Paolo Zuccarini

Centre for Research on Ecology and Forestry Applications | CREAF

In the temperate zone, deciduous trees exhibit clear above-ground seasonality, marked by a halt in wood growth that represents the completion of wood formation in autumn and reactivation in spring. However, the growth seasonality of below-ground woody organs, such as coarse roots, has been largely overlooked. Here we use tree monitoring data and po...

Key message Timing of autumn phenology of birch populations does not consistently follow the latitudinal gradient but varies according to the phenophase, the scale of measurements and the current year meteorological conditions. Abstract Lack of knowledge on autumn phenology of deciduous trees still exists for high-latitude regions. We studied the...

Purpose of Review To synthesize new information regarding the environmental sensitivity and impact of climate change on leaf-, wood-, phloem- and root phenology of deciduous forests of the temperate (and boreal) zone, comprising overstory and understory, and both woody and herbaceous species. Recent Findings The environmental sensitivity and impac...

Research on autumn phenology is very important for understanding and simulating the future growth of temperate deciduous forests. This is especially needed at the southern edge of the temperate zone, where climate change impacts are particularly intense. We studied foliar senescence timing for mature stands of Fagus sylvatica L., Populus tremula L....

Soil enzymes are crucial in mediating ecosystems’ responses to environmental drivers, so that the comprehension of their sensitivity to drivers of global change can help make predictions of future scenarios and design tailored interventions of biomanipulation. Drivers of global change usually act in combination of two or more, and indirect effects...

Wood growth phenology of temperate deciduous trees is less studied than leaf phenology, hindering the understanding of their interaction. In order to describe the variability of wood growth and leaf phenology across locations, species and years, we performed phenological observations of both xylem formation and leaf development in three typical tem...

Accurate estimations of phenophases in deciduous trees are important to understand forest ecosystems and their feedback on the climate. In particular, the timing of leaf senescence is of fundamental importance to trees’ nutrient stoichiometry and drought tolerance and therefore to trees’ vigor and fecundity. Nevertheless, there is no integrated vie...

N deposition is a key driver of global environmental change (GEC). The effects of N addition on soil enzymes which play a key role in biogeochemical cycles and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems remain unclear, especially in vulnerable ecosystems such as P- or/and water-limited Mediterranean ecosystems. Here, we studied seasonal effects of N dep...

Intensification of droughts may aggravate the generally low capacity of Mediterranean soils to store C and nutrients and induce soil C:N:P stoichiometric imbalances through its impact on soil microbial biomass and activity. Soil microbes may nonetheless have different responses to seasonal and chronic drought, but very few studies investigate long-...

Consistent information on the current elemental composition of vegetation at global scale and the variables that determine it is lacking. To fill this gap, we gathered a total of 30 912 georeferenced records on woody plants foliar concentrations of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) from published databases, and produced global maps of...

A better understanding of soil biogeochemical responses to the increasing drought predicted in many regions for the next decades by climate models is needed. Extracellular enzyme (EE) stoichiometry provides integrative information about the soil community metabolism and resource availability that is crucial to understand soil microbial and plant st...

The possibility of using the elemental compositions of species as a tool to identify species/genotype niche remains to be tested at a global scale. We investigated relationships between the foliar elemental compositions (elementomes) of trees at a global scale with phylogeny, climate, N deposition and soil traits. We analysed foliar N, P, K, Ca, Mg...

A detailed, species-specific comprehension of plant water behavior can be a central tool to improve water management in nursery production and irrigated landscapes. Potted plants of Nerium oleander, Pit-tosporum tobira, and Ligustrum japonicum 'Texanum' were exposed to controlled increasing drought conditions in greenhouse. Water use, gas exchange,...

We explored the inter-individual variability in bud-burst and its potential drivers, in homogeneous mature stands of temperate deciduous trees. Phenological observations of leaves and wood formation were performed weekly from summer 2017 to summer 2018 for pedunculate oak, European beech and silver birch in Belgium. The variability of bud-burst was...

Cessation of xylem formation or wood growth (CWG) and onset of foliar senescence (OFS) are key autumn phenological events in temperate deciduous trees. Their timing is fundamental for development and survival of trees, ecosystem nutrient cycling, the seasonal exchange of matter and energy between the biosphere and atmosphere and affect the impact a...

The drivers of global change, including increases in atmospheric CO2 concentrations, N and S deposition, and climate change, likely affect the nutritional status of forests. Here we show forest foliar concentrations of N, P, K, S and Mg decreased significantly in Europe by 5%, 11%, 8%, 6% and 7%, respectively during the last three decades. The decr...

Soil enzymes are central in the response of terrestrial ecosystems to climate change, and their study can be crucial for the models implementation. We investigated for one year the effects of warming and seasonality on the potential activities of five soil extracellular enzymes and their relationships with soil moisture, phosphorus (P) concentratio...

Key message The rapid production of a large, deep root system during seedling establishment is critical for pines to colonize dry Mediterranean locations. Abstract Root properties can influence plant drought resistance, and consequently plant species distribution. Root structure strongly varies across biomes partly as a result of phylogeny. Howeve...

p>Para este estudio se han analizado las variables fenológicas, morfológicas y ecofisiológicas de 4 especies de Quercus sp que se encuentran en el Paisaje Terrestre Protegido Miraflor de Miraflor-Moropotente (Estelí, Nicaragua), en invierno (estación seca) y en verano (estación húmeda). Cada especie presenta un diferente rango altitudinal de distri...

Phenological, morphological and ecophysiological variables were analyzed in winter (dry season) and in summer (wet season) for 4 species of Quercus sp. living in the Miraflor-Moropotente Natural Park, Estelì, Nicaragua. Each species has a slightly different altitudinal range of distribution in the studied area, and for each species two populations...

