Plant communities. The niche of a plant species. Distrubance and plant successions. Functional types. Biodiveristy metrics. Landscape types. Drivers of diversity loss. Biological indicators. Conservation strategies. The Italian network of PAs. The Habitat Directive. Case studies.

C. Leuschner, H. Ellenberg – “Vegetation Ecology of Central Europe” – Springer

FUNDAMENTALS OF ECOLOGY
Ecology and ecosystem structure. Hierarchical levels of organization within the ecosystem. Energy Flux. Trophic networks and trophic chain. Grazing and detritus chains. Biotic and abiotic components; populations and communities. Factors governing ecosystem biomass and productivity variation in space and time.
The soil: importance, biogeochemical cycles. Soil fertility control over ecosystem properties (site index).
Bioclimate. Macro-, meso- e microclimate. Bioclimatic classifications. Climatic diagrams. Bioclimatic indices: Lang, De Martonne, Emberger, Mitrakos, Thorntwaite. Potenatial and actual evapotraspiration potenziale, water deficit.
Ecological gradients, biomes. Biolclimate vs soil control on soil properties: biomass, productivity, tree longevity, demografic turnover, phenology.

ECOSYSTEM DYNAMICS
Autogenic and allogenic processes autogeni ed allogeni (exogenous/endogenous) driving ecosystem dynamics. Primary and secondary successions.
The sylvic cycle: structural phases. Self-thinning, self-pruning.
The developmental stages of a forest community. The shifting mosaic and quasi equilibrium theory.
The natural disturbance regime and its effect on ecosystem dynamics.

FOREST MONITORING
Indicators and indices. Pressure, state, response. Bioindicators.
Main forest variables to be monitored. Census vs Sampling. Approaces to monitoring forest ecosystem structure. Monitoring through forest plots. Permanent plots. Biomass and deadwood, Wildllife trees, microhabitats.
Remote sensing tin forest monitoring. Vegetation indices and their meaning. Practical implementations of remote sensing to forest dynamics.
Applied case studies of forest monitoring. The old-growth UNSCO beech forest network. The national inventory of forests and carbon sinks. The global and continental scale network of forest monitoring. Tree-ring monitoring.

FOREST NATURALNESS AND OLD-GROWTH FORESTS.
Natural and artificial disturbance. Natural heritage.
Primary vs secondary old-growth forests. Attributes of natural and old-growth forests. Biomassa and necromass. Biomass accumulation curve. Structural dynamics of natural forests. Sructural, compositional, chrono-functional indicators of old-growthness.
Attributes of temperate old-growth forests.

FOREST DEGRADATION
Definitions of forest degradation. Natural vs anthorpogenic sources of degradation. Degradation vs natural ecosystem variability. Natural reference conditions. Resilience, alternative ecosystem states, thresholds and tipping points, ecosystem collapse.
Criteria and indicators to identify forest degradation

FOREST FRAGMENTATION
Causes and impacts of fragmentation. Measuring fragmentation. Forest integrity index. Isolation, Edge effect, ecological barriers, metapopulations.
Measuring fragmentation via remote sensing. CORINE, vegetation indices, Global Forest Watch, Land Cover; fragmentation metrics.

BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
The IUCN Red List of Ecosystems: categories, criteria, operational approach.

Main textbook
Primack, Boitani. Biologia della conservazione. Zanichelli.

Other textbooks for basics in ecology
Odum & Barnett. Fondamenti di ecologia. Piccin.
Paci. Ecologia Forestale. Edagricole.
Pignatti. Ecologia Vegetale. UTET.
La Marca O., 1999. Elementi di dendrometria. Patron editore

Other useful textbooks
Bernetti. Selvicoltura Speciale. UTET.