Massimo Monteleone

The energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources is a key goal for the European Union, among others. Despite significant progress, Italy lags far behind the EU’s target of generating 55% of its electricity from renewables by 2030. The Apulia region in Italy needs to achieve an additional 7.4 GW of installed renewable energy capacity compared to 2021. Renewable energy installations, particularly photovoltaic systems, require land that may compete with other uses like agriculture. This can lead to land-use changes that disrupt agricultural activities. Agrivoltaics (AV) offer a possible solution by allowing energy production and food growing on the same land, which can help alleviate conflicts between energy and food needs, although concerns about landscape impact remain. This study emphasizes the need for effective spatial planning to manage these risks of land use changes and quantify possible agricultural land occupation. A GIS-based analysis was conducted in Apulia using a three-step approach to assess land use and potential AV opportunities: (a) the land protection system identified by the Apulian Landscape Plan was used to obtain a Constraint Map; (b) the agricultural land use and capability classification together with land slope and exposure was used to obtain the AV Availability Map; and (c) agricultural land conversion scenarios were developed to quantify the potential capacity of future AV installations. The results showed that a 0.25% occupation of utilized agricultural land would allow a regional installed AV capacity of 1.3 GW, while doubling this percentage would double the installed capacity to 2.6 GW. The areas potentially involved by AV installations would be 3.25 and 6.50 thousand hectares, reaching 17.5% and 35.0% of the 2030 total renewable energy target. These figures should be considered a reasonable range of AV development in the region, which can contribute both to the energy transition and the support of the agricultural sector, especially in marginal areas.

Agriculture plays a dual role in shaping biodiversity, providing secondary habitats while posing significant threats to ecological systems through habitat fragmentation and land-use intensification. This study aims to assess the relationship between bird species composition and land-use types in Apulia, Italy. Specifically, we investigate how different agricultural and semi-natural landscapes influence avian biodiversity and which agricultural models can have a positive impact on biodiversity. Biodiversity indices were calculated for each bird community observed. The abundance curves showed a geometric series pattern for the AGR communities, indicative of ecosystems at an early stage of ecological succession, and a lognormal distribution for the MIX and NAT communities, typical of mature communities with a more even distribution of species. Analysis of variance showed significant differences in richness and diversity between AGR and NAT sites, but not between NAT and MIX, which had the highest values. Logistic regression estimated the probability of sites belonging to the three ecosystem categories as a function of biodiversity, confirming a strong similarity between NAT and MIX. Finally, linear discriminant analysis confirmed a clear separation from AGR areas, as evidenced by the canonical components. The results highlight the importance of integrating high-diversity landscape elements and appropriate agricultural practices to mitigate biodiversity loss. Even a small increase in the naturalness of agricultural land would be sufficient to convert it from the AGR to the MIX ecosystem category, with significant biodiversity benefits.

The energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables is part of a more general ecological transition that the European Union (EU), among others, is actively pursuing. Despite significant progress, Italy lags far behind the EU's target of generating 55% of its electricity from renewables by 2030, compared to 36% today. Renewable energy is a very spatially dispersed form of energy, and land-use change is a particular issue that needs to be addressed if a significant number of renewable energy installations are to be located on agricultural land. In agrivoltaic systems, energy production is coupled with food production on the same land unit, thus ensuring crop yields. In this way, the conflict between energy and food may be reduced, but the impact of these installations on the landscape remains, and community discontent and unrest are on the rise. These land-use conflicts and impacts recall the need for rigorous spatial planning which must play a leading role in managing this transition. Prior to planning, the availability of resources should be known and evaluated. To this end, a GIS-based analysis was applied, taking into account a set of criteria in a three-step approach: a) the entire protection system identified by the Apulian Landscape Plan was used to obtain a Constraint Map; b) the agricultural land use and capability classification together with land slope and exposure was used to obtain the Availability Map; c) agricultural land conversion scenarios were developed to quantify the achievable capacity of agrivoltaic installations.Pressures undermining the agricultural sector leading to the conversion of land to other uses. The energy sector should be a leverage factor to promote rural development and support agriculture, not the other way around.

