Background and aims – The research aim was to investigate the relation between large-scale geographic factors and the functional structure of the herbaceous layer of calcareous beech forests in the Apennines, managed as high forest.Material and methods – We selected 163 plots (20 × 20 m), ranging from Central to South Italy, using a random stratified sampling design. We correlated the effect sizes of traits’ community-weighted means, functional richness, evenness, divergence, dispersion, and Rao’s quadratic entropy, with the main axes of variation in species composition.Key results – The geographical range played a weak role in shaping the species composition of the herbaceous layer. However, we found evidence of functional convergence towards the northern sectors of the study area, where traits linked to resource retention strategies and vegetative spread are filtered. We did not find any evidence of convergence northwards for leaf phenology and pollination types.Conclusion – The increase of the intensity in the environmental stress was associated with a decrease of diversity for traits related to resource conservation strategies and vegetative propagation. On the contrary, the lower cold stress intensity southwards fostered a better niche partitioning, ensuring the coexistence of species with different modalities of resource acquisition and conservation.

Abandoned semi-natural grasslands are characterized by lower plant diversity as a consequence of tall grasses spreading. Mowing is a widely used restoration practice, but its effects to maintain the restored diversity over time is poorly investigated in sub-Mediterranean grasslands. Since 2010 in the central Apennines, we fenced a grassland, invaded by Brachypodium rupestre, which was mowed twice a year. Before the experiment started, we recorded species cover in 30 random sampling units (0.5 m × 0.5 m). The sampling was repeated every two years for a total of ten years. We used linear mixed-effect models to investigate the trajectory of functional diversity and community weighted mean for traits related to space occupation, resource exploitation, temporal niche exploitation, and Grime’s CSR strategies. The reduction of the weaker competitor exclusion exerted by B. rupestre affected the functional plant community. In the short term (4–6 years), this fostered space occupation strategies, decreasing convergence of clonal strategies and horizontal space occupation types. In the longer term (8–10 years), mowing filtered ruderal strategies, i.e., species with faster resource acquisition (lower leaf dry matter content, LDMC). LDMC and CSR strategies, initially convergent due to the dominance of B. rupestre, lowered convergence over time due to higher differentiation of strategies.

Research on solid precipitation and snow cover, especially in mountainous areas, suffers from problems related to the lack of on-site observations and the low reliability of measurements, which is often due to instruments that are not suitable for the environmental conditions. In this context, the study area is the Monti Sibillini National Park, and it is no exception, as it is a mountainous area located in central Italy, where the measurements are scarce and fragmented. The purpose of this research is to provide a characterization of the snow cover with regard to maximum annual snow depth, average snow depth during the snowy period, and days with snow cover on the ground in the Monti Sibillini National Park area, by means of ground weather stations, and also analyzing any trends over the last 30 years. For this research, in order to obtain reliable snow cover data, only data from weather stations equipped with a sonar system and manual weather stations, where the surveyor goes to the site each morning and checks the thickness of the snowpack and records, it were collected. The data were collected from 1 November to 30 April each year for 30 years, from 1991 to 2020; six weather stations were taken into account, while four more were added as of 1 January 2010. The longer period was used to assess possible ongoing trends, which proved to be very heterogeneous in the results, predominantly negative in the case of days with snow cover on the ground, while trends were predominantly positive for maximum annual snow depth and distributed between positive and negative for the average annual snow depth. The shorter period, 2010–2022, on the other hand, ensured the presence of a larger number of weather stations and was used to assess the correlation and presence of clusters between the various weather stations and, consequently, in the study area. Furthermore, in this way, an up-to-date nivometric classification of the study area was obtained (in terms of days with snow on the ground, maximum height of snowpack, and average height of snowpack), filling a gap where there had been no nivometric study in the aforementioned area. The interpolations were processed using geostatistical techniques such as co-kriging with altitude as an independent variable, allowing fairly precise spatialization, analyzing the results of cross-validation. This analysis could be a useful tool for hydrological modeling of the area, as well as having a clear use related to tourism and vegetation, which is extremely influenced by the nivometric variables in its phenology. In addition, this analysis could also be considered a starting point for the calibration of more recent satellite products dedicated to snow cover detection, in order to further improve the compiled climate characterization.

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This study provides the first contribution to the knowledge of the non-calcareous grasslands of the arenaceous sector of the Monti Sibillini National Park (central Italy). We conducted 55 relevés using the Braun-Blanquet phytosociological method and analysed the ecology of plant communities by Redundancy analysis using topographic variables and Ellenberg Indicator Values as predictors. We identified nine plant communities, belonging to four classes. Communities of Calluno-Ulicetea and Nardetea strictae were found on acidic soils at higher elevations, those of Festuco-Brometea were mainly associated with steeper south-facing slopes, while Molinio-Arrhenatheretea communities were associated with low altitudes and gentle slopes, semi-flat lands, and high soil nutrient and moisture values. We recorded a total of 410 taxa at the species and subspecies level, representing about 20% of the flora of the Monti Sibillini National Park. Some of these are of high conservation interest, e.g. Calluna vulgaris, Genista sagittalis, Juncus capitatus, and Ophioglossum vulgatum. Eight species are new to the flora of Sibillini National Park.