IntroduzioneNegli ultimi decenni è avvenuta una profonda trasformazione del settore forestale italiano, in linea con quanto osservato anche a livello europeo (MI-PAAF 2015). Il sorgere di nuove funzioni e ruoli produttivi e sociali attribuiti alle risorse forestali (sensu lato, incluse le aree verdi in ambito urbano, le piantagioni da legno e gli alberi fuori-foresta) hanno determinato una crescita dell'importanza, ma anche della complessità del sistema foresta-legno. In Italia esiste una significativa tradizione nella ricerca forestale e una radicata consapevolezza che l'innovazione e la competitività sono possibili grazie a un'alleanza tra iniziative di ricerca strategiche a scala nazionale con Abstract: Precision forestry: concepts, tools and perspectives in Italy.Recent advancements in informatics and communication technologies have led to an increasing employment of analytical and communication tools in forestry, including data from satellite, airborne, unmanned aerial vehichles, global positioning systems, and many sensors, devices and other geospatial tools. Precision forestry enables highly repeatable measurements, actions and processes to manage and harvest forest stands, simultaneously allowing information linkages between production and wood supply chain, involving resource managers and environmental community; all these factors are contributing to the wider goal of sustainable forest management. In this report, we review the most recent advances in the precision forestry applications and tools, with particular reference on advanced forest inventory, decision support systems, precision forest harvesting, and wood traceability. We discuss the opportunities and challenges towards implementing precision forest practices in forest management and planning and forest industry in Italy.
The concept of ecosystem services is widely understood as the services and benefits thatecosystems provide to humans, and they have been categorised into provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural services. This article aims to provide an updated overview of the benefits that the honey bee Apis mellifera provides to humans as well as ecosystems. We revised the role of honey bees as pollinators in natural ecosystems to preserve and restore the local biodiversity of wild plants; in agro-ecosystems, this species is widely used to enhance crop yield and quality, meeting the increasing food demand. Beekeeping activity provides humans not only with high-quality food but also with substances used as raw materials and in pharmaceuticals, and in polluted areas, bees convey valuable information on the environmental presence of pollutants and their impact on human and ecosystem health. Finally, the role of the honey bee in symbolic tradition, mysticism, and the cultural values of the bee habitats are also presented. Overall, we suggest that the symbolic value of the honey bee is the most important role played by this insect species, as it may help revitalise and strengthen the intimate and reciprocal relationship between humans and the natural world, avoiding the inaccuracy of considering the ecosystems as mere providers of services to humans.
Biodiversity strengthens the productivity of any ecosystem (agricultural land, forest, lake, etc.). The loss of biodiversity contributes to food and energy insecurity; increases vulnerability to natural disasters, such as floods or tropical storms; and decreases the quality of both life and health. Wild and managed bees play a key role in maintaining the biodiversity and in the recovery and restoration of degraded habitats. The novelty character of this perspective is to give an updated representation of bee products’ biodiversity, sustainability, and health relationship. The role of bees as bioindicators, their importance in the conservation of biodiversity, their ecosystem services, and the variety of the bee products are described herein. An overview of the main components of bee products, their biological potentials, and health is highlighted and detailed as follows: (i) nutritional value of bee products, (ii) bioactive profile of bee products and the related beneficial properties; (iii) focus on honey and health through a literature quantitative analysis, and (iv) bee products explored through databases. Moreover, as an example of the interconnection between health, biodiversity, and sustainability, a case study, namely the “Cellulose Park”, realized in Rome (Italy), is presented here. This case study highlights how bee activities can be used to assess and track changes in the quality of agricultural ecosystems—hive products could be valid indicators of the quality and health of the surrounding environment, as well as the changes induced by the biotic and abiotic factors that impact the sustainability of agricultural production and biodiversity conservation in peri-urban areas.
Plant species are fundamental source of nectar in beekeeping since bees access nectar and pollen from flowers. Consequently, bee products are strongly linked to the bee foraging flora source, and, depending on this, they acquire defined features, including their health and medicinal properties. Medicinal plants contribute greatly to increase the beneficial properties of bee products, such as honey, pollen, royal jelly, and propolis. Bee products represent a potential source of natural antioxidants that can counteract the effects of oxidative stress underlying the pathogenesis of many diseases. The antioxidant properties of bee products have been widely studied and there is an abundance of information available in the literature. Notwithstanding, the uniqueness of the presented perspective is to provide an updated overview of the antioxidant properties of bee products derived from medicinal plants as beekeeping sources. This topic is divided and discussed in the text in different sections as follows: (i) beekeeping and the impacts of environmental factors; (ii) an overview of the role of medicinal plants for bee products; (iii) definition and categorization of the main medicinal bee plants and related bee products; (iv) the study approach of the antioxidant properties; (v) the conventional and innovative assays used for the measurement of the antioxidant activity; and (vi) the antioxidant properties of bee products from medicinal plants.
Ecosystems provide many services that are essential for human activities and for our well-being. Many regulation services are interconnected and are fundamental in mitigating and hindering the negative effects of several phenomena such as pollution. Pollution, in particular airborne particulate matter (PM), represents an important risk to human health. This perspective aims at providing a current framework that relates ecosystem services, regulating services, pollination, and human health, with particular regards to pollution and its impacts. A quantitative literature analysis on the topic has been adopted. The health repercussions of problems related to ecosystem services, with a focus on the effects of atmospheric particulate matter, have been highlighted in the work throughout a case study. In polluted environments, pollinators are severely exposed to airborne PM, which adheres to the insect body hairs and can be ingested through contaminated food resources, i.e., pollen and honey. This poses a serious risk for the health of pollinators with consequences on the pollination service and, ultimately, for human health.
L'analisi delle citazioni è un metodo bibliometrico comunemente utilizzato per valutare l'attività scientifica svolta da ricercatori e istituzioni in uno specifico campo di ricerca. In questo lavoro sono valutate e confrontate le riviste forestali italiane peer-reviewed-Annals of Silvicultural Research, Dendronatura, Forest@, iForest, L'Italia Forestale e Montana, Sherwood-attraverso un'analisi bibliometrica basata su indicatori quantitativi. Annals of Silvicultural Research, edita online dal CREA Centro di ricerca Foreste e Legno, pubblica in inglese articoli scientifici, recensioni, relazioni di progetti internazionali e note su tutti gli aspetti connessi alla selvicoltura. iForest e Forest@ sono due riviste online peer-reviewed pubblicate dalla Società Italiana di Selvicoltura ed Ecologia Forestale, la prima in inglese, la seconda in italiano; iForest e Forest@ abbracciano un'ampia gamma di aspetti di ricerca riguardanti le scienze forestali: di particolare interesse sono gli studi che affrontano le basi biologiche ed ecologiche per la gestione sostenibile degli ecosistemi forestali. L'Italia Forestale e Montana è una rivista scientifica online pubblicata dall'Accademia Italiana di Scienze Forestali, che contiene articoli scientifici e recensioni, note tecniche, lettere, opinioni, notizie e recensioni di libri in tutti i campi delle scienze forestali, inclusa la politica e l'economia forestale. Sherwood e Dendronatura, curate rispettivamente da una casa editrice privata e dall'Associazione dei Forestali della provincia di Trento, sono due riviste tecniche dedicate principalmente a decisori, proprietari forestali, forestali professionisti e funzionari forestali e tecnici delle amministrazioni pubbliche. L'impatto bibliometrico di queste riviste forestali è stato analizzato utilizzando i database di Google Scholar e Scopus per il quinquennio 2014-2018.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.