Despite the increasing interest in elevational patterns in biodiversity, few studies have investigated variations in life forms and biogeographical composition, especially in the Mediterranean biome. We investigated elevational patterns in species richness, biogeographical composition (chorotypes) and life forms (Raunkiaer classification) along an elevational gradient in a Mediterranean mountain (Central Italy). We found a general hump-shaped pattern of species richness, which can be explained by harsher conditions at the lowest and highest elevations. This pattern is distinctly related to prevalence at mid elevations of species with European and Euro-Asiatic distribution, which are favored by a temperate climate. Phanerophytes and geophytes (which are mainly associated with woods) were concentrated at mid elevations where woodlands prevail. Hemicryptophytes increased with elevation, consistently with their ability to cope with high altitude climatic conditions. Mediterranean species declined with elevation because they are negatively affected by decreasing temperatures. Chamaephytes showed a U-shaped pattern, suggesting they are able to cope with arid and cold conditions at the extremes of the gradient. Endemics increased with elevation because of their association with mountainous areas as key places for endemism evolution. These results illustrate how elevational patterns in species richness, biogeographical composition and life forms are interrelated and demonstrate reciprocal insights for understanding current vegetation settings.

Since management practices profoundly influence soil characteristics, the adoption of sustainable agro-ecological practices is essential for soil health conservation. We compared soil health in organic and conventional fields in the Abruzzi region (central Italy) by using (1) the soil biology quality (QBS) index (which expresses the level of specialisation in soil environment shown by microarthropods) and (2) microarthropod diversity expressed by Hill numbers. QBS values were calculated using both the original formulation based on only presence/absence data and a new abundance-based version. We found that organic management improves soil biology quality, which encourages the use of organic farming to maintain soil health. Including arthropod abundance in QBS calculation does not change the main outcomes, which supports the use of its original, speedier formulation. We also found that agricultural fields included in protected areas had greater soil health, which shows the importance of the matrix in determining agricultural soil health and highlights the importance of land protection in preserving biodiversity even in managed soils. Finally, we found that soil biology quality and microarthropod community structure are distinctly influenced by certain physical and chemical characteristics of the soil, which supports the use of microarthropods as biological indicators.

Ellenberg indicator values (EIVs) express plant preferences for temperature, light, continentality, soil moisture, pH, and soil nutrients, and have been largely used to deduce environmental characteristics from plant communities. However, EIVs might also be used to investigate the importance of filtering mechanisms in shaping plant communities according to species ecological preferences, a so far overlooked use of EIVs. In this paper, we investigated how community-weighted means (CWM), calculated with EIVs, varied along an elevational gradient in a small mountain in Central Italy. We also tested if species abundances varied according to their ecological preferences. We found that the prevalence of thermophilous species declines with elevation, being progressively replaced by cold-adapted species. Heliophilous species prevail at low and high elevations (characterized by the presence of open habitats), whereas in the middle of the gradient (occupied by the beech forest), sciophilous species predominate. Variations for moisture and soil nutrient preferences followed a similar pattern, probably because of the high moisture and nutrient levels of forest soils with a lot of humus. No distinct pattern was detected for EIVs for pH and continentality since these factors are subject to more local variations. These results highlight the possible role of EIVs to investigate how environmental gradients shape plant communities.