
Michele CarbognaniUniversity of Parma | UNIPR · Department of Life Sciences
Michele Carbognani
PhD
About
82
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Introduction
Publications
Publications (82)
Empirical studies worldwide show that warming has variable effects on plant litter decomposition, leaving the overall impact of climate change on decomposition uncertain. We conducted a meta‐analysis of 109 experimental warming studies across seven continents, using natural and standardised plant material, to assess the overarching effect of warmin...
Questions
Recent years have been characterised by extreme climate conditions. Given that high elevations are undergoing enhanced warming and alpine ecosystems provide important services, we ask: Have alpine grasslands experienced rapid vegetation changes over the last five years? Which species are more sensitive to warmer and/or drier conditions?...
The increasing prevalence of drought events in grasslands and shrublands worldwide potentially has impacts on soil organic carbon (SOC). We leveraged the International Drought Experiment to study how SOC, including particulate organic carbon (POC) and mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) concentrations, responds to extreme drought treatments (1...
The breakdown of plant material fuels soil functioning and biodiversity. Currently, process understanding of global decomposition patterns and the drivers of such patterns are hampered by the lack of coherent large-scale datasets. We buried 36,000 individual litterbags (tea bags) worldwide and found an overall negative correlation between initial m...
The breakdown of plant material fuels soil functioning and biodiversity. Currently, process understanding of global decomposition patterns and the drivers of such patterns are hampered by the lack of coherent large‐scale datasets. We buried 36,000 individual litterbags (tea bags) worldwide and found an overall negative correlation between initial m...
The breakdown of plant material fuels soil functioning and biodiversity. Currently, process understanding of global decomposition patterns and the drivers of such patterns are hampered by the lack of coherent large-scale datasets. We buried 36,000 individual litterbags (tea bags) worldwide and found an overall negative correlation between initial m...
Arctic and alpine tundra ecosystems are large reservoirs of organic carbon1,2. Climate warming may stimulate ecosystem respiration and release carbon into the atmosphere3,4. The magnitude and persistency of this stimulation and the environmental mechanisms that drive its variation remain uncertain5–7. This hampers the accuracy of global land carbon...
Empirical studies worldwide show substantial variability in plant litter decomposition responses to warming, leaving the overall impact of climate change on this process uncertain. We conducted a meta-analysis of 109 experimental warming studies across seven continents, utilizing natural and standardized plant material, to assess the overarching ef...
Trait‐based ecology has already revealed main independent axes of trait variation defining trait spaces that summarize plant adaptive strategies, but often ignoring intraspecific trait variability (ITV). By using empirical ITV‐level data for two independent dimensions of leaf form and function and 167 species across five habitat types (coastal dune...
Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of short-term (~1 y) drought events—the most common duration of drought—globally. Yet the impact of this intensification of drought on ecosystem functioning remains poorly resolved. This is due in part to the widely disparate approaches ecologists have employed to study drought, variation in t...
Climate change in alpine habitats has a direct impact on vascular plant species, and is leading to changes in species abundance and distribution. Alpine plant communities are expected to experience a turnover of species over time, due to the loss of cold-adapted specialists and the upslope migration of more thermophilic taxa. Therefore, assessments...
Understanding large‐scale drivers of biodiversity in palustrine wetlands is challenging due to the combined effects of macroclimate and local edaphic conditions. In boreal and temperate fen ecosystems, the influence of macroclimate on biodiversity is modulated by hydrological settings across habitats, making it difficult to assess their vulnerabili...
Premise
Dominant in many ecosystems around the world, clonal plants can reach considerable ages and sizes. Due to their modular growth patterns, individual clonal plants (genets) can consist of many subunits (ramets). Since single ramets do not reflect the actual age of genets, the ratio between genet size (radius) and longitudinal annual growth ra...
The release of biochar (BC) on forest soil is a strategy aimed at increasing carbon reserves and forest productivity. The effect of BC amendments on the decomposition of different quality litter is, however, poorly understood. With this study we investigate the effects of wood-derived BC applications on early decomposition in a European beech (Fagu...