Divergence in plant traits and trait plasticity after invasion has been proposed as mechanisms favouring invasion success. Current hypotheses predict a rapid evolution in response to changes in the abiotic conditions in the area of introduction or to differences in the herbivore consumption pressure caused by a decrease in the enemies associated wi...

Plant populations were reintroduced to the coastal dune bar of the Devesa de Albufera from 1988 to 2004; different coastline sections received different species composition and cover. With the aim to detect spatial and temporal variation of floristic diversity, we compared current species composition and cover across the length of the Devesa and ac...

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are applied in agriculture to improve plant nutrition and confer better resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Spinacia oleracea L. is an economically important herbaceous crop characterized by limited tolerance to water stress. We compared the effects of three species of AMF belonging to the genus Glomus on g...

The Iberian Peninsula hosts six native pine species, which are distributed according to an altitudinal gradient from coastal to mountain areas, close to 1000 m a.s.l. Root hydraulic responses are the key factors of spatial segregation of trees in response to environmental factors such as temperature and water availability, and they will be a determ...

Plant populations were reintroduced to the coastal dune bar of the Devesa de Albufera from 1988 to 2004; different coastline sections received different species composition and cover. With the aim to detect spatial and temporal variation of floristic diversity, we compared current species composition and cover across the length of the Devesa and ac...

Milí čitatelia, milí botanici, kolegovia, rubrika prezentujúca zaujímavejšie fytocenologické zápisy pokračuje aj v tomto roku ukážkou výskytu zaujímavých spoločenstiev a druhov v nich obsiahnutých nachádzajúcich sa na území Slovenska. V špecifických prípadoch (viaceré zápisy z rovnakých spoločenstiev) sme pristúpili k zverejňovania ytocenologických...

Plant scions of Ceratophyllum demersum L. and Potamogeton natans L. were exposed in controlled conditions to different concentrations of copper during approximately 2 weeks; Fv/Fm was monitored at regular intervals and relative growth rate (RGR) was calculated at the end of the trial. P. natans was affected by Cu concentrations starting from 2 μM;...

The Massaciuccoli Lake, a 700 ha shallow lake, located in the Migliarino San Rossore Massaciuccoli Natural Park, along the Tuscan coast (Italy), has undergone a dramatic reduction of the macroalgal and submerged macrophytic communities over the last fifty years. This reduction was both in terms of the number of species and abundance, leading in rec...

The research conducted here presents a syntaxonomical revision of the montane mesophilous meadows of the Polygono bistortae-Trisetion flavescentis alliance in central Europe – the Slovak part of the western and eastern Carpathians. These typical semi-natural grasslands occur mainly as small islands over the calcareous bedrocks. Associations of this...

The increase of temperatures at a global scale constitutes a threaten, among the others, for forest ecosystems, and imposes a deeper comprehension of plant behaviour towards drought stress, in order to better plan a sustainable management of water resources. Young plants of Pinus pinaster A i t. were exposed to prolonged drought stress, during whic...

The work comes to complete an overview, which started with a review about the actions on the rhizosphere, over the main strategies to induce salt stress resistance in horticultural crops that have been developed during the last twenty years. The techniques presented here aim at an induction of resistance to saline stress in the plant organism by op...

The work presents an overlook over the main strategies to induce salt stress resistance in horticultural crops that have been developed during the last twenty years, ranging from more traditional agronomical techniques to the more modern ones involving microbiology and molecular biology. These strategies are presented as divided into two main group...

This study analyzes the main aspects of the non-clinical profile of D-Camphor, a natural product widely used as a common remedy for several symptoms. The pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and toxicity of thissubstance are analyzed, with regard to all the literature available, in order to assess a risk profile and better understand the positive and neg...

Tropospheric ozone has been proven to trigger biochemical plant responses that are similar to the ones induced by an attack of fungal pathogens,i.e. it resembles fungal elicitors.This suggests that ozone can represent a valid tool for the study of stress responses and induction of resistance to pathogens. This review provides an overview of the imp...

The main aspects of the non-clinical profile of D-camphor, a natural product widely used as a common remedy for several symptoms, are reviewed. The pharmacodynamics and toxicity of this substance are analyzed, with regard to all the literature available, in order to assess a risk profile and better understand the positive and negative results conne...

Soil and water salinization are affecting an increasing number of countries in the world, especially in arid and semi-arid regions, and cause sensible reductions of agricultural land extension and of crop yields. Consociation with halophytic plants is a promising but not yet widely investigated strategy of salt stress reduction in crops. In this ex...

Aquatic macrophytes play a central role in preserving the ecological equilibrium of shallow lakes and in the restoration of eutrophic lakes that have switched to phytoplankton-dominated turbid water. Massaciuccoli Lake, a shallow lake located along the Tuscan coast in Italy, has shown a constant and progressive simplification of the submerged plant...

A greenhouse experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of silicon application on Phaseolus vulgaris L. under two levels of salt stress (30 and 60 mM NaCl in the irrigation water). Salinity significantly reduced growth, stomatal conductance and net photosynthetic rate, and increased Na+ and Cl- content mainly in roots. Silicon application...

A greenhouse experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of inoculation with an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (AMF) and of different levels of fertilization on growth, photosynthetic efficiency, and ion uptake by sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) in conditions of saline stress. Eight different treatments were compared, deriving from the fac...

Salinity is one of the most serious environmental problems influencing crop growth. Today, the use of microorga- nisms as biofertilizers in agriculture is quite diffused, and good results have been obtained in terms of induction of resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses in crops. The effects of inoculation with a mixture of the mycorrhizal fungi...