Agriculture plays a dual role in shaping biodiversity, providing secondary habitats while posing significant threats to ecological systems through habitat fragmentation and land use intensification. This study evaluates the impact of land use types on avian biodiversity in a predominantly agricultural landscape in Apulia, Italy, by analyzing 20 sites fuzzily classified into three ecosystem categories: agricultural (AGR), mixed (MIX) and natural (NAT), according to the percentage of natural cover. Biodiversity indices were calculated for each bird community observed. The abundance curves showed a geometric series pattern for the AGR communities, indicative of ecosystems at an early stage of ecological succession, and a lognormal distribution for the MIX and NAT communities, typical of mature communities with a more even distribution of species. Analysis of variance showed significant differences in richness and diversity between AGR and NAT sites, but not between NAT and MIX, which had the highest values. Logistic regression estimated the probability of sites belonging to the three ecosystem categories as a function of biodiversity, confirming a strong similarity between NAT and MIX. Finally, linear discriminant analysis confirmed a clear separation from AGR areas, as evidenced by the canonical components. The results highlight the importance of integrating high-diversity landscape elements and appropriate agricultural practices to mitigate biodiversity loss. Even a small increase in the naturalness of agricultural land would be sufficient to convert it from AGR to MIX ecosystem category, with significant biodiversity benefits.

The Mediterranean region is experiencing severe droughts and unprecedented high temperatures. In terms of salinity, about 18 million ha of land, or 25% of the total irrigated area in the Mediterranean, is salt affected. The use of halophytes as intercropping species to mitigate the effects of salt stress is attractive. Halophytes have a great capacity to maintain their productivity in this extreme environment, thus supporting climate-appropriate agriculture. The aim of this study was to evaluate the productivity of Salicornia europaea L. subsp. ramosissima (glasswort) under field conditions and high soil salinity, grown as a sole crop (monocropping) and as a companion crop (intercropping) with Beta vulgaris L. subsp. cicla (Swiss chard) in a 1:1 cropping pattern. The field trials were conducted in the coastal wetland “King’s Lagoon”, a private nature reserve in the Apulia/Puglia region (southern Italy), during two consecutive spring–summer seasons in 2023 and 2024 and under different management conditions of irrigation and fertilization. These were performed to test for possible interaction effects. The results showed that both glasswort and chard can be grown sustainably under slightly saline conditions (ECe range 4–8 dS m⁻¹). In contrast, strongly saline conditions (ECe > 16 dS m⁻¹) were prohibitive for chard, both as a sole crop and as an intercrop, but were largely beneficial for glasswort. Swiss chard can benefit from intercropping with glasswort when soil salinity is still tolerable (6.9 dS m⁻¹), showing an LER (Land Equivalent Ratio) ≥ 1.19. Meanwhile, glasswort did not significantly improve the growth of the companion crop (Swiss chard) when the soil was considerably saline (16.6 dS m⁻¹). Higher LER values were observed when the contribution of chard to the intercrop performance was significantly greater than that of glasswort, i.e., under slightly saline conditions. This means that glasswort can have a significant positive effect on chard growth and productivity as long as soil is still moderately saline. Glasswort can therefore be considered a valuable model crop in extreme environments. The integration of glasswort (possibly together with other local halophytes) into diversified cropping systems on saline marginal soils is a promising sustainable agricultural practice in environmentally fragile areas such as wetlands, swamps, brackish areas, and marshes.