Peatland ecosystems are a highly effective long-term carbon sink. However, the CO 2 fluxes could be substantially altered by climate changes and the fate of carbon stored in these ecosystems is still uncertain. Currently, most studies concerning the carbon fluxes in peatlands were performed at high latitude sites, where these ecosystems are more wi...
Considerable uncertainty exists regarding the strength, direction and relative importance of the drivers of decomposition in the tundra biome, partly due to a lack of coordinated decomposition field studies in this remote environment. Here, we analysed 3717 incubations of two uniform litter types, green and rooibos tea, buried at 330 circum-Arctic...
Drought timing determines the degree to which dry events impact ecosystems, with the ability of key processes to withstand change differing between drought periods. Findings indicate that drought timing effects vary across ecosystems, with few studies focusing on alpine grasslands. We conducted a mesocosm experiment using small grassland monoliths...
Biochar (BC) soil amendments could partially counteract soil carbon (C) stock decrease in broad-leaved forests in Italy; however, its effects on the growth of representative tree species—Fagus sylvatica L. and Quercus cerris L.—has not yet been addressed. We examine whether seed germination and growth of these species are affected by addition of BC...
Open top chambers (OTCs) were adopted as the recommended warming mechanism by the International Tundra Experiment network in the early 1990s. Since then, OTCs have been deployed across the globe. Hundreds of papers have reported the impacts of OTCs on the abiotic environment and the biota. Here, we review the impacts of the OTC on the physical envi...
Springs represent relevant habitats which support high levels of biodiversity and productivity, providing refugia to both plants and animals together with essential ecosystem services. However, springs are often overlooked or even destroyed by human activity. Locating, inventorying, and monitoring springs is, therefore, becoming of increasing impor...
Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we...
Snow is an important driver of ecosystem processes in cold biomes. Snow accumulation determines ground temperature, light conditions and moisture availability during winter. It also affects the growing season’s start and end, and plant access to moisture and nutrients. Here, we review the current knowledge of the snow cover’s role for vegetation, p...
Snow is an important driver of ecosystem processes in cold biomes. Snow accumulation determines ground temperature, light conditions, and moisture availability during winter. It also affects the growing season’s start and end, and plant access to moisture and nutrients. Here, we review the current knowledge of the snow cover’s role for vegetation,...
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...
We announce the formation of the “GLORIA ITALIA NETWORK” and present an overview of the Italian alpine plant communities changes that have occurred in the last 20 years. This network will provide coordination between Italian GLORIA sites and enhance public awareness of changes in alpine plant diversity under climate change.
Rising temperatures may endanger fragile ecosystems because their character and key species show different habitat affinities under different climates. This assumption has only been tested in limited geographical scales. In fens, one of the most endangered ecosystems in Europe, broader pH niches have been reported from cold areas and are expected f...
Understanding the timescales that shape spatial genetic structure is pivotal to ascertain the impact of habitat fragmentation on the genetic diversity and reproductive viability of long-lived plant populations. Combining genetic and ecological information with current and past fragmentation conditions allows the identification of the main drivers i...
The relative contribution of bryophytes to plant diversity, primary productivity, and ecosystem functioning increases towards colder climates. Bryophytes respond to environmental changes at the species level, but because bryophyte species are relatively difficult to identify, they are often lumped into one functional group. Consequently, bryophyte...
Litter decomposition is a key process for carbon and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems and is mainly controlled by environmental conditions, substrate quantity and quality as well as microbial community abundance and composition. In particular, the effects of climate and atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition on litter decomposition and its t...
Litter decomposition is a key process for carbon and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems and is mainly controlled by environmental conditions, substrate quantity, and quality as well as microbial community abundance and composition. In particular, the effects of climate and atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition on litter decomposition and its...
