Research area: Botany - Mycology - Agriculture
Coordinators: Andrea Mondoni, Graziano Rossi, Simone Orsenigo
ERC sectors: LS8_2 Biodiversity; LS8_3 Conservation biology; LS8_5 Biological aspects of environmental change, including climate change
1. Seed Ecology and Climate Change
Seed ecology studies seeds and their interactions with the physical and biological environment, analyzing the mechanisms of maturation, dispersal, survival, dormancy, and germination. These are fundamental aspects for plant conservation, both in and outside of nature.
2. Seed Longevity in Germplasm Banks
Germplasm banks are a tool for plant conservation, capable of preserving species from extinction and providing material for research, education, and environmental restoration. Research focuses on seed longevity and their use in reintroductions.
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew - Millennium Seed Bank (UK), University of Oviedo (Spain), University of Regensburg (Germany), Museo delle Scienze di Trento (MUSE), European Native Seed Conservation Network (ENSCONET), Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie, (Università di Pavia), Parco Nazionale delle Dolomiti Bellunesi, Parco Nazionale dell’Appennino Tosco Emiliano
1. Seed Functional Ecology 2022 Winter School (sito)
2. Integrating in and ex situ conservation in the context of climate change (PhD – project)
3. Seed ecology and conservation status of wild rice species in Sri Lanka (PhD – project)
4. Seed ecological spectrum of alpine plant communities (SEEDALP)
White, F.J., Hay, F.R., Abeli, T., Mondoni, A. (2023). Two decades of climate change alters seed longevity in an alpine herb: implications for ex situ seed conservation. Alpine Botany, 133: 11–20
White W., Rosbakh, S Orsenigo S, Mondoni A. (2023). Fit for the future? Alpine plant responses to climatic stress over two decades of seed bank storage Biological Conservation 286 (2023) 110267
White W., Ensslin A., Godefroid S., Faruk A., Abeli T., Rossi G., Mondoni A. (2023). Using stored seeds for plant translocation: The seed bank perspective. Biological Conservation 281, 109991
Albani Rocchetti, G., Carta, A., Mondoni, A. et al. (2022). Selecting the best candidates for resurrecting extinct-in-the-wild plants from herbaria. Nature Plants 8, 1385–1393
Fernández-Pascual E, Carta A, Mondoni A. et al. (2021). The seed germination spectrum of alpine plants: a global meta-analysis. New Phytologist 229(6), pp. 3573–3586.
Abeli T, Dalrymple S, Godefroid S, Mondoni A, Muller JV, Rossi G, and Orsenigo S (2020). Ex situ collections and their potential for the restoration of extinct plants. Conservation Biology 34: 303–313