Flora Palinologica Italiana,Sezione Aeropalinologica — Specie esotiche - S 236:Cedrus libani A. Rich

Riassunto Nell'ambito del programma della Flora Palinologica Italiana, Sezione Aerobiologica, viene presentata la scheda palinologica diCedrus libani A. Rich. (specie esotica). Sono puntualizzate le differenze tra i parametri morfologici del polline «fresco» e acetolizzato.

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Summary According to the program «Palynological Italian Flora, Aeropalynological Section» the palynological card ofCedrus libani A. Rich. (exotic species) relevant to «fresh» and acetolyzed pollen grains is presented. The differences between the morphological parameters of fresh and acetolyzed pollen are pointed out.

     

Immigrant narratives and nation-building in a stateless nation: the case of Italians in post-devolution Wales

This article aims to contribute to the study of migration and nation-building in stateless nations. It explores the media portrayal of Italian immigration in Wales after the 1997 devolution. It assesses why Italian immigrant narratives have figured prominently in the Welsh media after devolution. It shows that, being seen as Wales's ‘model minority’, Italians have ideally served a reinforcement of the surrounding inclusive rhetoric, one that draws on an old-standing Welsh tolerance-myth. Thus, this article argues that stateless nations aiming to gain increasing autonomy can use their immigration history to construct and disseminate a tolerant and inclusive national image, one that aims to foster both indigenous people and migrants' sense of national belonging.     

A long-term chronology of Pinus pinea L. from Parco della Versiliana (Pietrasanta,Italy) derived from treefall induced by a windstorm on March 4th-5th, 2015

Pinewoods are distinctive environmental elements in the Mediterranean coastal area and have both natural and historical significance. From the evening of March 4th to the morning of March 5th, 2015, a severe and unusual windstorm occurred in the Tuscany region of central Italy with wind gusts over 120 km/h. The windstorm caused vast damage to the anthropic and natural environment and wounded numerous trees in the renowned pinewoods of Parco della Versiliana in the Tyrrhenian coastal area. The meteorological calamity provided the opportunity to i) date the onset of the artificial plantation of the present Italian stone pine (Pinus pinea L.) forest to the 1820s, ii) build a long-term tree-ring chronology of the Italian stone pines in the area and iii) analyze the climate-growth relationship of the Italian stone pine in the study area. The resulting Versiliana chronology was derived from 60 trees and spanned from 1828 to 2014 (187 years), representing one of the longest living Italian stone pine forests on the Italian Peninsula. Finally, the climate-growth analysis highlighted that at this site the latewood width is positively influenced by summer temperature, a peculiarity worthy of further investigations.     

Population genetic structure in the dioecious pioneer plant species Hippophae rhamnoides investigated by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers

Hippophae rhamnoides is an outcrossing pioneer plant species with a severely fragmented distribution. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) marker variation was analysed in 10 populations of ssp. rhamnoides and in one population of ssp. mongolica to estimate the amount and distribution of genetic variability. No less than 89.7% of the scorable markers were polymorphic, but few of these were fixed and populations consequently differed mainly by frequency variation of individual markers. Within-population gene diversity was somewhat low for an outcrossing plant species: 0.192 or 0.159 for ssp. rhamnoides , depending on whether it was based on all 156 polymorphic RAPDs or on only those 63 RAPDs that fulfilled the 3/ N criterion. Analysis of molecular variance applied to the ssp. rhamnoides showed only 15% between-population variability, indicating a relatively restricted population differentiation as expected in outcrossing species and shown in several other AMOVA studies. The tendency for island populations to be somewhat more differentiated, and to have less within-population diversity than mainland populations, may indicate an effect of population fragmentation. Genetic distance estimates among populations, obtained with and without pruning of RAPD loci on the basis of the 3/ N criterion, were generally in very good agreement. Cluster analyses and principal coordinate analyses showed populations of ssp. rhamnoides to be rather close, but quite isolated from the single ssp. mongolica population. Genetic and geographical distances between the ssp. rhamnoides populations were not associated, indicating that large-scale geographical and ecotypic differentiation was not reflected in the RAPD profiles.     

