Roberto Tognetti

Free University of Bozen-Bolzano | Unibolzano · Faculty of Agricultural Environmental and Food Sciences

With climate change intensifying, forests globally are becoming more susceptible to extreme weather events, such as windstorms, which account for a significant share of Europe's economic losses. The Vaia windstorm of late autumn 2018, striking Italy's NorthEast alpine ecosystem, highlighted this vulnerability, toppling over 8.5 million cubic meters...

With ongoing global warming, increasing water deficits promote physiological stress on forest ecosystems with negative impacts on tree growth, vitality, and survival. How individual tree species will react to increased drought stress is therefore a key research question to address for carbon accounting and the development of climate change mitigati...

New approaches for managing agricultural and forestry systems are needed to bring back inputs to levels that are within planetary boundaries and make greater and better use of ecosystem services based on biodiversity. A new scientific framework informed by ecology, agronomy, forestry, and agroforestry is key to designing resilient plant‐based ecosy...

Atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition has notably increased since the industrial revolution, doubling N inputs to terrestrial ecosystems. This could mitigate N limitations in forests, potentially enhancing productivity and carbon sequestration. However, excessive N can lead to forest N saturation, causing issues like soil acidification, nutrient imba...

As major terrestrial carbon sinks, forests play an important role in mitigating climate change. The relationship between the seasonal uptake of carbon and its allocation to woody biomass remains poorly understood, leaving a significant gap in our capacity to predict carbon sequestration by forests. Here, we compare the intra-annual dynamics of carb...

Cities accommodate most of the global population making urban environment one of the most impacted by anthropogenic activities. The monitoring of biodiversity indicators in urban areas is therefore a sensible topic that generates significant interest. Even in an urban environment the approach the multi-taxon approach is frequently applied to correl...

La presente ricerca mira a valutare la multifunzionalità degli ecosistemi forestali in ambiente urbano e per-urbano, con lo scopo di conservare la biodiversità e aumentare la fruibilità di queste aree, favorendone l’uso a scopi ricreativi, turistici e sociali. In questo lavoro viene riportata la metodologia adottata per il monitoraggio dei rimbosch...

Negli ambienti urbani, l’intensa gestione del territorio, l’inquinamento e la rimozione del legno morto dalle foreste urbane rappresentano una minaccia per numerose specie e per il funzionamento degli ecosistemi. Lo scopo di questo lavoro è di esaminare gli indicatori di biodiversità (struttura forestale, microhabitat degli alberi, coleotteri e ucc...

Tree mortality and forest dieback episodes are increasing due to drought and heat stress. Nevertheless, a comprehensive understanding of mechanisms enabling trees to withstand and survive droughts remains lacking. Our study investigated basal area increment (BAI), and δ¹³C-derived intrinsic water-use-efficiency (iWUE), to elucidate beech resilience...

In the managed beech forests of Central Italy (Molise), the diversity of saproxylic species is potentially under threat by intensive management. To evaluate the impact of forestry on the biodiversity of these ecosystems, we analyzed the relationship between abundance of saproxylic beetles and forest stand exposure and elevation, deadwood availabili...

Wood growth is key to understanding the feedback of forest ecosystems to the ongoing climate warming. An increase in spatial synchrony (i.e., coincident changes in distant populations) of spring phenology is one of the most prominent climate responses of forest trees. However, whether temperature variability contributes to an increase in the spatia...

Tree mortality and forest dieback episodes are increasing due to drought and heat stress. Nevertheless, a comprehensive understanding of mechanisms enabling trees to withstand and survive droughts remains lacking. Our study investigated basal area increment (BAI), and δ13C-derived intrinsic water-use-efficiency (iWUE), to elucidate beech resilience...

Key message The physiological responses expressed by variation in carbon and oxygen stable isotopes and iWUE in five provenances of maritime pine grown in four common gardens were primarily determined by genotype differences in phenotypic plasticity and secondarily by genotype. Abstract Given the impacts of climate change on forest resources and c...

(1) Background: The main objective of this study was to determine the correlation between element and radionuclide activity concentrations and the growth potential of trees across European mountain beech forests; (2) Methods: As, Cd, Co, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn were determined using inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry (ICP/OES). Mer...

Background and Aims In the global distribution of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) forests play a key role due to the forest canopy effect. In this study, mountain beech forests were selected to identify the level and distribution of selected POPs. Methods Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were analyze...

