FUNCTIONAL AND BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY OF WILD EDIBLE PLANTS IN ITALY

The project “FuD WE PIC” is specifically devoted to address the contribution of land-use, landscape patterns (fragmentation and heterogeneity) and climatic variables to the preservation of wild edible plants (WEP) and related ecosystem services, under a multidisciplinary framework involving Bioclimatology, Ethnobotany, Vegetation and Landscape Ecology. The project will perform a comprehensive investigation, based on vegetation plots data, to assess WEP species distribution in different habitats/ecoregions and to explore the correlations between environmental variables and species diversity. The project consists of 5 work packages (WP): WP1 will set up a unified infrastructure to collect and share the data on wild edible plants of Italy; WP2 will focus on measuring and comparing landscape patterns, climatic variables and WEP diversity; WP3 will combine WEPs traits and species richness to explore the influence of WEP specific traits and species assemblages in the biodiversity–climate– land-use feedback system; WP4 will model losses and gains of WEP —and related ecosystem services— under different climate and land-use change scenarios; WP5 will analyse the effects of landscape attributes and WEP on the resilience of Traditional Environmental Knowledge (TEK) and folk perceptions of the oikos. Our main targets to be achieved will be: i) the characterization of WEP biological, functional and coenological diversity in Italy; ii) the analysis and distribution patterns of ecosystem services related to WEP, in terms of provisioning and cultural assets; iii) provision of theoretical and practical tools for a better management of WEP diversity; iv) contribution to livelihoods, traditional ecological knowledge and cultural distinctiveness.