Rapid climate warming is altering Arctic and alpine tundra ecosystem structure and function, including shifts in plant phenology. While the advancement of green up and flowering are well-documented, it remains unclear whether all phenophases, particularly those later in the season, will shift in unison or respond divergently to warming. Here, we pr...
Observations of changes in phenology have provided some of the strongest signals of the effects of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems. The International Tundra Experiment (ITEX), initiated in the early 1990s, established a common protocol to measure plant phenology in tundra study areas across the globe. Today, this valuable collection of phe...
Research in environmental science relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature at around 2 meter above ground1-3. These climatic grids however fail to reflect conditions near and below the soil surface, where critical ecosystem functions such as soil carbon storage are controlled and most biodiversity resides4-8...
Water resources and associated ecosystems are becoming highly endangered due to ongoing global environmental changes. Spatial ecological modelling is a promising toolbox for understanding the past, present and future distribution and diversity patterns in groundwater-dependent ecosystems, such as fens, springs, streams, reed beds or wet grasslands....
Disruption of pollination services has been investigated in many species; however, fragmentation-induced effects on endemic plants that rely on species-specific invertebrate pollinators are still unclear. While honeybees can forage over long distances, many native bees with small body size are unable to extend their foraging range, making habitat f...
Water resources and associated ecosystems are becoming highly endangered due to ongoing global environmental changes. Spatial ecological modelling is a widely used tool for understanding the past, present and future distribution and diversity patterns in groundwater-dependent ecosystems, such as fens, springs, streams, reed beds or wet grasslands....
Current analyses and predictions of spatially‐explicit patterns and processes in ecology most often rely on climate data interpolated from standardized weather stations. This interpolated climate data represents long‐term average thermal conditions at coarse spatial resolutions only. Hence, many climate‐forcing factors that operate at fine spatiote...
Current analyses and predictions of spatially‐explicit patterns and processes in ecology most often rely on climate data interpolated from standardized weather stations. This interpolated climate data represents long‐term average thermal conditions at coarse spatial resolutions only. Hence, many climate‐forcing factors that operate at fine spatiote...
The majority of variation in six traits critical to the growth, survival and reproduction of plant species is thought to be organised along just two dimensions, corresponding to strategies of plant size and resource acquisition. However, it is unknown whether global plant trait relationships extend to climatic extremes, and if these interspecific r...
Plant traits—the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants—determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research sp...
Background and aims:
At the rear edge of species distribution, extreme isolation and small population size influence the genetic diversity and differentiation of plant populations. This may be particularly true for Arctic-alpine species in mid-latitude mountains, but exactly how peripherality has shaped their genetic and reproductive characteristi...
High-elevation habitats host a large number of plant species and are characterized by high biodiversity. The vegetation dynamics in these cold adapted ecosystems are difficult to predict, being affected by global warming, especially in the last decades. With the aim to promote a better understanding of climate-driven changes of alpine vegetation, w...
Mountain ecosystems are sensitive indicators of climate change. Long-term studies may be extremely useful in assessing the responses of high-elevation ecosystems to climate change and other anthropogenic drivers. Mountain research sites within the LTER (Long-Term Ecosystem Research) network are representative of various types of ecosystems and span...
This paper provides a comprehensive phytosociological survey on the alpine grasslands occurring on the northern Apennine summits (N-Italy). The study area represents a crucial phytogeographic joint between the Alps and the Apennines and its summit grassland vegetation was only partially documented at the time. Research was based on 219 relevés clas...
In ecological theory, it is currently unclear if intraspecific trait responses to environmental variation are shared across plant species. We use one of the strongest environmental variations in alpine ecosystems, i.e., advanced snowmelt due to climate warming, to answer this question for alpine snowbed plants. Snowbeds are extreme habitats where l...
Aim
Plant functional groups are widely used in community ecology and earth system modelling to describe trait variation within and across plant communities. However, this approach rests on the assumption that functional groups explain a large proportion of trait variation among species. We test whether four commonly used plant functional groups rep...