In this study we evaluated the effects that currently in-use sylvicultural practices have on the tree features affecting biodiversity indicators in high beech forests in the Tuscan Apennines. The field work was carried out in five study areas: three areas with different age managed with the uniform shelterwood system, one area managed with the sing...

Cities are hubs of money, power, and information. Characterised by high population density, numerous built structures, extensive impervious surfaces, decreased vegetative cover, and highly modified ecosystem services, cities or urban areas are surrounded by less-densely populated areas with less built-up space, referred to as rural areas (Wu 2014)....

The attention of the new EU Forest Strategy for 2030 is focused on developing sustainable strategies to revert biodiversity loss in managed forests. In the managed beech forests of Central Italy (Molise), the diversity of saproxylic species is under threat by intensive management and interventions are needed to revert this negative trend. To evalua...

In the managed beech forests of Central Italy (Molise), the diversity of saproxylic species is potentially under threat by intensive management. To evaluate the impact of forestry on the biodiversity of these ecosystems, we analyzed the relationship between abundance of saproxylic beetles and (i) forest stand exposure and elevation, (ii) deadwood a...

Process-based models and empirical modelling techniques are frequently used to (i) explore the sensitivity of tree growth to environmental variables, and (ii) predict the future growth of trees and forest stands under climate change scenarios. However, modelling approaches substantially influence predictions of the sensitivity of trees to environme...

A change in local environmental characteristics may: favour the abundance of species with special traits, while other species decline; or favour species with different traits at the same time, without andiamo increase in average species abundances. In this work, we analysed the beetle assemblage over five forest sites located protected areas along...

Biodiversity monitoring represents a major challenge to support forest ecosystems. In this context, remote sensing is a powerful tool, continuously providing free data at a different range of spatial and temporal scales. In particular, Sentinel-2 (S2) mission has great potential to produce reliable proxies for biological diversity. In the Gran Sass...

Biodiversity monitoring represents a major challenge to supporting proper forest ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation. The latter is indeed shifting in recent years from single-species to multi-taxon approaches. However, multi-taxonomic studies are quite rare due to the effort required for performing field surveys. In this context, re...

Background Gradients in local environmental characteristics may favour the abundance of species with particular traits, while other species decline, or favour species with different traits at the same time, without an increase in average species abundances. Therefore, we asked: do variations in species and traits differ along gradients of deadwood...

Despite growing interest in predicting plant phenological shifts, advanced spring phenology by global climate change remains debated. Evidence documenting either small or large advancement of spring phenology to rising temperature over the spatio-temporal scales implies a potential existence of a thermal threshold in the responses of forests to glo...

Knowledge acquisition on the response of tree species to drought in the Mediterranean hotspot is an important step to guide adaptation strategies to climate change impacts, e.g., assisted migration. We assessed the resilience components—i.e., resistance, recovery, and resilience–to drought in 2003 in five provenances of maritime pine planted in fou...

The main objectives of this research were to (i) investigate the concentration; (ii) characterize the distribution; (iii) determine the sources apportionment; (iv) estimate environmental and health risks of heavy metals in soil from mountain beech forest. A total of 76 soil samples from 20 pure beech forest stands from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BA),...

Introduction Biodiversity monitoring represents a major challenge in forest ecosystems and where conservation strategies have shifted from single-species protection toward a multi-taxon approach. Multitaxonomic studies linking biodiversity to forest structural variables are quite rare, due to the effort required for field surveys. In this context,...

The recognition of the key role of forests in contrasting the dramatic effects of climate change and biodiversity crisis is the pillar of many initiatives on a global , European, and national scale calling for afforestation campaigns. The Ita-lian forest nursery sector is currently inadequate to meet the demand for tree seedlings for the national c...

Trade-offs between high stand productivity and good wood quality exist for chestnut coppices and related wood-based products. The main objective of this study was to determine the most suitable duration (in years) of cutting cycles that maximizes stand productivity and preserve wood quality of chestnut coppices in a Mediterranean setting. To this a...

The increased frequency and severity of drought events due to climate warming is negatively affecting tree radial growth, particularly in drought-prone regions, such as, e.g., the Mediterranean. In this climate change hotspot, populations of the same tree species may show different growth responses to climate, due to the great variety of microclima...

