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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 traits and the environment still lack sufficient empirical evaluation. In order to draw insights on the association between plant functional traits and direct and indirect human and natural pressures on the environmental drivers, here we summarize the existing knowledge on this topic by reviewing the results of studies performed in Italy adopting a functional trait approach on vascular plants, briophytes and lichens. Although we recorded trait measurements for 1418 taxa, our review highlighted some major gaps in plant traits knowledge: Mediterranean ecosystems are poorly represented; traits related to belowground organs are still overlooked; traits measurements for bryophytes and lichens are lacking. Finally, intraspecific variation has been little studied at community level so far. We conclude highlighting the need of approaches evaluating trait-environment relationship at large spatial and temporal scales and the need of a more effective contribution to online databases to tie more firmly Italian researchers to international scientific networks on plant traits.

Questions\ud To what extent have semi-natural grassland plant species composition and functional traits changed during the past five decades? Which are the main directions of change? Which environmental, management and landscape factors have determined these changes?\ud Location\ud Central and southern Apennines of Italy.\ud Methods\ud In 2013–2014, we used a stratified random sampling design to revisit 132 semi-natural grasslands originally sampled between 1966 and 1992. The exact locations of the historical plots were not available but they were associated with detailed vegetation maps. Plots were divided in 17 groups based on study area and original community type. To assess changes in species composition we ran PERMANOVA and RDA. The extent of change was estimated by comparing each new plot with the quantitative species pool of the corresponding historical group; species composition changes were calculated using Bray-Curtis coefficient, and shifts in functional traits were quantified as differences in community-weighted means. These measures of change were used as response variables in mixed effects models including climate, topography, management and landscape metrics as explanatory variables.\ud Results\ud The largest changes were related to successional dynamics, which occurred mainly in grasslands developing at low altitude and in the flattest sites where the soil organic horizon was relatively thick. Colonization by shrubs and trees was facilitated by high soil pH and amount of adjacent forests. Also, management factors affected the patterns of shifts in species composition and functional traits: grazing intensity was negatively related to the degree of compositional change as well as to the abundance of woody species, whereas the increase of species associated with frequent grazing disturbance was found at sites with higher values of soil salinity.\ud Conclusions\ud Apennine semi-natural grasslands have undergone substantial changes in species composition and functional traits during recent decades. Compositional changes mainly indicated successional dynamics, likely following a decrease in grazing intensity, whereas some more accessible grasslands experienced an increase in disturbance-tolerant species. The combination of the re-visitation approach with functional traits allowed us to clarify different directions of changes in species composition, adding information on the ecological processes related to these changes

Abstract:In recent decades, the European populations of wild boar have grown substantially, as has the impact of this species, owing above all to its rooting activity. Our aim was to investigate the relationships between vascular plant understorey and wild boar rooting intensity. The questions we addressed are: does rooting intensity influence understorey species composition and diversity? Which functional traits are associated with different levels of rooting? We performed a comparative analysis of plant communities in areas with contrasting levels of rooting intensity within a Mediterranean deciduous lowland forest in central Italy. Besides comparing species composition and diversity, we tested the association between species traits and rooting levels through fourth-corner analysis. We found that contrasting levels of rooting were associated to different understorey species composition and evenness, while we observed no significant difference in species richness. In contrast with our expectations, sites with lower rooting returned i) lower evenness values and ii) a higher proportion of species characterized by traits related to resistance or response to herbivory, i.e., spinescence, clonality, endozoochory, underground storage organs, and low height values. Our findings suggest that current vegetation patterns partly depend on the legacy effect of past rooting disturbance, since the areas currently subjected to low rooting intensity were likely to be intensely rooted in the past. These areas may have developed a marked dominance of clonal thorny species that, in turn, inhibited further feeding activities by wild boar. Conti et al. (2005). Nomenclature for plants:

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