Paolo Pedrini

Museo delle Scienze, Trento, Italy | MTSN · Biologia della Conservazione - Zoologia dei Vertebrati

Amphibian populations worldwide are experiencing significant declines, 20 highlighting a critical aspect of the broader biodiversity crisis. Approximately 43% of all 21 1 amphibian species are facing extinction due to factors such as habitat loss, pollution, climate 22 change, and emerging diseases. The chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivor...

Context: Pollination is an essential ecosystem service, and primary pollinators such as insects are largely declining. Agricultural intensification is one of the main drivers of such decline. The globally relevant apple production depends on this service. Apple orchards are often cultivated intensively over large monocultural landscapes, which are...

The morphology of bird wings can vary at the intraspecific level according to a variety of factors including sex, age, migration habits and habitat characteristics. The relationship between wing morphology and ecological factors such as, e.g., habitat availability and vegetation structure has been scarcely investigated and is still poorly understoo...

Intraspecific morphological variation of organisms is known to be influenced by several factors, but the role of habitat availability has been scarcely investigated. Studying bird wing morphology is ideal to explore this topic, given the usually rapid response of birds to environmental changes, but other factors such as sexual dimorphism, habitat s...

We describe the monitoring of tree cavities excavated by Picidae. Since 2007, trees with cavity- nests from picids (n = about 2000) have been surveyed and catalogued in Trento Province. Since 2018, as part of the monitoring programme of terrestrial vertebrate fauna inside the Natura 2000 network of the Autonomous Province of Trento (PAT; Action A5,...

Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis is a promising tool for monitoring wild animal populations and, more recently, their genetic variability. In this study, we used the mitochondrial Cytochrome B gene to develop and apply new eDNA metabarcoding assays targeting amphibian families and genera in order to estimate both inter‐ and intraspecific genetic d...

We conducted a content analysis of newspaper articles published across the Eastern Italian Alps to assess how the wolf is covered and framed and to get an insight into public attitudes and debate around the topic. The Alps are among the most human-exploited mountain regions in the world and are undergoing a rapid recolonization by wolves, causing s...

We investigated use of ungulate feeding sites by the whole wildlife community in an area of the Eastern Italian Alps with a high density of feeding sites, four species of ungulates and stable wolf packs. The area is also intensively exploited by humans for outdoor activities and tourism. Insights on wildlife frequentation of artificial feeding site...

Microhabitat utilisation holds a pivotal role in shaping a species’ ecological dynamics and stands as a crucial concern for effective conservation strategies. Despite its critical importance, microhabitat use has frequently been addressed as static, centering on microhabitat preference. Yet, a dynamic microhabitat use that allows individuals to adj...

Protected area (PA) networks are a pivotal tool to fight biodiversity loss, yet they often need to balance the mission of nature conservation with the socio-economic need of giving opportunity for outdoor recreation. Recreation in natural areas is important for human health in an urbanized society, but can prompt behavioural modifications in wild a...

Insectivorous birds are key suppliers of crucial ecosystem services, especially important for pest control in agricultural systems, and are globally decreasing at a fast rate. Among them, the declining barn swallow Hirundo rustica is particularly linked to cattle farms, where it is impacted by changes in livestock husbandry practices. The presence...

The management plan for conservation of the crayfish Austropotamobius pallipes complex in Trentino, in the Eastern Italian Alps, is one of the outcomes of the European Project Life+T.E.N. The monitoring of the species and its habitats represent the first result of the management plan application. Two-hundred-twentyfour water bodies were surveyed in...

Since 2017 Muse carried out specific studies on Salamandra atra aurorae population located in Vezzena plateau (Trentino), as a part of Rete Natura 2000 monitoring plan. This rare and threatened salamander lives exclusively in forest environments in a very restricted area (Sette Comuni plateaux). In 2017 has been employed both a capture-mark-recaptu...

Aim: High-elevation specialist species are threatened by climate change and habitat loss, and their distributions are becoming increasingly reduced and fragmented. In such a context, dispersal ability is crucial to maintain gene flow among patches of suitable habitat. However, information about dispersal is often lacking for these species, especial...

