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.