Coastal wetlands deliver essential ecosystem services, including cultural services, which provide non-material benefits such as recreation, education, and spiritual enrichment that are crucial for human well-being. This study investigates the cultural ecosystem services provided by a 40 ha coastal wetland in the Gulf of Manfredonia, southern Italy, within the Gargano National Park. By integrating an ecological survey of the bird community with a social survey of visitors to the King’s Lagoon Nature Reserve, the content of tailored planning strategies and management tools for the conservation of wetland biodiversity was developed. An ecological analysis of the bird community was carried out on the assumption that it could be representative of the total biodiversity observed in the wetland. On the other hand, a questionnaire was used to collect information from visitors to the reserve, highlighting the aspects of the wetland that they found most interesting and attractive according to their judgement and beliefs, and thus targeting a specific set of cultural ecological services. The two approaches were then combined to develop a comprehensive strategy. The bird community analysis led to the identification of the mixed biotope category (a combination of wetlands, aquatic/riparian ecosystems, semi-natural vegetated areas, and meadows together with agricultural areas) as the reference biotope for prioritizing wetland management. The Ardeidae family was chosen as a bird flagship group because of its high visibility, ease of identification, attractiveness to visitors, wide local distribution, and fairly constant presence in the study area throughout the year. Flagship species have a dual function: to guide conservation measures and actions by wetland managers, and to attract the interest, curiosity and active participation of potential visitors to the wetland. Based on the results, a list of guidelines for improving the birds’ habitats and providing them with resources (feeding, breeding, shelter, roosting, etc.) has been proposed. The aim of these measures is to optimize the presence and abundance of Ardeidae as flagship species, thereby preserving the biodiversity heritage in general and increasing the provision of cultural ecosystem services in the wetland. The resulting dynamic interplay ensures that both natural and cultural resources are fully and appropriately valued, protected, and maintained for the benefit of present and future generations.

Wild edible plants, botanically defined as phytoalimurgical species, have historically been a useful source of food to cope with recurrent famines and poor farming conditions. If properly identified, harvested, transformed and promoted, alimurgical plants could further enhance the wellbeing of rural and urban communities and the multifunctional productivity of agriculture. The research aimed to survey alimurgical species in a wetland, map their location, detect their spatial richness, and develop a monitoring plan for ongoing vegetation succession. The study area is the King’s Lagoon, a wetland that has recently undergone a radical restoration of its natural layout. A satellite image was used to create a land cover map and interpret the relationship between plant species and land cover. The survey provided a snapshot of the wetland’s current ecosystem status and used botanical analysis and ecological indices to investigate biodiversity levels. The alpha, beta and gamma levels of biodiversity were explored and interpreted through the statistical processing of a comprehensive dataset of species occurrence and abundance, together with the calculation of Shannon’s, Simpson’s and Jaccard’s indices. It was observed that biodiversity in the wetland is developing gradually following restoration and is expected to increase over time as successional stages take hold. Biodiversity is more pronounced along the banks of the canals and watercourses connecting the basins and open ponds, while it is less pronounced in areas where the soil has been disturbed by previous excavations. Salicornia spp., Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima and Suaeda vera were identified as the most common and interesting species found in the study area. The potential for cultivation of some of the halophyte species that were monitored was also highlighted, with particular reference to the selection of the most commercially interesting species, the best species associations and intercropping practices in a wetland context, which must always prioritize the conservation of wild biodiversity. The spring surveys should be repeated in the coming years in order to accurately trace the dynamics of the ecological succession of this particular ecosystem, once it has returned to its natural development.

