LICHEN BIODIVERSITY AND HUMAN IMPACT ON DUNAL ECOSYSTEMS: A CASE-STUDY ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE RARE LICHEN SPECIES SEIROPHORA VILLOSA IN THE FOREST RESERVE OF CASTELVOLTURNO (CASERTA, SOUTHERN ITALY)

Integrating at landscape level the information coming from local environment indicators can help monitoring environmental quality in conservation programs. Lobaria pulmonaria is a lichen species widely used to evaluate the spatio-temporal continuity of forest cover and to assess environmental quality in areas of high biogeographical interest. In the Lobaria project of the Società Italiana Lichenologica, wood macrolichens were sampled on Chestnut woods in a regional park of Campania Region (Italy). A geographical datasets of lichen distribution, land use, topographical and climatic characteristic was built in GIS environment. Multivariate analysis was conducted to highlight the relationships between lichen distribution and environmental quality. The results show that the agronomic management practiced in this area enabled the establishment of stable conditions over time and the development of species indicator of undisturbed areas. A general framework to analyse landscape-level changes over the area is proposed in this paper.