. This d...

Agrobiodiversity plays a fundamental role in guaranteeing food security. However, still little is known about the diversity within crop and livestock species: the genetic diversity. In this paper we present a set of indicators of crop accession and breed diversity for different farm types at farm-level, which may potentially supply a useful tool to...

Fourty percent of the EU land area is currently considered to be agriculturally managed, and there is growing attention to the environmental performance of farming practices. This involves the need for farm-scale monitoring programmes for sustainability, but their implementation is ampere by a number of difficulties such as the identification of in...

Organic farming is promoted to reduce environmental impacts of agriculture, but surprisingly little is known about its effects at the farm level, the primary unit of decision making. Here we report the effects of organic farming on species diversity at the field, farm and regional levels by sampling plants, earthworms, spiders and bees in 1470 fiel...

The first record of millipedes (Diplopoda) being regularly used for food by humans (the Bobo people of Burkina Faso) is given, including information on how the millipedes are prepared. The species in question are Tymbodesmus falcatus (Karsch, 1881) and Sphenodesmus sheribongensis (Schiøtz, 1966) (Gomphodesmidae) and an unidentified species of Spiro...

The microbial diversity of moonmilk, a hydrated calcium carbonate speleothem, was evaluated from two Italian caves to provide context for the food web of highly-specialized troglobitic beetles, Cansiliella spp. (Leptodirinae), with distinctive carbon and nitrogen isotope values indicative of a novel food source. The moonmilk and associated percolat...

About one-third of the world’s land surface is used for farming, a fact that bears important implications for biodiversity. In Europe, for instance, an estimated 50 percent of all wild species are reliant on agricultural habitats, while agricultural productivity often depends on the presence or absence of particular species. Despite this close coup...

In agricultural landscapes farmers have a large impact on biodiversity through the management decisions they apply on their fields. Farmers? perception on biodiversity and its values is one of the main factors that can influence their willingness to apply biodiversity friendly farming practices. The results of a discourse-based, deliberative biodiv...

Background Cansiliella servadeii (Coleoptera) is an endemic troglobite living in deep carbonate caves in North-Eastern Italy. The beetle constantly moves and browses in its preferred habitat (consisting in flowing water and moonmilk, a soft speleothem colonized by microorganisms) self-preens to convey material from elytra, legs, and antennae toward...

?Increasing world population worsens the serious problem of food security in developing countries. On the other hand in industrialized countries, where the problem of food security is of minor concern, health problems related to food refer to 2 main factors: food safety and environmental sustainability of food production. For these reasons, new way...

Dans le cadre du projet européen BIOBIO, nous avons comparé entre pays les richesses en habitats et richesses spécifiques cumulées de quatre groupes taxonomiques (plantes, abeilles sauvages, araignées, vers de terre), de 169 exploitations biologiques ou conventionnelles appartenant à 10 pays. Pour le cas d’étude français, Vallées et Coteaux de Gasc...

In Brief About one-third of the world's land surface is used for farming, a fact that bears important implications for biodiversity. In Europe, for instance, an estimated 50 percent of all wild species are reliant on agricultural habitats, while agricultural productivity often depends on the presence or absence of particular species. Despite this c...

Organic and low-input farming systems provide habitats for wildlife on farmland. The EU FP7 project BIOBIO has identified a core set of 23 indicators relating to the diversity of habitats, of species, of crops and of livestock. Management indicators capturing the pressure on biodiversity are also proposed. The indicators were identified in an itera...

One of the aims of organic farming is the protection of biodiversity. In the EU FP7 project BioBio, we studied the effect of organic farming on species numbers at farm level on 169 randomly selected organic and non-organic farms with mostly low to medium intensity in ten European regions. Using a preferential sampling scheme based on habitat mappin...

Genetic variability is the fundament of life. Large genetic variability within species is the basis for adaptation to changing environmental conditions. Farmers and breeders have developed a multitude of crop cultivars and animal breeds to stabilize and increase quality and productivity. This study evaluated genetic diversity within different organ...

Information on biodiversity and related population parameters are of key importance for assessing ecosystem services or impacts of management decisions in agriculture. However information on this parameters is often not directly measurable. Indicators are a convenient way to gain information on these variables. Here we present Partial Least Squares...

Questo articolo riassume i risultati di due incontri con agricoltori biologici e convenzionali tenutisi presso il Dipartimento di Biologia dell’Università di Padova, tra dicembre 2010 e gennaio 2011, in cui si è discusso della percezione della biodiversità in termini non monetari. Il lavoro rientra nell’ambito del progetto europeo Indicators for bi...

Earthworms have provided ancient cultures with food and sources of medicinal cures. Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and practices in Japan, Vietnam, and Korea have focused first on earthworms as sources of food. Gradually fostering an approach to potential beneficial healing properties, there are renewed efforts through bioprospecting...

The majority of research on organic farming has considered arable and grassland farming systems in Central and Northern Europe, whilst only a few studies have been carried out in Mediterranean agro-systems, such as vineyards, despite their economic importance. The main aim of the study was to test whether organic farming enhances local plant specie...

Two hundred years ago, Henri Braconnot described a polysaccharide containing a substantial percent of nitrogen, later to be called chitin: that discovery stemmed from investigations on the composition of edible mushrooms and their nutritional value. The present interdisciplinary article reviews the major research topics explored by Braconnot, and a...

During the 1960s and 1970s, a magnificent cloud forest near San Francisco de Las Pampas (near Quito, Ecuador) was converted into dairy farm pastures. One endemic composite plant locally called marco yuyo and identified as Munnozia pinnatipartita, has been considered an undesirable weed by dairy farming campesino communities because it negatively af...