Biology subjects

Davoli, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Davoli, M..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Rewilding megaherbivores to conserve wood-pastures and cultural landscapes

Traditional rural wood-pastures are threatened by the loss of wild herbivory and traditional agrosilvopastoral practices, promoting woody encroachment, habitat homogenization, and erosion of biodiversity and cultural values. Megaherbivore rewilding has been proposed as a strategy to restore disturbance regimes in these seminatural landscapes, but its socioecological implications remain uncertain. Using Italy as a representative case study, we reconstructed an early Holocene, preagricultural baseline from fossil records to identify candidate megaherbivores for reintroduction across Alpine, Continental, and Mediterranean biogeographical regions. We compared extant and potential assemblages in functional diversity, vegetation consumption, grazing vs. browsing balance, and seed dispersal potential, assessed the sensitivity of conservation priority habitats to increased herbivory, and reviewed literature through a SWOT analysis of ecosystem services and disservices. The potential assemblage comprised ten species, including extant, range restricted, new native, and extinct taxa. Reintroductions would generate uneven functional gains, with limited change in the Alpine region but stronger expansion in the Continental and especially Mediterranean regions, where functional dispersion would increase from 0.46 to 0.64 and vegetation consumption from 4.45 to 10.58 t/kmq/year. Rewilding may shift assemblages towards grazing, potentially helping to limit woody encroachment and reduce fuel loads, but increasing risks for habitats with low-to-moderate herbivory requirements. The SWOT analysis highlighted opportunities for nature-based tourism, rural livelihoods, damage-prevention measures, and integrated wildlife, livestock, human health surveillance, alongside threats related to crop damage, disease transmission, road collisions, management costs, and social conflict. Overall, megaherbivore rewilding should be regarded as a context-dependent restoration strategy requiring spatially explicit planning, density thresholds, and participatory governance.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2025

Improving the classification of wildlife conservation status to support nature protection in the European Union

Ensuring that species of conservation concern achieve favorable conservation status (FCS) is central to European Union (EU) biodiversity conservation targets. A key criterion for FCS is exceeding the favorable reference range (FRR)--the range extent needed for long-term species stability and full ecological variation. However, due to data limitations, FRRs are often unknown, undermining their applicability. We developed a machine-learning approach to estimate and standardize FRRs across the EU. Applied to amphibians, mammals, and reptiles, our method provided FRRs for 99.5% of species of conservation concern, compared to 17.5% previously available (with satisfactory modelling performance: R2 0.75). We reassessed conservation status using the estimated FRRs, finding that species in FCS (34.8%) are notably fewer than reported in official documentation (69.1%). The average proportional distance to FRR for species in unfavorable conservation status is -64.4%. Our approach may support periodic FCS reassessments and help refine the targets of EU conservation policies.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2023

Megafauna diversity and functional declines in Europe from the Last Interglacial (LIG) to the present

Aim: to estimate European megafauna diversity and functional declines in the present compared to the nearest in time modern-analogue climate period prior to the worldwide diffusion of Homo sapiens. Location: Europe. Time period: Last Interglacial (LIG; ca. 127,000 years ago) to present. Major taxa studied: wild, large ([≥]10 kg) terrestrial mammals. Methods: we assessed the distribution of 48 European megafauna species during the LIG using hindcasting modelling and fossil records. Then, we estimated the decline in megafauna community diversity and potential trait-based functional effects from the LIG to the present, accounting for climate differences between the two periods. Results: from the LIG to the present, species richness and community biomass across Europe dropped by 74.3% ({+/-} 9.9% SD) and 96.7% ({+/-} 4.1% SD), respectively. Functional diversity dropped by 59.1% ({+/-} 11.8% SD) for herbivores and by 48.2% ({+/-} 25.0% SD) for carnivores, while trait-informed potential vegetation and meat consumptions dropped by 91.1% ({+/-} 7.4% SD) and 61.2% ({+/-} 17.2% SD), respectively. The loss in megafauna diversity and associated ecological processes were high everywhere, but particularly in western Europe for carnivores and in the East European Plain for herbivores. We found that potential megafauna richness and functional patterns in the two periods were near identical if only climate-driven differences were considered. Main conclusions: severe, size-biased defaunation has degraded megafauna assemblages and megafauna-mediated ecological processes across Europe from the LIG to the present. These patterns cannot be explained by climate differences between the two periods, thus were likely driven by the impact of prehistoric Homo sapiens. The results suggest that the structure of wild ecosystems of the present strongly deviates from the evolutionary norm, notably with decreased functional heterogeneity and decreased fluxes of biogeochemical compounds across the trophic networks, highlighting the importance of ambitious policies of megafauna community restoration to support ecosystems functioning.

ecology↗