PhD in Biological Sciences and Applied Biotechnologies

Contacts

Supervisor

Curriculum vitae

Research activities

Conservation ecology of Italian spiders: a trait based approach.

The overarching aim of my project is to widen the topic of spider conservation making use of a trait based approach. I will investigate conservation issues related to multiple case studies in Italy combining different methods, such as machine learning (Species Distribution Models - SDMs and Hierarchical Modelling of Species Communities - HMSC) and ecomorphological and trait analysis (estimation of n-dimensional hypervolume, body size and reproductive fitness).
The research will focus either on single taxa (species-based) or multiple taxa (community-based).
The species-based approach will focus on several species of conservation concern, including the IUCN endangered SW-Alpine endemic species Vesubia jugorum (Simon), for which I will participate in the trait based monitoring program started in 2019 by the leading research group, in collaboration with the Alpi Marittime and the Mercantour Natural Parks. Thanks to my appointment as Global and Regional IUCN assessor, I will also assess the extinction risk of other Italian species of conservation concern against IUCN criteria making use of SDMs, with the overall aim to contribute to the Red List of Endangered spiders in Italy.
As far as the community-based focus is concerned, I will process data reporting spider occurrences in different protected areas in Italy based on standardized sampling protocols. This part of my project will pertain both original data issued from my current research focusing on the spiders of the National Park of the Arcipelago Toscano and data from other Italian Natural Parks made available from the leading research group. I will also process data in the frame of the Project of Relevant National Interest (PRIN2023) ”Deep Change” lead by National Research Council of Verbania and UniTO, focusing on the effect of global change on cave-dwelling spider communities. Specific focus will be given to the description of the mechanistic responses of subterranean spider communities to climate and the other threa ts in a conservation perspective. Data will be processed in a trait-based frameworkusing HMSC, to investigate the relation between traits of spider communities and conservation concerns.