Wetlands in the Continental biogeographical region of Northern Italy: from scenarios of change to conservation perspectives

Wetlands in the Continental biogeographical region of
Northern Italy: from scenarios of change to conservation perspectives.
Wetlands are extremely important ecosystems for supporting biodiversity
and providing services. Nonetheless, although they are mostly
protected through several regulations, wetlands are affected by many
negative factors that are leading to progressive deterioration of their
conservation status. This circumstance is especially obvious in the Continental
biogeographical region of Northern Italy, which is included in
Piedmont and Lombardy on the left hydrographic side of the River Po.
The goal of this study was to assess the main ecological drivers, i.e. the
most important ecological factors, including pressures and threats, that
shape negatively ecosystem dynamics, hence affecting conservation
targets, and finally to suggest actions for counteracting them. Analyses
were done at different scales, through bibliographic researches and
site-specific data processing. As a result, we identified groups of ecological
drivers, among which three were recognized as prevalent: a)
the anthropic alteration of water levels; and b) the natural ecological
succession in combination to c) the abandonment of traditional land use
practices. The last two main ecological drivers were regarded as those
to be counteracted by removing biomass (through digging, mowing,
fire), because they may produce cascading effects and work against
all the other ecological drivers. However, it is necessary to define a
new reference framework based on pointing out conservation priorities
at large scale (regional or supra-regional) and conservation actions at
local scale, both focused on adaptive management.