The vascular flora of Pisa (Tuscany, Italy): towards a citizen science-based monitoring of urban floras

Jacopo Franzoni ¹, Brunello Pierini ², Iduna Arduini ³, Gianni Bedini ¹, Stefano Martellos ⁴, Lorenzo Peruzzi ¹

PLANTSEED Lab, Department of Biology, University of Pisa, 56127 Pisa, Italy ¹, Via Zamenhof 2, 56127 Pisa, Italy ², Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, 56124 Pisa, Italy ³, Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, 34128 Trieste, Italy ⁴

Urban floras are fundamental tools for science-based urbanistic planning, but also starting points for studies concerning the effect of human activities on ecological and evolutionary dynamics in urban environments. Sharing this knowledge with citizens, together with identification tools, may help an active monitoring of urban biotas. Here, we provide the first checklist of vascular plant species occurring in the municipality of Pisa (Tuscany, Italy), by integrating records from previous literature and field observation deposited in the online database Wikiplantbase #Toscana, integrated by observations from iNaturalist. The municipality of Pisa extends for 185.30 km2 within the lower Arno valley, and it encompasses alluvial plains and consolidated sandy dunes near the coasts (the maximum elevation is 4 m a.s.l.) under Mediterranean bioclimatic conditions. Although the landscape of the eastern part of the municipality is deeply anthropized, the western part is included within the Migliarino – San Rossore – Massaciuccoli Regional Park. The established flora (i.e. confirmed native + naturalized and invasive alien taxa) of the municipality of Pisa includes a total of 1,404 specific and subspecific taxa, out of which 112 are alien. Native taxa are +33.3% than predicted from a species-area relationship, whereas alien taxa are +34.9% than expected, attesting for a high floristic richness, but also very high anthropogenic impacts in the territory of Pisa. Among natives, there are taxa of high biogeographical and conservational interest, including 12 species endemic to Italy. For instance, Symphytum tanaicense Steven survives in a small population at the south-western distribution limit of the species range, and it is also listed as Critically endangered in the Red List of the Italian Flora. Interestingly, four taxa reported in the floristic inventory have been described on material originating from the studied area. Among aliens, there are 4 taxa included in the list of invasive alien species of Union concern. The biological and chorological spectra reflect the coexistence of typical Mediterranean and central European habitats in this territory. The vascular flora is quite rich although threatened by anthropic pressures, especially linked to alien invasive species. This inventory will be used in the IDEM FLOS project, which proposes an innovative approach based on citizen science by providing interactive identification tools for a broad public, to discover and monitor the vascular plant species composition in urban areas. Acknowledgements: this work was supported by the Project IDEM FLOS - Funded by the European Union - Next Generation EU — Mission 4, Component 2, Investment 1.4 - CUP H43C22000530001.

Main author career stage: Postdoc / Fellow

Contribution type: Talk

First choice session: 1. Systematics, phylogenetics, biogeography and evolution

Second choice session: 3. Biodiversity and global change