Aims
We examined the importance of litter quality and microclimate on early-stage litter mass loss, analysed the importance of interactions among environmental factors in determining key decomposition parameters and compared the variation in decomposition rates in vegetation types and sites with similar climate.
Methods
Following the Tea-Bag Index...
Italy is among the European countries with the greatest plant diversity due to both a great environmental heterogeneity and a long history of man-environment interactions. Trait-based approaches to ecological studies have developed greatly over recent decades worldwide, although several issues concerning the relationships between plant functional t...
Motivation: The Tundra Trait Team (TTT) database includes field‐based measurements
of key traits related to plant form and function at multiple sites across the tundra biome. This dataset can be used to address theoretical questions about plant strategy and trade‐offs, trait–environment relationships and environmental filtering, and trait variation...
High-resolution vegetation maps, at 1:500 scale, were realized in three mires located in the Italian south-eastern Alps (Coltrondo West, 12,800 m²; Coltrondo South, 22,300 m² and Palù di sotto, 50,600 m²). Vegetation maps were based on topography surveyed by GPS, performed on ground surveys and produced using ArcGIS 9.1. A total of 36 plant communi...
The tundra is warming more rapidly than any other biome on Earth, and the potential ramifications are far-reaching because of global feedback effects between vegetation and climate. A better understanding of how environmental factors shape plant structure and function is crucial for predicting the consequences of environmental change for ecosystem...
Aims: The study aims at putting together and comparing different types of rock vegetation classified to different syntaxa and usually studied separately. The particular objectives of the study were: 1) to identify and classify the vegetation units of rock communities; 2) to explain floristic differences between phytosociological units with differen...
Through litter decomposition enormous amounts of carbon is emitted to the atmosphere. Numerous large-scale decomposition experiments have been conducted focusing on this fundamental soil process in order to understand the controls on the terrestrial carbon transfer to the atmosphere. However, previous studies were mostly based on site-specific litt...
Mountain ecosystems are sensitive and reliable indicators of climate change. Long-term studies may be extremely useful in assessing the responses of high-elevation ecosystems to climate change and other anthropogenic drivers from a broad ecological perspective. Mountain research sites within the LTER (Long-Term Ecological Research) network are repr...
Hay meadows are an important component of the alpine landscape, which evolved over millennia of human activities. When traditionally managed, hay meadows support a rich flora and are recognized for high species diversity. However, both intensification and abandonment can lead to a loss of biodiversity in this vegetation. In this paper, the focus wa...
Through litter decomposition enormous amount of carbon is emitted to the atmosphere. Numerous large-scale
decomposition experiments have been conducted focusing on this fundamental soil process in order to understand
the controls on the terrestrial carbon transfer to the atmosphere. However, previous studies were mostly
based on site-specific litte...
Through litter decomposition enormous amounts of carbon is emitted to the atmosphere. Numerous large-scale decomposition experiments have been conducted focusing on this fundamental soil process in order to under-stand the controls on the terrestrial carbon transfer to the atmosphere. However, previous studies were mostly based on site-specific litt...
In alpine habitats, predicted warmer and longer growing seasons will influence plant phenology, with important implications for species adaptation and vegetation dynamics. However, little is known on the temperature sensitivity of different phenophases and on the characteristics allowing phenological variation among and within species.
By integrati...
Changes in both temperature and precipitation will affect snowmelt time at high elevation, thereby influencing plant reproduction and growth. Species can respond to changed climate with phenotypic plasticity or genetic adaptation, and these responses might vary at different levels of advanced and delayed snowmelt time. Here we mimicked future clima...
The foraging activities of wild boar (Sus scrofa L.) have been suggested to impact biodiversity and ecological processes in a wide array of ecosystems. Data indicate that wild boar affects forest vegetation by feeding on above- and belowground plant parts, as well as by soil disturbance causing plant mortality and influencing seedling recruitment....