The research aims were to identify the flowering pattern and the related functional strategies in submediterranean mountain meadows (central Italy) and understand their relationships with some environmental and community structure variables. The number of flowering shoots per species was counted and environmental data were collected in 40 plots during 2009. Analysis of the species and trait data sets highlighted a flowering pattern and an underlying functional pattern. Dominant species tend to bloom in the central phases of the growing season\ud when no stress acts in the system and a long time is\ud available for plant growth and seed maturation. This kind of species does not need functional strategies allowing the canopy fast pre-emption or the tolerance to drought stress. Non-dominant species have two groups of functional strategies that allow them to share the same flowering period of dominant ones by a\ud different type of space occupation (spatial niche partitioning) or to flower before or after their flowering period (temporal niche partitioning). The functional strategies involved in the temporal niche partitioning have a dual ecological meaning, limiting competition with dominant species by fast growth and seed\ud maturation (e.g., short stature, mobilisation of stored reserves, colonization of unexploited soil niches by clonal growth organs and light seeds) and enabling tolerance to drought stress (e.g., scleromorphic and succulent leaves, persistent green leaves, tap roots) and to the low light availability at the ground level\ud owing to the change of grassland structure (e.g., tall size and upright growth form)

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The present study examined a sub-Mediterranean pastoral system in the central Apennines (Italy) with a long history of\ud grazing, where winter cold stress is alternated with summer drought stress. The research goals were to ascertain whether\ud different floristic structures correspond to different stress conditions (xeric and semimesic), and whether peculiar functional\ud plant traits (such as avoidance and tolerance mechanisms) respond to stress/disturbance intensities, and understand how\ud vegetation reacts to changeable livestock pressure (through floristic and plant trait variations). Cluster analysis indicated that\ud separate communities develop under different stress intensities. Other analyses highlighted how avoidance strategies predominate within the pastoral system. Observations of grazed and ungrazed patches conducted in 10-m transects revealed spiny cushion formation in semimesic grassland, where a brief period of overgrazing occurs in late summer, causing variations in plant community structure. All these results confirm the importance of historical grazing and current land use, showing how small disturbances and stress variations cause ecosystem responses. Best practices for management were identified. In xeric conditions, it is advisable that the intensity of disturbance be lessened, while in semimesic grassland overgrazing should be forbidden during the dry period, because it could facilitate the development of spiny patches, and subsequent spread of Brachypodium rupestre

Questions: How does horse or sheep grazing affect species richness, diversity and functional composition of plant communities in sub-Mediterranean grasslands? What are the implications of grazing management for species conservation?\ud Location: Pastures dominated by Bromus erectus grazed by either sheep or horses in the Umbria-Marches Apennines (central Italy).\ud Methods:We examined grasslands at altitudes ranging from 1000 to 1200 m a. s.l. on north-facing slopes and with a slope angle of 20–40 °. In 20 plots of 1 m2 for each management type, canopy height and above-ground phytomass were recorded. In 120 plots (60 for eachmanagement type) of 1 m2 the cover value of each species was recorded. Floristic diversity and community similarity of the sheep- and horse-grazed conditions were compared. Functional plant traits and strategies or ecological requirements were also evaluated.\ud Results: The sward was shorter and supported less above-ground phytomass in the horse-grazed area. The sheep- and horse-grazed areas had similar floristic diversity. Accidental species were the species most affected. Plants with lownutrient\ud requirement spread in horse-grazed pasture. Functional traits of species were filtered by the system, resulting in diverse cover values of species. Horse grazing promoted plants with a robust defence strategy (avoidance and tolerance) that ensured leaves were replaced when horses were not grazing, as well as species with clonal growth. In the sheep-grazed area, a higher level of selective defoliation and a delayed start to the grazing period promoted species with low palatability, a late-flowering strategy and those intolerant to trampling by large herbivores (chamaephytes). The value of forage feed was slightly higher in\ud horse-grazed pasture. Grazing of horses was more effective than that of sheep for controlling dominant unpalatable tall grasses.\ud Conclusion: In terms of biodiversity conservation, horse grazingmay be considered as useful as sheep grazing, but only if managed at optimal stocking rates, because the increase in short grasses and annuals (growth forms with poor root systems) does not ensuremaintenance of soil on steep slopes

