NEPI MASSIMO

"Pollinators’ diversity and pollination networks in habitats of community interest of the Italian territory" (Project funded by PNRR-NBFC, 2022-2026)

According to the most recent scientific information, it is much more effective to use a pollination network approach that qualitatively and quantitatively describes the interactions between pollinating insects and the flowering plant species of a given habitat to assess its status. This acquires greater importance in cases of habitats that are threatened or host plants or insect species at risk, more generally included in the IUCN lists produced at European and Italian level. Based on the evidence of the latest studies on pollination networks, there is a rising awareness that this information can represent not only a tool for describing plant and animal communities but can also be used as a mirror of the health status of the communities and habitats. Indeed, it was recently highlighted that plant-pollinator interaction networks may be more informative than simply the diversity of species in the evaluation of the effects of environmental changes. In particular, the observations of the interactions can be useful to describe the communities involved in the short term, as a snapshot of the current situation, and in the medium/long term for monitoring the variation in complexity and robustness of the pollination network related to environmental changes such as habitat degradation, climate change, alien species invasion.

The activities of this project will be censuses and reconstruction of the pollination network: the censuses of pollinating insect species will serve to describe the entomofauna involved in these relationships, expand the knowledge of the species, and make a preliminary description of the conservation status of the pollinating insects in habitats considered at risk. To deepen our understanding of such interactions a novel approach will be used including the knowledge of nectar chemistry as a determinant of the pollination network since recent evidence revealed that nectar metabolites play a crucial role in shaping the relationships with pollinators.

"Partner manipulation in plant-insect relationships" (project funded by PRIN 2017. University of Florence (PI), University of Milan, University of Trento, University of Parma, University of Siena)

Animals, throughout their evolution, have been exposed to a diversity of plant-derived chemicals affecting their physiology and behaviour. The mechanisms by which neuro-active components of these products exert their effects have been widely described, but the question of why they have these effects has been almost totally ignored. With the present project we aim to understand why some plant-derived chemicals affect animal behaviour, by testing the hypothesis that neuroactive compounds produced by plants evolved not (or not only) as a mere deterrent for animals, but also as a plant tool to attract and manipulate animal behaviour. If supported, the hypothesis would place plant-animal interaction in a different ecological context opening new ecological and neurobiological perspectives. Ant-plant relationships, offer the ideal study model to test such a hypothesis. Particularly relevant are ant mutualistic symbiosis with plants producing extra-floral nectar (EFN). Those plants attract ants via EFN, which in turn, protect the plant against potential enemies. In this model system, a combined approach involving plant chemistry and physiology, ethology and neurobiology, transcriptomic and microbial ecology will be essential to investigate the problem.