Vegetation and water of lowland spring-wells in Po Plain (Northern Italy): ecological features and management proposals

Abstract

Spring-wells (lowland springs, “fontanili”) are elements of Po Plain (Northern Italy) with ecological and historical importance. There, spring-water flows naturally and rises to the surface at a relatively constant temperature, generating unique ecosystems dependent on the groundwater outflow. Despite their importance, they are endangered by degradation processes as the expansion of urban areas and/or the intensification of agriculture, very marked in Po Plain. This research describes four spring-wells of Po Plain from a botanical and ecological perspective through phytosociological relevés and different ecological indexes. Water chemical-physical features are also considered (pH, temperature and ammonium ion, nitrite, nitrate, orthophosphate, chloride and organic matters contents). Plant communities of the spring-well beds show a low number of species (5.8 ± 2.9) but also no exotic species while the vegetation of the banks has a high number of species (32.4 ± 9.8) but several of them are exotic/ornamental. The low value of the Ecological Index of Maturity of the vegetation of the banks (EIM = 4.4 ± 1.5) indicate disturbances, however moderate compared to the surrounding corn fields (EIM ~ 0). All the water samples has high ammonium content (> 0.50 ppm), the water of the spring-well B results the most polluted and both algae and Callitriche obtusangula (rare native species) grow largely in it, while spring-well C has less phosphates and more nitrite and is marked by Equisetum telmateia. Management proposals to protect and enhance the studied spring-wells, as the gradual removal of exotic species and the planting of native species, are discussed.

Urban woods in a small Mediterranean city: are native vs alien woods lonely together?

“…These eco-morphological features might enable these species to buffer the climate change effects (Bussotti et The richness of woody species in riparian woods was signi cantly lower compared to other native woods. This observation is consistent with ndings in scienti c literature, which attribute this pattern to the speci c environmental conditions found in riparian strips, where only a few woody species are capable of withstanding frequent ooding (Giupponi et al 2022; Chiaffarelli and Vagge 2023).…”

Landolt Indicator Values in Modern Research: A Review

“…Plant communities of the spring-well beds of the Po Plain (Northern Italy) were characterized through phytosociological relevés and different ecological indexes [70]. Several articles were devoted to the study of mire communities [71,72], degraded alpine mountain bog [73] and riparian vegetation [74].…”

“…A study carried out by an international team of authors from Germany and USA [107] has 10 citations. The rest of the papers in this cluster are also some- [78]; scotton (2018)- [80]; resch (2019)- [86]; khanina (2021)- [65]; margreiter (2022)- [45]; ivanova (2018)- [63]; znamenskiy (2018)- [71]; ivchenko (2022)- [72]; scotton (2021)- [79]; bertel (2018)- [97]; scherrer (2019)- [102]; diaci (2020)- [68]; ravetto enri (2021)- [57]; svensk (2021)- [61]; piccini (2022)- [46]; perotti (2021)- [53]; frei (2022)- [47]; colozza (2022)- [58]; kempel (2020b)- [81]; bystrova (2021)- [41]; weber (2018)- [94]; golovanov (2021)- [24]; giupponi (2022)- [70]; fogliata (2021)- [74]; büttner (2022)- [82].…”