The results of the Forest Resources Assessment 2000 carried out by FAO are synthetically presented and discussed. The world forest coverage is estimated equal to 38.6 million km 2 . The comparison of the estimates from the period 1990-2000 with those from the period 1980-1990 points out a certain general deceleration of the rate of net deforestation, that currently involves around 9 million hectares every year. However, the annua1 loss of tropical forests is still very large, while temperate and borea1 forests are in expansion. Overall, FRA2000 produced a relevant effort to compensate the existing technical, institutional and financial constraints and shortcomings for monitoring the world forest resources. The need to increase the quality and the frequency of forest surveys, both at national and international levels, s t a stands as a major issue to cope with.

http://ojs.aisf.it/index.php/ifm/article/download/774/738

Valutazione delle risorse forestali a livello globale

There is increasing pressure on global agricultural systems due to higher food demand, climate change, and environmental concerns. The design of nanostructures is proposed as one of the economically viable technological solutions that can make agrochemical use (fertilizers and pesticides) more efficient through reduced runoff, increased foliar uptake and bioavailability, and decreased environmental impacts. However, gaps in knowledge about the transport of nanoparticles across the leaf surface and their behavior in planta limit the rational design of nanoparticles for foliar delivery with controlled fate and limited risk. Here, the current literature on nano-objects deposited on leaves is reviewed. The different possible foliar routes of uptake (stomata, cuticle, trichomes, hydathodes, necrotic spots) are discussed, along with the paths of translocation, via the phloem, from the leaf to the end sinks (mature and developing tissues, roots, rhizosphere). This review details the interplays between morphological constraints, environmental stimuli, and physical-chemical properties of nanoparticles influencing their fate, transformation, and transport after foliar deposition. A metadata analysis from the existing literature highlighted that plant used for testing nanoparticle fate are most often dicotyledon plants (75%), while monocotyledons (as cereals) are less considered. Correlations on parameters calculated from the literature indicated that nanoparticle dose, size, zeta potential, and affinity to organic phases correlated with leaf-to-sink translocation, demonstrating that targeting nanoparticles to specific plant compartments by design should be achievable. Correlations also showed that time and plant growth seemed to be drivers for in planta mobility, parameters that are largely overlooked in the literature. This review thus highlights the material design opportunities and the knowledge gaps for targeted, stimuli driven deliveries of safe nanomaterials for agriculture.

Critical Review: Role of Inorganic Nanoparticle Properties on Their Foliar Uptake and in Planta Translocation.

In the context of urban land-use growth and the consequent impacts on the environment, green spaces provide ecosystem services for human health. The ecosystem services concept synthesises human–environmental interactions through a series of combined components of biodiversity and abiotic elements, linking ecological processes and functions. The concept of green infrastructure (GI) in the urban context emphasises the quality and quantity of urban and peri-urban green spaces and natural areas. In dense urban contexts, the applications of GI are limited and not applied to the potential urban spaces such as roofs and gardens. Often, roofs are characterised by impermeable paved surfaces with negative effects on human well-being, whereas garden designs do not consider social needs and environmental interactions. The role of urban stressors or the urban context as a driving force or pressure of urban green space is not always well understood and employed in the planning of green spaces. This is partly due to a knowledge gap between different science disciplines that operate on different scales, from single processes of the plants (which focus on plant responses to environmental stresses affecting human well-being) to urban ecosystems (which focus on the biodiversity and urban space planning–human well-being relationship). This can create a paradox, as green spaces that are not adequately designed might not produce the expected effects. In this paper, an overview of benefits and limitations of applying the ecosystem services approach when designing green spaces is presented. The focus is on the main urban ecosystem services provided by green roofs and community gardens such as GI that can represent strategies to provide ecological and social multifunctionality to waterproofed surfaces connected to the buildings and low-exploited gardens being the main areas that affect dense urban settlements, and thus, increasing the ecosystem services in the urban environment, such as reducing the Urban Heat Island, as well as flooding events. Specifically, the paper highlights (i) feedback between ecological processes and functions that support ecosystem services, (ii) urban environmental stresses in relation to disservices that these can create for human well-being and (iii) key issues that should be considered in the planning and design of urban ecosystem services. Such a new vision of urban ecosystem services highlights the need to look at GI as an active part of the urban space design in the built environment.