Since 2017 Muse and Paneveggio-Pale di San Martino National Park carried out specific studies on Salamandra atra population, as a part of Rete Natura 2000 monitoring plan. From 2019 research has focused on the development of a monitoring protocol to be applied in different sites annually. Due to several sampling difficulties, including morphologica...

Monitoring protocol of yellow-bellied toad (Bombina variegata) was developed as part of the program which aims to evaluate the conservation status of vertebrate fauna in Nature 2000 Network within the Autonomous Province of Trentino (action A5 – Life T.E.N. Project, Pedrini et al. 2014). Available data on the species distribution in Trentino were a...

Summary: We evaluated the effects of the Rural Development Program (PSR, 2014-2020) in Tren-to province on grassland biodiversity, using birds as indicators. Bird data were collected through the monitoring carried out within the framework of N2000 activities (years 2016-2019). 112 species had been reported, and a negative effect of ongoing environm...

Cent'anni di solitudine. Lo strano caso del marasso in Trentino tra il 1912 e il 2020 RIASSUNTO Il marasso viene ritenuto una specie tipica di ambienti montani, in Italia. Nel presente lavoro sono stati confrontati dati storici distributivi fino al 1912 dell'area trentina con quelli recenti (2000-2020). Risulta evidente una distribuzione passata an...

The black stork Ciconia nigra in Italy is migrant, breeding and wintering. The breeding population is well known having been continuously monitored from the first nestings, found in 1994, to the present. After an initial national survey covering a period from the late 1800s to 2004, a second survey of the species’ presence during migratory and wint...

Biodiversity, ecosystem services and farming are inextricably linked. Peri-urban agricultural landscapes host wild species, provide essential services, and benefit citizens of nearby towns. We investigated the environmental and management factors that influence avian communities, pollinating insects and two key ecosystem services (pollination and n...

Amphibians are considered critical species in the nutrient flow within and across ecosystems, and knowledge on their trophic ecology and niches is crucial for their conservation. For the first time we studied for the first time the trophic ecology of the rare and endemic Salamandra atra aurorae in a mixed temperate forest in northern Italy. We aime...

The eagle owl (Bubo bubo) has been studied in Trentino since the early 1980s and from 1992 to 2005 with investigations on distribution, density, reproductive biology and threat factors; since 2017 it has been monitored as part of the Monitoring Plan of the Natura 2000 Network of the PAT, with the aim of updating knowledge on the breeding population...

Riaasunto: Il presente lavoro sintetizza le attività di monitoraggio e ricerca sullo stato di conservazio-ne dell'avifauna nidificante nelle principali aree prative e pascolate del Trentino nelle stagioni riproduttive dal 2015 al 2022. È stata adottata una tecnica di censimento standardizzata (transetti lineari) volta a definire la densità delle sp...

Riassunto: Sono presentati i risultati del monitoraggio del nibbio bruno (Milvus migrans) in Trentino, condotti dal 2017 al 2022 e previsti nel Piano di monitoraggio della Rete Natura 2000 del Trentino (Azione A5, Progetto Life T.E.N.), in un'area campione di 490 km 2 , a 14 anni dalle precedenti ricerche condotte nel Progetto Biodiversità (2000-05...

Riassunto: In un'epoca come quella attuale, segnata da una profonda crisi degli ecosistemi e delle specie, la facilità di accesso ai "dati di biodiversità" rappresenta un fattore non trascurabile nello sviluppo di strategie di conservazione mirate ed efficaci. Allo stesso modo, emerge la necessità di superare la frammentazione delle informazioni do...

Summary: Between 2020 and 2021 the first coordinated national wolf survey took place, where all regions and autonomous provinces operated with the common goal of estimating the distribution and abundance of the species. The Autonomous Province of Trento also joined the project, delegating the coordination of the activities to MUSE. For this purpose...

Full text: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/IXDJBHHGVRWRRNPYZVU2/full?target=10.1080/10871209.2023.2212691. The Alps are among the most human-exploited mountain regions in the world and are undergoing a rapid recolonization by wolves, causing social conflicts and great attention by the public and the media. We conducted a content analysis of new...

