Improve our understanding of forest ecosystems at various spatial scales, from stand to landscape structure, to better support sustainable forest management

The research group is interested in the causes and consequences of forest dynamics influenced by anthropic activities and natural disturbances at different spatial scales (e.g. stand and landscape), exploiting the spatial component of the data. Forest landscape ecology is therefore adopted by the research group as a multi-scale and multidisciplinary tool in support of sound forest management.

In this context, the group analyzed anthropogenic and natural influences on:

• forest expansion in the Alpine and Apennine mountain regions
• treeline dynamics in the Mediterranean basin
• disturbance regime shift related to climate and land use change
• conservation management of protected habitat and cultural landscapes.

The scientific approaches adopted by the research group include:

• remote sensing data collection and analysis (also via UAV)
• field surveys
• field conservation experiments
• experimental plots, including permanent ones
• dendroecological analysis in the laboratory
• landscape change modeling.

The research group collaborates with numerous public agencies and private bodies for the dissemination of our applied research, providing support and guidelines for a sustainable forest management and the recovery of areas affected by natural or anthropogenic disturbances.
The group also deals with training and communication by actively collaborating in regional and national projects aimed at transferring knowledge and technologies.

• OLYMPUS - spatiO temporaL analYsis of Mediterranean treeline Patterns: a mUltiScale approach (PRIN 2024-2025)
• MOSAIC - Managing prOtective foreSt fAcIng clImate Change compound events (Interreg Alpine Space 2022-2025)
• MITIMPACT -  Impact of climate change and photochemical air pollution on vegetation - mitigation strategy (Interreg ALCOTRA 2017-2020)
• RockTheAlps -Harmonized ROCKfall natural risk and protection forest mapping in the ALPine Space (Interreg Alpine Space 2017-2019)

• Garbarino M., Morresi D., Anselmetto N., Weisberg P.J. (2023). Treeline remote sensing: from tracking treeline shifts to multi-dimensional monitoring of ecotonal change. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation doi: 10.1002/rse2.351
• Morresi D., Marzano R., Lingua E., Motta R., Garbarino, M. (2022). Mapping burn severity in the western Italian Alps through phenologically coherent reflectance composites derived from Sentinel-2 imagery. Remote Sensing of Environment, 269, 112800
• Anselmetto N., Sibona E.M., Meloni F., Gagliardi L., Bocca M., Garbarino M. (2021). Land use modeling predicts divergent patterns of change between upper and lower elevations in a subalpine watershed of the Alps. Ecosystems, 1-16
• Garbarino M., Morresi D., Urbinati C., Malandra F., Motta R., Sibona E.M., Vitali A., Weisberg P.J. (2020). Contrasting land use legacy effects on forest landscape dynamics in the Italian Alps and the Apennines. Landscape Ecology 35:2679–2694
• Mantero G., Morresi D., Marzano R., Motta R., Mladenoff D.J., Garbarino, M. (2020). The influence of land abandonment on forest disturbance regimes: a global review. Landscape Ecology 35, 2723–2744

Great Basin Landscape Ecology Lab - University of Nevada, Reno (USA)
WSL Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (Svizzera)
INRAE - LESSEM - Laboratoire EcoSystèmes et Sociétés En Montagne (Francia)
UACH - Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia (Cile)
Smart Forest Laboratory - University of Yamagata (Giappone)