Planning of urban green spaces: An ecological perspective on human benefits

The two faces of nanomaterials: A quantification of hormesis in algae and plants

Trees can be used as good indicators to evaluate the increase in atmospheric heavy metal concentrations. In the last two decades, air pollution in the city of Ankara has rapidly increased with the ever-increasing traffic density. In the present study, the depositions of aluminum (Al), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), cobalt (Co), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), chrome (Cr), cadmium (Cd), sodium (Na), calcium (Ca), barium (Ba), phosphor (P), magnesium (Mg), arsenic (As), and boron (B) in the rings of oak trees were analyzed using a GBC Integra XL–SDS-270 ICP-OES device. The study found that heavy metal concentrations in tree rings varied over the past 20 years; furthermore, there was a significant relationship between the heavy metal concentrations in tree rings and the atmospheric heavy metal concentrations. There was an increase in the concentrations of nutritional elements (Na, P, and Mg) in 2010 when there was excessive precipitation. As a result, the concentrations of all elements in the woods of different ages were significantly different at a confidence interval of 95% for As, 99% for Cd, and 99.9% for other elements.

Use of tree rings as a bioindicator to observe atmospheric heavy metal deposition.

Oak tree-rings record spatial-temporal pollution trends from different sources in Terni (Central Italy).

The green side of the grey: Assessing greenspaces in built-up areas of Italy

In recent years, depopulation and abandonment of traditional practices in the mountainous areas have affected the land use and land cover inducing the modification of the landscape mosaic. These processes have consequently facilitated the forest expansion, sometimes altering the floristic composition of the original vegetation in forests and other wooded lands. Forest expansion processes modified the structure, the stand density and the regeneration capacity of forests, thus altering the ecosystems’ functionality and resilience. These processes can be considered as a form of landscape degradation, which represents an emerging and common issue in the Mediterranean mountainous ecosystems. This study presents an overview of the main landscape dynamics occurring in the last two decades in the “Collemeluccio-Montedimezzo Alto Molise” Man and Biosphere Reserve, located in Central Italy. The results here obtained deeply describe the main effects induced by forest cover changes, such as those related to t...

Behind forest cover changes: is natural regrowth supporting landscape restoration? Findings from Central Italy

A major environmental pollution problem is the release into the atmosphere of particulate matter, including nanoparticles (NPs), which causes serious hazards to human and ecosystem health, particularly in urban areas. However, knowledge about the uptake, translocation and accumulation of NPs in plant tissues is almost completely lacking. The uptake of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) and their transport and accumulation in the leaves, stems and roots of three different tree species, downy oak (Quercus pubescens Willd.), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and black poplar (Populus nigra L.), were assessed. In the experiment, Ag-NPs were supplied separately to the leaves (via spraying, the foliar treatment) and roots (via watering, the root treatment) of the three species. Uptake, transport and accumulation of Ag were investigated through spectroscopy. The concentration of Ag in the stem was higher in the foliar than in the root treatment, and in poplar more than in oak and pine. Foliar treatment with Ag-NPs reduced aboveground biomass and stem length in poplars, but not in oaks or pines. Species-specific signals of oxidative stress were observed; foliar treatment of oak caused the accumulation of H2O2 in leaves, and both foliar and root treatments of poplar led to increased O2- in leaves. Ag-NPs affected leaf and root bacteria and fungi; in the case of leaves, foliar treatment reduced bacterial populations in oak and poplar and fungi populations in pine, and in the case of roots, root treatment reduced bacteria and increased fungi in poplar. Species-specific mechanisms of interaction, transport, allocation and storage of NPs in trees were found. We demonstrated definitively that NPs enter into the tree stem through leaves faster than through roots in all of the investigated tree species.

Silver nanoparticles enter the tree stem faster through leaves than through roots.

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Oak tree-rings record spatial-temporal pollution trends from different sources in Terni (Central Italy).

The green side of the grey: Assessing greenspaces in built-up areas of Italy

Behind forest cover changes: is natural regrowth supporting landscape restoration? Findings from Central Italy

Silver nanoparticles enter the tree stem faster through leaves than through roots.