Long-term ecological research on Italian forest ecosystems: perspectives and conclusions

The paper summarises the contents of the present volume devoted to forest research in Italy, within the National Programme for Forest Ecosystem Monitoring (CONECOFOR), part of the Level II forest monitoring, and other linked regional and provincial monitoring activities. The coordination of the project, through a National Focal Centre and a Task Force for the Integrated and Combined Evaluation of results, made up of the foremost Italian experts working in the field, is outlined. No clear signals of strong negative impacts emerge from the papers, although the results of several studies indicate nitrogen and ozone as possible causes of disturbances in a number of plots. The effects of the deposition of acidity are largely buffered by the nature of the soils, while nitrate is leached from the plots where runoff is analysed, indicating N saturation of soils. This paper describes the main activities of the Task Force as regards data validation and elaboration, aimed at providing reliable information leading to sustainable forest management in Italy as well as making a useful contribution to international activities in a Pan-European context.