Multi-temporal analysis of coastal dune ecosystems in Central Italy: experiences from a resurveying study

Marta Gaia Sperandii (Rom): As global changes and anthropogenic pressures are severely transforming both composition and diversity of ecosystems across the globe, quantifying such alteration and identifying main trends are crucial tasks in the protection and management of natural systems.

Being transitional ecosystems located at the boundary between land and sea, coastal dunes are unique habitats characterized by constraining environmental conditions and high habitat heterogeneity. However, in spite of a prominent conservation value and a wide range of socio-economic services provided, coastal dunes appear among the most threatened ecosystems on earth. The main goal of my PhD project was to track changes occurred during the last 10-15 years in coastal dune plant communities of Central Italy. To this aim, I performed a resurveying study including about 330 georeferenced, random plots originally sampled between 2002 and 2007 and belonging to the first portion of coastal zonation. During this talk I will introduce you to this project, describing the methodology, presenting results obtained until now and discussing some possible applications.