In view of the projected decrease in precipitation and increase in temperature, a better understanding on growth-climate responses in different populations of tree species is needed to improve and enhance the conservation and management strategies for major forest tree species. In this study, we assessed differences in growth traits (i.e., stem dia...

Background Rapid climate changes lead to an increase in forest disturbance, which in turn lead to growing concerns for biodiversity. While saproxylic beetles are relevant indicators for studying different aspects of biodiversity, most are smaller than 2 mm and difficult to sample. This, together with a high number of species and trophic roles, make...

Trade-offs between high stand productivity and good wood quality exist for chestnut coppices and related wood-based products. The main objective of this study was to determine the most suitable duration (in years) of cutting cycles to maximize stand productivity and preserve wood quality. To this aim, a growth model was developed to verify if wood...

With the publication of a Decree that has established a List of the Italian old-growth forests, we have analyzed, using text mining software, the state of the art of Italian research in this field. We have analyzed 188 ISI and 72 non-indexed papers or reports. The analysis has identified 165 locations of which more than 50% are on pure beech or mix...

European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) is a widespread and economically important temperate tree species in Europe. The warmer temperatures and severe drought events expected in the future, especially in Mediterranean areas, could affect the vitality and productivity of beech stands that have been intensively used in these areas in the past. Here, we...

Key message Leaf shape in European beech provenances varies geographically, with narrower and longer lamina observed in southern provenances, indicating a direct selection favoring leaf shape that likely safeguards trees performances under less favorable growing conditions. AbstractSpatial and environmental patterns of European beech (Fagus sylvati...

Forest composed of Picea abies L., Abies alba Mill. and Fagus sylvatica L. cover a large area in the European mountain regions and have a high ecological and socio-economic importance as they supply many ecosystems services. Because of climate change, these forests are exposed to warming, and this effect increases with elevation, which may impact t...

Understanding tree and stand growth dynamics in the frame of climate change calls for large-scale analyses. For analysing growth patterns in mountain forests across Europe, the CLIMO consortium compiled a network of observational plots across European mountain regions. Here, we describe the design and efficacy of this network of plots in monospecif...

Climate-Smart Forestry (CSF) is a developing concept to help policymakers and practitioners develop focused forestry governance and management to adapt to and mitigate climate change. Within the EU COST Action CA15226, CLIMO (Climate-Smart Forestry in Mountain Regions), a CSF definition was developed considering three main pillars: (1) adaptation t...

National Forest Inventory (NFI) data are the main source of information on forest resources at country and subcountry levels. This chapter explores the strengths and limitations of NFI-derived indicators to assess forest development with respect to adaptation to and mitigation of climate change, that is, the criteria of Climate-Smart Forestry (CSF)...

The goal to limit the increase in global temperature below 2 °C requires reaching a balance between anthropogenic emissions and reductions (sinks) in the second half of this century. As carbon sinks, forests can potentially play an important role in carbon capture. The Paris Agreement (2015) requires signatory countries to reduce deforestation, whi...

Climate-smart forestry can be regarded as the evolution of traditional silviculture. As such, it must rely on smart harvesting equipment and techniques for a reliable and effective application. The introduction of sensors and digital information technologies in forest inventories, operation planning, and work execution enables the achievement of th...

Trees are long-lived organisms that contribute to forest development over centuries and beyond. However, trees are vulnerable to increasing natural and anthropic disturbances. Spatially distributed, continuous data are required to predict mortality risk and impact on the fate of forest ecosystems. In order to enable monitoring over sensitive and of...

In this chapter, we review the current long-term growth trends and short-term growth reaction to single or repeated stress events on tree and stand level in Europe. Based on growth trend analyses, the chapter reveals the strong human footprint on forest ecosystems. First, we use long-term experiments and increment cores to show change in growth tre...

This book is one of the outputs of the COST Action CA15226, Climate-Smart Forestry in Mountain Regions (CLIMO). Funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 COST Action programme, CLIMO has been developing in the last few years a new concept, which is central to the changes in the way forestry resources are used by the European community. While climate change i...

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...

Models to predict the effects of different silvicultural treatments on future forest development are the best available tools to demonstrate and test possible climate-smart pathways of mountain forestry. This chapter reviews the state of the art in modelling approaches to predict the future growth of European mountain forests under changing environ...