The wolf (Canis lupus) has made a remarkable comeback in the Eastern Italian Alps, including Trentino province, where wolf packs have increased from one to more than twenty in less than ten years. Despite raising important social and political conflicts, as well as causing concrete damages to livestock owners, no study has investigated the real imp...

In light of the dramatic decline in amphibian biodiversity, new cost-efficient tools to rapidly monitor species abundance and population genetic diversity in space and time are urgently needed. It has been amply demonstrated that the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) for single-species detection and characterization of community composition can incre...

Large carnivores have long fascinated human societies and have profound influences on ecosystems. However, their conservation represents one of the greatest challenges of our time, particularly where attacks on humans occur. Where human recreational and/or livelihood activities overlap with large carnivore ranges, conflicts can become particularly...

Species living in high mountain areas are currently threatened by climate change and human land use changes. High-elevation birds frequently inhabit island-like suitable patches around mountain peaks, and in such conditions the capability to exchange individuals among patches is crucial to maintain gene flow. However, we lack information about disp...

Outdoor recreation in natural areas has become an increasingly popular activity globally, yet the long-term effects on wildlife are poorly known. Reconciling human access to nature and wildlife conservation requires sound evaluations of how outdoor activities affect biodiversity in space and time. We aimed to contribute to this topic by asking whet...

The use of Artificial Cover Objects (ACOs) for herpetological monitoring activities is widely documented in bibliography. We placed 100 ACOs in five areas of Trentino, in different environments and at different altitudes; results point out a differential use of ACOs by reptiles in relation to environmental and altitudinal factors.

La presenza e la distribuzione degli uccelli nidificanti in Italia sono cambiate negli ultimi decenni in misura rilevante come conseguenza di modificazioni ambientali, spesso indotte dall’uomo, dei cambiamenti climatici e culturali intervenuti. È quanto emerge da questo nuovo Atlante, che arriva quasi quattro decenni dopo il primo, che aveva copert...

The morphology of bird wings is subject to a variety of selective pressures, including migration, predation, habitat structure and sexual selection. Variation in wing morphology also occurs at the intraspecific and intrapopulation level, and can be related to sex, age, migration strategy and environmental factors. The relationship between environme...

Habitat anthropization is a major driver of global biodiversity decline. Although most species are negatively affected, some benefit from anthropogenic habitat modifications by showing intriguing life-history responses. For instance, increased recruitment through higher allocation to reproduction or improved performance during early-life stages cou...

In contrast to old-growth forests, early-successional stands remain understudied despite potentially harbouring species of conservation interest. With this work, focused on hazel grouse Tetrastes bonasia , a cryptic and indicator species known to select for close-to-natural forests, we evaluated winter densities, home range, microhabitat selection...

Linking organism distribution to climate is key to understanding factors determining species occurrence and evaluating the potential impacts of ongoing climate change. A common analytical tool to assess the link between species and climate is represented by ecological niche modelling and by the tightly related species distribution models (SDMs). Th...

Report of the results of the national wolf monitoring plan for the Province of Trento in the year 2020-2021

Fine‐scale habitat selection modelling can allow a mechanistic understanding of habitat selection processes, enabling better assessments of the effects of climate and habitat changes on biodiversity. Remotely sensed data provide an ever‐increasing amount of environmental and climatic variables at high spatio‐temporal resolutions, and a unique oppor...

[In order to contribute to the knowledge of the spatio-temporal progression of post-nuptial migration of birds across the Italian Alps, we present in detail the results of the analysis carried out for 69 species (4 non-Passeriformes; 65 Passeriformes) of the 191 ringed within the Progetto Alpi. Data were collected in 40 ringing stations located in...

[Conceived by the National Ringing Centre ISPRA and MUSE (Trento, formerly MTSN), the Alps Project was launched in 1997 in order to understand the post-breeding migration strategies of birds across the Italian Alps. The project is realized thanks to the support offered by MUSE and several institutions at a local scale, not to mention the collaborat...

Introduction: Bird migration across mountainous regions has been studied usually at single sites due to the difficulty in employing and support a multi-site sampling effort. This may affect inference on migration whose scale is larger that a single site. The Progetto Alpi has been monitoring post-breeding bird migration through the Italian Alps wit...