Target regions for silvoarable agroforestry in Europe

Silvoarable agroforestry (SAF) has recently been proposed as an alternative land-use system for Europe. Data on soil, climate, topography, and land cover were integrated in a geographic information system (GIS) to identify agroforestry target regions where (i) productive growth of trees (Juglans spp., Prunus avium, Populus spp., Pinus pinea, and Quercus ilex) in SAF systems could be expected and where (ii) SAF systems could potentially reduce the risk of soil erosion, nitrate leaching and increase landscape diversity.The analysis shows that the investigated tree species could grow productively in SAF systems on 56% of the arable land throughout Europe (potential productive tree growth area). 80% of the European arable land was classified as potential risk area for soil erosion, nitrate leaching, and/or landscape diversity. Overlaying potential productive tree growth areas with the arable land that was considered as environmental risk area yielded target regions. They were found to make up about 40% of the European arable land and thus SAF could contribute to soil protection on 4%, to mitigate nitrate leaching on 18% and to increase landscape diversity on 32% of European arable land.Although limited by constrained data availability, the study shows that SAF could be implemented in a productive way throughout Europe and that it could help resolve some of the major land-use problems. The environmental benefits could justify the support of SAF by subsidies.     

Inter- and intraspecific genetic variation inHippophae (Elaeagnaceae) investigated by RAPD markers

Genetic diversity has been investigated by the application of molecular markers in, for the first time, all the taxa recognised in recent treatises of the genusHippophae. RAPD (random amplified polymorphic DNA) analyses were conducted with 9 decamer primers, which together yielded 219 polymorphic markers. We found 16 fixed RAPD markers, i.e. markers that either occurred in all plants of a population or were absent from all plants. Several of these markers were useful for analysis of interspecific relationships, whereas others can be considered as taxon-specific markers. Clustering of taxa and populations in our neighbour-joining based dendrogram was in good agreement with some recently suggested taxonomic treatises ofHippophae. Amount and distribution of genetic variability varied considerably between species. Partitioning of molecular variance withinH. rhamnoides supported earlier findings that a considerable part of the total variance resides among subspecies (59.6%) Within-population variability also differed considerably. Percentage polymorphic RAPD loci and Lynch and Milligan within-population gene diversity estimates showed relatively high values for some species close to the geographic centre of origin in Central Asia, e.g.H. tibetana and the putatively hybridogenousH. goniocarpa. Spatial autocorrelation analyses performed on 12 populations ofH. rhamnoides revealed positive autocorrelation of allele frequencies when geographic distances ranged from 0 to 700 km, and no or negative autocorrelation at higher distances. At distances between 700 and 1900 km, we observed deviations from the expected values with strongly negative autocorrelation of allele frequencies. A corresponding relationship between geographic and genetic distances could not be found when the analysis instead was based on one population from each of 8 species.     

Herbarium survey on the genus Azolla (Salviniaceae) in Italy: distributive and taxonomic implications

An analysis of Italian herbarium specimens belonging to the genus Azolla was carried out using optical microscope and SEM techniques. According to recent international reviews, three micro-morphological characters have been considered for the specimen analysis: (i) number of leaf trichome cells, (ii) septation of glochidia and (iii) features of the macrospore perine. The analysis of the patterns concerning both vegetative and reproductive characters was complicated by the relatively low number of sporulated specimens stored in the Italian Herbaria. The analysis of the selected specimens showed the presence of two well distinct systematic groups. One group was characterized by bicellular leaf trichomes, pluriseptate glochidia and not-warty perine, traits that permitted to taxonomically attribute it to A. cristata. The second group was characterized by monocellular leaf trichomes, non-septate or uniseptate glochidia and warty perine, so that it could be taxonomically attributed to A. filiculoides Lam. This study confirmed the large use in the past of the name ‘A. caroliniana’ to indicate the species actually named A. cristata. In Italy, this species was found to be collected only in the past, while A. filiculoides was found to be present with both ancient and recent herbarium specimens.     

Differentiation of the Italian wolf and the domestic dog based on microsatellite analysis

The Italian wolf is in the process of regaining the Alpine region which comes into conflict with the extensive sheep keeping practiced in Switzerland during the summer. As in Switzerland, the wolf is a protected species, the government reimburses losses caused by wolves. Therefore we wanted to know whether the Italian wolf could be distinguished from the domestic dog by microsatellite analysis if DNA samples of the predators could be secured. The evaluation of combined genotypes for the microsatellites CanBern6, CPH4, CPH7, CPH9, CPH12, CPH22 and ZuBeCa1 made it possible to identify an individual as either a domestic dog or an Italian wolf. The assignment of an individual to either one of the two populations is based on the logarithm of the likelihood ratio of an individual being an Italian wolf rather than a domestic dog, given a specific combined genotype. The distribution of the Italian wolf combined genotypes (n = 42) is clearly distinct from the distribution of the domestic dog combined genotypes (n = 90). The likelihood ratio for the "worst" Italian wolf combined genotype was 2.3 E+5 and for the "worst" domestic dog combined genotype was 3.8 E-5.