The European Parliament has recently passed the “Nature Recovery” law to restore degraded ecosystems and prevent natural disasters as part of its “Biodiversity Strategy 2030” and “Green Deal”. In this respect, wetlands can provide a wide range of ecosystem services such as biodiversity conservation, hydrological land protection, provision of products, cultural and recreational benefits, and many others. However, they are still threatened by the expansion of agricultural land, overexploitation of water resources, water pollution, climate change, etc. Wetland conservation, however, is essential and requires coordinated action by managers, policymakers, stakeholders, and scientists. A systemic planning and design process is required to address these complex challenges. This research aims to outline an integrated, comprehensive, and well-structured planning framework for wetland systems that can be applied to different wetland types, in line with institutional wetland policy, governance, and management. The methodological approach developed in this study aims to integrate a longer-term strategy plan with a shorter-term action plan by combining the Yeomans scale of permanence and the Driver–Pressure–State–Impact–Response model. This innovative approach was applied to a specific case study and may guide further wetland planning in the future. The Nominal Group Technique was used, a consensus method aimed at achieving a general agreement and convergence of opinion. An expert group of seven members with different technical backgrounds was engaged and expert consultation was found to be a simple and rapid technique for carrying out wetland planning. The expert judgements were sound, consistent, and did not overlap (i.e., were not redundant). “Pressures” and “Impacts” were identified by the experts and clustered according to corresponding “States” and “Drivers”. Expert scoring allowed the resulting “Responses” to be ranked in terms of their relevance and influence on the development of the wetland strategy and action plan, while a priority order for their implementation was assessed according to the Yeomans scale of permanence. Agriculture was the highest rated ‘Driver’; similarly, Biodiversity (habitats and species) was the ‘State’ with the highest score. Therefore, their combination (agriculture and biodiversity) should be considered as the strategic cornerstone of the whole planning framework. This means designing and implementing a system in which agriculture and nature (in our case a wetland) are allied ecological systems in mutual compensation, according to the way natural elements are embedded in the agricultural system. A collection of factsheets containing the full list of responses considered in the Wetlands Action Plan, with detailed operational actions, is provided in the Appendixes.

A relatively new planning tool in Italy is the Local Forest Plan, which stands at a broader level in the land planning scale compared to the Forest Management Plan but at a finer scale considering a Regional or even National Forest Plan. This intermediate scale was considered the most appropriate for working out a planning process based on a multi-criteria assessment of forest functions. The proper functioning of forest ecosystems can provide services conceived as benefits people can obtain through ecological processes that sustain and satisfy essential needs of human life. Four particular forest functions providing services were identified: protective, productive, naturalistic and touristic, respectively. A set of functional criteria, as well as attributes within criteria, were recognized to perform an “Analytic Hierarchy Process” (AHP). A specific application of this methodological approach was selected as a case study. This multi-criteria decision-making process involved the participation of five selected experts in a preliminary phase, followed by the participation of thirty representative stakeholders who contributed to the forest planning process and the subsequent selection of actions to be taken. Data related to forest types and management, physical and morphological features of the forested terrain and infrastructure such as forest roads, touristic trails and hiking pathways, together with natural protected areas or wildlife preservation areas, were explicitly located in space by using a “geographical information service” (GIS) software. The combined application of AHP and GIS can be considered as a significant methodological innovation presented in the case study, together with the implementation of a participative process aimed at the management of forest resources and the creation of possible new professional and entrepreneurial forest activities for the benefit of the entire residential community.

Improving soil-water relations by amending soil with biochar might play a significant role in increasing water availability for agricultural crops as well as decreasing water loss through drainage or runoff. While the effects of biochar on the hydrological properties on coarse-textured soils are generally positive and well-documented in the literature, studies on biochar effects on fine-textured soils are rather scarce and even contradictory. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to investigate the impact of biochar on the bulk density, water retention curve (together with several water capacitive indicators) and water infiltration rate in a clay loam soil. A pot experiment was carried out under lab conditions in which biochar was mixed with soil at rates of 0 (B0 or control), 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10% dw (B2, B4, B6, B8 and B10, respectively). Water retention of soil–biochar mixtures at different matrix potentials was determined using a pressure plate apparatus. From these measurements, a series of capacitive indicators was derived and the fitting of the van Genuchten model was also performed. Water infiltration into soil–biochar mixtures was measured by means of a mini-disk infiltrometer and the obtained data were analyzed both directly and by fitting the Philip’s model. Biochar significantly affected the considered soil properties. As the biochar rate increased, the bulk density decreased and water retention increased (B6, B8 and B10 > B2, B4 and B0), while the infiltration rate decreased (B0 > B2, B4, B6, B8 and B10). Although the experiment was performed on sieved and repacked soil samples under lab conditions, the results confirmed that biochar has the potential to increase plant-available water, while possibly reducing drainage water in a clay loam soil by lowering the infiltration rate.