Monitoring wild populations is an essential tool to assess the conservation status and the ecological requirements of a species. Capture–mark–recapture (CMR), based on individual recognition, is the most commonly used and most effective technique. However, in cases of species with no individual color pattern, tracing the encounter history of indivi...

Naturally occurring stable isotope ratios in animal tissues allow estimation of species trophic position and ecological niche. Measuring multiple isotopes of migratory species along flyway bottlenecks offers the opportunity to sample multiple populations and species whose tissues carry information at continental scales. We measured δ 2 H, δ 18 O, δ...

Agricultural intensification is threatening ecosystems and causing the collapse of farmland birds. Biodiversity-rich, semi-natural grasslands dramatically decreased in recent decades and were either intensified, replaced by more remunerative crops or abandoned. We investigated the factors driving habitat selection by corncrake Crex crex, a flagship...

Surveying Reptiles using Artificial Cover Objects in Trentino. The use of Artificial Cover Objects (ACOs) for herpetological monitoring activities is widely documented in bibliography. We placed 100 ACOs in five areas of Trentino, in different environments and at different altitudes; results point out a differential use of ACOs by reptiles in relat...

Aim Cold‐adapted species are considered vulnerable to climate change. However, our understanding of how climate‐induced changes in habitat and weather patterns will influence habitat suitability remains poorly understood, particularly for species at high latitudes or elevations. Here, we assessed potential future distributions for a climate‐sensiti...

2016 update brochure of the Farmland Bird Index (FBI) and Mountain Grassland Species Index (FBIpm) indicators and of the population indices of the related species. In-depth analysis on cap, birds and alpine meadows and the success of generalist species

2013 update brochure of the Farmland Bird Index (FBI), Mountain Grassland Species Index (FBIpm), Woodland Bird Index (WBI), All common species Index (ALL) and of the population indices of the related species. In-depth analysis on birds of mountain grassland.

Many animals make behavioural changes to cope with winter conditions, being gregariousness a common strategy. Several factors have been invoked to explain why gregariousness may evolve during winter, with individuals coming together and separating as they trade off the different costs and benefits of living in groups. These trade-offs may, however,...

Naturally occurring stable isotope ratios in animal tissues allow estimation of species trophic position and ecological niche. Measuring multiple isotopes of migratory species along flyway bottlenecks offers the opportunity to sample multiple populations and species whose tissues carry information at continental scales.We measured δ2H, δ18O, δ13C,...

The media and scientific literature are increasingly reporting an escalation of large carnivore attacks on humans, mainly in the so-called developed countries, such as Europe and North America. Although large carnivore populations have generally increased in developed countries, increased numbers are not solely responsible for the observed rise in...

Protected areas (PAs) have been established to promote the long-term conservation of biodiversity and ecosystems. Wetlands, which represent a key habitat worldwide, have been largely destroyed, particularly in more industrialized countries, and their remnants are now often preserved by PA networks, especially in the European Union. We tested the ef...

Ljungan virus (LV), which belongs to the Parechovirus genus in the Picornaviridae family, was first isolated from bank voles (Myodes glareolus) in Sweden in 1998 and proposed as a zoonotic agent. To improve knowledge of the host association and geographical distribution of LV, tissues from 1685 animals belonging to multiple rodent and insectivore s...

Information on the trophic ecology of the Alpine salamander, Salamandra atra, is scattered and anecdotal. We studied for the first time the trophic niche and prey availability of a population from an area located in Italian Dolomites during the first half of August. Considering that S. atra is a typical nocturnal species, we collected food availabi...

During 2017 a comprehensive census of heron and cormorant colonies was carried out in the whole Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige and Friuli Venezia Giulia regions (NE Italy). 162 colonies were monitored, with 7460 – 7979 pairs found. In Trentino Alto Adige there were 18 colonies, in the Veneto 127 and 17 in Friuli Venezia Giulia. Nine species were confi...

Vineyards are experiencing strong expansion and management intensification worldwide, especially in areas with a Mediterranean climate, which are often characterized by a high conservation value. This is posing concerns about their environmental impact and it is fostering research on biodiversity patterns and ecosystem services in this agroecosyste...