Questions: In order to preserve the ecosystem functioning of semi-natural\ud sub-Mediterranean calcareous grasslands of the Central Apennines, it is vital to\ud understand how functional diversity (FD) changes in relation to different types\ud of disturbance. To compare the effects of sheep grazing and those of late-summer\ud mowing, we asked: do different types of disturbance (grazing and mowing)\ud affect FD; are FD and species diversity positively correlated in both grazed and\ud mown grasslands; do FD and species diversity take different paths in the two\ud disturbance regimes; and are different FD values related to changes in the composition\ud of traits linked to competitive ability, resource acquisition and resistance\ud strategies?\ud Location: Grazed andmown sites in the Central Apennines (Italy).\ud Methods: We performed redundancy analysis and indicator species analysis to\ud characterize the trait composition of the two disturbance regimes. We calculated\ud FD for each selected trait and a compound FD for multiple traits, using Rao’s\ud quadratic entropy index. Differences in FD between disturbance regimes were\ud tested with a nested ANOVA. We performed a regression analysis between FD\ud and species diversity indices under the two disturbance types.\ud Results: Species and functional diversity were positively correlated in both disturbance\ud types. FD was generally less correlated with species diversity variations\ud in mown grasslands than in grazed ones, suggesting that late mowing\ud leads to higher levels of functional redundancy (i.e. to a wider overlap of species\ud functional composition). Late mowing promoted higher species and functional\ud diversities and a wider variety of functional traits in the plant\ud community. Grazing, besides negatively affecting the species diversity of grasslands,\ud reduced their FD by favouring the dominance of traits related to avoidance\ud and tolerance strategies.\ud Conclusion: The continuation of late mowing is recommended to preserve the\ud richness and variability of functional groups and the ecosystem functioning of\ud sub-Mediterranean grasslands

Plant-plant interactions play a key role in regulating the composition of communities. The outcome of interactions is the net effect of both positive and negative interactions. Positive interactions (facilitation) are defined as non-trophic interactions that increase the average individual fitness of at least one of the species involved. The study area was the Salinas and Aguada Blanca National Reserve, in the southern Peruvian Andes, composed of Festuca orthophylla grassland (dry Puna). The research goals were to ascertain whether spatial interactions act in this plant community, in order to determine whether beneficiary species have speciesspecific spatial associations. Our findings indicate that the most important nurses were the tall tussock species. A direct correlation was observed between the dimension of the F. orthophylla tussocks and the number of beneficiary species. Twelve species were closely associated with nurse species; five occurred in relation with nurse plants but without any preference for one of them; four species grew both isolated and in relationship with nurse plants and six species mostly grew isolated on bare soil. Because of the impact of grazers, some plants cannot grow on open ground; in fact, the species most in need of spatial interactions are those without avoidance strategies and/or with broad leaves. F. orthophylla is the core of a clumped spatial pattern of vegetation. The importance of spatial interactions for biodiversity conservation seems to be closely related to environmental amelioration and to grazer activity because plants of low palatability often serve as biotic refuges for palatable plants.

The aim of this research was to study the fl oristic and ecological changes in sub-Mediterranean meadows due to three kinds of management entailing different disturbance intensities. The theoretic framework follows Grime's theory about the correlation between species richness and disturbance intensities. Phytosociological relevés were carried out in three different management-disturbance situations, namely mowing and grazing, mowing alone, and abandonment. The data from these relevés were processed through statistical analysis, and examined together with ecological parameters (bioindication values and twenty functional plant traits) in order to indicate signifi cant differences within the diversely disturbed meadows. It was found that three identifi ed plant communities corresponded to three different disturbance intensities, and that species richness was comparable between high disturbance situation and those of void disturbance, whilst it considerably decreased under intermediate disturbance. High disturbance condition vs. void disturbance comparison showed the higher differences regarding: species turnover (57% of Sørensen similarity index and 45 differential species), light request and pH soil reaction. Hemicryptophytes, fringe social behaviour type (SBT3), upright forbs, clonal ability, late fl owering period emerged as differential traits and species height increases moving to undisturbed situation. Other important evidences concern avoidance strategies which are favoured by mowing and grazing, whereas species equipped with late fl owering period and clonal ability are advantaged under intermediate and void disturbance conditions. Our fi ndings indicated that the species more threatened by abandonment are the accidental ones.

Several studies demonstrated that abandonment changes the functional composition of grasslands; nevertheless, little is known about the effects of grassland abandonment on the flowering-related functional pattern. We hypothesized that invasion by tall grasses affects this pattern. We counted the number of flowering shoots per species at five times during the growing season, in 80 plots placed in mown and in abandoned grasslands (central Apennines), and assessed the differences in the trait composition of flowering species between the two treatments. The selected traits were linked to resource acquisition and stress tolerance strategies. Our results indicated that abiotic environmental control is prevalent in determining the phenological pattern in both conditions and in accordance with the phenological "mid-domain hypothesis". We demonstrated that when the dominant species is a tall grass with competitive behaviour, the magnitude of this phenomenon is amplified due to the abiotic changes yielded by the tall grass invasion. Indeed, in the central and late phases of the growing season (when invasive tall grasses are growing and blooming), abandoned grasslands were marked by a set of traits devoted to stress tolerance or underlying a long reproductive cycle or linked to competition for light