2,3,6,6,- 1Institute of BioEconomy-National Research Council of Italy, Sassari, Italy (simone.mereu@cnr.it)
- 2Foundation Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC), Lecce, Italy (sergio.noce@cmcc.it)
- 3National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC), Palermo, Italy (Lorenzo.arcidiaco@cnr.it)
- 4Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Ambientali Biologiche e Farmaceutiche, Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Caserta, Italy (Simona.castaldi@unicampania.it)
- 5Department of Science and Technology, University of Sannio, Benevento, Italy (dzuzolo@unisannio.it)
- 6Department of agricultural Sciences, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy (spano@uniss.it)
- *A full list of authors appears at the end of the abstract
Biodiversity and ecosystem functions are highly interdependent: systems richer in species often exhibit more intense ecological processes and greater resilience to disturbances. Although a positive relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functions (BEF) has been demonstrated across all major ecosystem types and in both controlled and natural environments, the underlying mechanisms remain incompletely understood.
In terrestrial ecosystems, BEF research has primarily focused on productivity and its resilience to disturbances, while other key functions—such as mortality, water use, light use efficiency, and soil respiration—have received less attention, and some processes, like soil CH₄ uptake, are still largely unexplored.
To better understand how BEF interconnections vary across pedoclimatic gradients and vegetation compositions, we established the BioFUN Network, sampling more than 230 sites across Italy using a standardized protocol. The implementation of BioFUNet was made possible through the contribution of over 60 participants involved in field sampling and laboratory analyses. While the network is designed to expand and enrich its database over time, the initial campaign targeted forests (175 sites), silvopastoral systems (32), and grasslands (30).
Here we present the results of the core network that focused on the main Italian forest communities, found either as pure or mixed stands: Fagus sylvatica, Quercus ilex, Quercus suber, Quercus pubescens, Picea abies, Abies alba, and Larix decidua. These were surveyed across their full pedoclimatic ranges.
The survey encompassed aboveground tree structure, microhabitats, soil physicochemical properties, root traits, soil gas fluxes (CO₂, CH₄, N₂O), together with environmental DNA (eDNA) analyses from soil and litter samples. eDNA was used to characterize microbial, invertebrate, and vertebrate communities.
The BioFUN design enables the quantification of how tree species mixing influences both ecosystem functioning (soil processes) and the composition of associated biodiversity. All data are stored in BioFUNBase, which also integrates complementary datasets from external sources, allowing the testing of multiple ecological hypotheses. The poster will present the first results of the campaign with a focus on the effects of tree diversity on soil gas fluxes.
Sergio Noce, Lorenzo Arcidiaco, Simona Castaldi, Giuseppe Brundu, Carlo Calfapietra, Antonello Prigioniero, Daniela Zuzolo, Carmine Guarino, Francesco Boscutti, Chiara Baldacchini, Giacomo Baldesi, Mara Baudena, Alessandra Bissattini Maria, Rudy Brogi, Rafael Bueno, Vincenzo Buono, Matteo Busconi, Fabiana Canini, Tony Chahine, Marcello Cherubini, Maria Chiaravalli, Tommaso Chiti, Federico Colle, Anna Corli, Piccinelli Cotti Marta, D’Rosaria Ascoli, Alessandro Deidda, Lonardo Di Sara, Serena Doni, Maria Leonarda Fadda, Silvano Fares, Paolo Fiorucci, Emanuele Fosso, Linda Franceschi, Lina Fusaro, Marta Galvagno, Olga Gavrichkova, Giulio Giorgetti, Riccardo Giusti, Siovana Goiràn, Eleonora Grilli, Ilaria Guagliardi, Khuzama Ishaq, Mantia La Tommaso, Labella-Marina Ortega, Christian Landi, Leonardo Latilla, Valerio Lazzeri, Cascio Lo Mauro, Vanessa Lozano, Marta Magnani, Maria Maisto, Grazia Masciandaro, Giorgio Matteucci, Claudia Mattioni, Francesco Mazzenga, Matia Menichini, Alessandro Messeri, Marco Micali, Andrea Modoni, Simone Orsenigo, Mattia Pallanza, Gaetano Pedana, David Pellegrini, Eleonora Peruzzi, Daniele Piastrelloni, Martina Pirozzi, Antonello Provenzale, Maria Ranauda Antonietta, Nicola Ricca, Manuele Scatena, Monica Scogliamiglio, Luca Sessa, Costantino Sirca, Maria Tartaglia, Maria Tiloca Teresa, Silvia Traversari, Giovanni Trentanovi, Francesca Vannucchi, Carlotta Volterrani, Marco Vuerich, Livia Zapponi, Galli Zucconi Laura Fonseca
How to cite: Mereu, S., Noce, S., Arcidiaco, L., Castaldi, S., Zuzolo, D., Prigioniero, A., Brundu, G., guarino, C., and Spano, D. and the BioFUNet team: Tree diveristy effects on soil processes and associated biodiversity across a pedoclimatic grandient, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-767, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-767, 2026.
