The primary grasslands of the northern Apennine summits (N-Italy): a phytosociological and ecological survey

• Main Authors: Tomaselli, M, Carbognani, M, Foggi, B, Petraglia, A, Rossi, G, Lombardi, L, Gennai, M
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: arctic-alpine grassland; Carici rupestris-Kobresietea bellardii; Ellenberg indicator value; Elyno-Seslerietea; Juncetea trifidi; northern Apennine; syntaxonomy; Arctic; Tundra
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11571/1347074; https://doi.org/10.14471/2019.39.018

This paper provides a comprehensive phytosociological survey on the alpine grasslands occurring on the northern Apennine summits (N-Italy). The study area represents a crucial phytogeographic joint between the Alps and the Apennines and its summit grassland vegetation was only partially documented at the time. Research was based on 219 releves classified combining a preliminary manual procedure with a cluster analysis that was performed with the Ward's minimum variance method on the chord distance matrix. In such a way, six different plant associations were identified and allocated to three different phytosociological classes (Juncetea trifidi, Elyno-Seslerietea, Carici rupestris-Kobresietea bellardii). All the six associations could be regarded as endemic because occurring only in the study area. Four of them were described here for the first time and typified according to the rules of the International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature. The releves corresponding to calcium-poor grasslands (Juncetea trifidi) were assigned to three different associations allocated to the suballiance Festucenion riccerii, here newly described. The releves corresponding to calcium-rich grasslands (Elyno-Seslerietea) were assigned to two associations, respectively, belonging to the alliance Caricion ferrugineae and to a new alliance described here under the name Caricion sempervirentis-Seslerion apenninae. Finally, a graminoid tundra association was firstly documented for the northern Apennines and assigned to the alliance Oxytropido-Elynion myosuroidis. The extent and quality of species fidelity to the different plant associations was detected by developing a metric named "Retention Index" (RIN). Calculation of RIN values showed that calcium-rich grasslands retained a higher floristic distinctiveness with respect to the calcium-poor ones. The analysis of environmental gradients within the grassland vegetation was performed through Principal Component Analysis (PCA), adopting Ellenberg indicator values as indirect ...