Habitat Fragmentation and Lichen Diversity in Peri-Urban Woodlands: A Case Study in the Municipality of Potenza (Southern Italy)

Abstract

The fragmentation of the natural habitat is a process that is exponentially increasing worldwide and represents one of the biggest threats to biological diversity. Habitat destruction and fragmentation have a major impact on landscapes and may also affect ecosystems, populations, and species. The ongoing anthropogenic process can result in habitat loss for some species, habitat creation for others, reduced patch size, and increased distance between patches, which may lead to local extinction. We analyzed the effects of patch size and isolation on lichens in Quercus pubescens woods surrounding the city of Potenza (south Italy). We randomly sampled 11 forest patches with homogeneous environmental variables using circular plots with a 10 m radius; the patches ranged from 0.3 to 30 ha. For each plot, we collected data about presence and abundance of epiphytic lichens. We performed the analyses at the patch level using linear regression and multivariate analysis, searching for effects on species richness, life forms, and community compositions. Multivariate analyses were used to study the effect of fragmentation on the structure of lichen vegetation. We investigated the main predictor of lichen species richness in habitat fragmentations and concluded that patch area per se is an important (positive) driver of lichen species richness in Mediterranean peri-urban forests.

<i>Lobaria pulmonaria</i> as an umbrella species for the protection of epiphytic lichen diversity in Polish Carpathians

“…Nevertheless, the extension of the protection zone to the surface area it had before 2014 shows that it would protect almost 90% of the epiphytic lichen biota growing under the umbrella of L. pulmonaria. It is obvious that, up to a certain limit, the number of species increases significantly with the increase in the studied area (Potenza et al, 2022). In a relatively homogenous environment, where communities are devoid of prominent dominants (as indicated by the high Pielou homogeneity index (J = ±0.8), equalized in successive zones), this increase does not, however, imply statistically significant differences in the number of species between successive zones, as in the cases we studied.…”

Assessing and Mapping Urban Ecological Resilience Using the Loss-Gain Approach: A Case Study of Tehran, Iran

“…The urban populations growth and urban expansion have led to reduced land use efficiency and habitat degradation, placing pressure on natural resources and the environment's carrying capacity (Tayebi, Alavi, Esfandi, Meshkani, & Shamsipour, 2023). Urban expansion has a fragmenting, isolating, and destructive impact on natural habitats (Astiaso Garcia, Bruschi, Cinquepalmi, & Cumo, 2013;Marzluff, 2001;Potenza, Gerardi, Fascetti, & Rosati, 2022;Zambrano, Aronson, & Fernandez, 2019). It also simplifies and homogenizes species composition (Mironova, Volkova, Gura, & Makar, 2022), disrupts hydrological systems (Arnold & Gibbons, 1996;Tayebi et al, 2022), and alters energy flow and nutrient cycling (Booth & Jackson, 1997;Modrzyński & Karaszewski, 2022;Wang, Van Dam, Triantafyllidis, Koppelaar, & Shah, 2017).…”