Purpose of Review This paper aims to retrace the most significant management strategies adopted across European beech forests over the last 25 years, highlighting those that are most efficient and promising. We investigate five main topics including forest management, forest models, species mixture, genetic, and regeneration. Recent Findings Europ...

Forests in Europe are currently not endangered by soil erosion. However, this can change with climate change or with intensified forest management practices. Using a newly established network of plots in beech forests across Europe, the aims of this study were to (i) distinguish soil properties and erodibility indices in relation to bedrock, (ii) d...

Introduction: Silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) is one of the most valuable conifer wood species in Europe. Among the main opportunistic pathogens that cause root and butt rot on silver fir are Armillaria ostoyae and Heterobasidion abietinum. Due to the different enzymatic pools of these wood-decay fungi, different strategies in metabolizing the pheno...

Key message In Abies alba Mill. (silver fir), the frequency of intra-annual density fluctuations (IADFs) increases along the latitudinal transect, from North to South, is higher in pure than in mixed stands, and their formation is linked to spring and/or summer drought conditions. Abstract Trees respond to climate, recording information in tree ri...

Accurate measurement of forest growing stock is a prerequisite for implementing climate-smart forestry strategies. This study deals with the use of airborne laser scanning data to assess carbon stock at the tree level. It aims to demonstrate that the combined use of two unsupervised techniques will improve the accuracy of estimation supporting sust...

L’importanza dei popolamenti forestali nelle fasi più evolute della successione ecologica è da tempo ampiamente riconosciuta. Oltre alla crescente consapevolezza della loro rilevanza come serbatoi di carbonio e come elementi del paesaggio, le foreste rappresentano un elemento chiave delle strategie di conservazione. Alcuni autori stimano che la bio...

Tree-related microhabitats (hereafter TreMs) are structures occurring on trees, such as rot holes, cavities, large nests, mould, fruiting bodies and myce-lia of decomposer fungi. TreMs have been widely recognized as important sub-strates and structures useful for biodiversity conservation in forest ecosystems , and they can be used as indicators fo...

The relationships between structural complexity, deadwood abundance, microhabitat type and species-diversity indicators are excellent tools to monitor biodiversity in forest ecosystems. In spite of their importance, correlations between structural traits and Coleoptera communities in Mediterranean mountain forests have only rarely been investigated...

Mesophyll conductance (gm) determines the diffusion of CO2 from the substomatal cavities to the site of carboxylation in the chloroplasts and represents a critical component of the diffusive limitation of photosynthesis. In this study, we evaluated the average effect sizes of different environmental constraints on gm in Populus spp., a forest tree...

Climate-smart forestry (CSF) is an emerging branch of sustainable adaptive forest management aimed at enhancing the potential of forests to adapt to and mitigate climate change. It relies on much higher data requirements than traditional forestry. These data requirements can be met by new devices that support continuous, in situ monitoring of fores...

Fagus sylvatica L. is widely distributed across Europe thanks to its high adaptability in a wide variety of soils and climate. Microbial communities are essential for maintaining forest soil quality and are responsible for forest ecosystem functioning; the ability of soil microorganisms to respond to abiotic stressors (e.g., organic carbon losses,...

Recent studies show that several tree species are spreading to higher latitudes and elevations due to climate change. European beech, presently dominating from the colline to the subalpine vegetation belt, is already present in upper montane subalpine forests and has a high potential to further advance to higher elevations in European mountain fore...

Atmospheric nitrogen (N) depositions have increased sharply since the industrial revolution. Numerous authors forecasted severe impacts on forest ecosystem services and functioning when new N input exceeds both biotic and abiotic holding capacity, in what is known as the N saturation process. However, most of the studies performed so far to quantif...

Although aspects of forest ecophysiology and forest environments have received considerable attention from research scientists in the last three decades, assessment of implications for meeting the climate targets and international agreements is still a matter of debate [...]

Interactions between tree species determine the dynamics of forest communities. Spatial and temporal changes in resource availability, variation in species composition and spatial distribution of trees may alter competitive interactions between species and, therefore, affect tree growth and forest productivity. In this study, we analyzed the intra...

Spruce-fir-beech mixed forests cover a large area in European mountain regions, with high ecological and socioeconomic importance. As elevation-zone systems they are highly affected by climate change, which is modifying species growth patterns and productivity shifts among species. The extent to which associated tree species can access resources an...