Team of international experts to study Abruzzo grasslands

L'Aquila - The Marsica grasslands as well as the Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise are the destinations for European and Asian scientists on a botanical expedition. The initiative began on June 3 and will run until June 11, with the international expedition studying the biodiversity of grasslands species of the Appennine ridges between Lazio and Abruzzo. The meadows are one of the main areas of study for the expedition taking place in the Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise.

The team arrives today, with over 25 experts on grasslands and steppes, coming from 10 different nations in Eurasia (including China, Russia and Ukraine). It will focus on an intensive data collection campaign regarding the wealth of plant species in the Capestrano valley in Abruzzo, down to the Comino valley in Lazio, passing along Velino, Marsica and the Upper Sangro river valley. This is actually the 10th year of the Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG) expedition, an international scientific network supporting ecology and preserving pastures and steppes. The event has been organised thanks to the support given by the Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise and the funds granted by the Fondazione Anna Maria Catalano from Fiumicino (Rome).

"Such research missions take place every year in a different country in Eurasia. In 2017 the choice was for the mountain areas," said Goffredo Filibeck, a botanist from the University of Tuscia and the organiser of the expedition. "This choice underlines the worldwide concern for the Appennine grasslands, an environment which we oftentimes consider to be 'marginal lands'. It is actually home to an extraordinary biodiversity, generated across thousands of years of sheep grazing." Botanists from the Abruzzo region and from the Universities of L'Aquila will participate in the research along with other botanists from the Centro Ricerche Floristiche dell'Appennino of the University of Camerino. All of the research data will be delivered to a huge and highly technological database which will enable a comparison of the information with the one drawn from previous expeditions.

"Recent research has shown that European semi-natural grasslands, that is the spontaneous meadows maintained for sheep grazing, are an environment characterised by the highest diversity of plants per square metre in the world," said the German ecologist Jurgen Dengler, coordinator of EDGG expeditions. "Hosting an international expedition in the Park's territory is a wonderful opportunity to focus on the theories regarding our pasture lands, as well as on the initiative to exchange findings with scholars coming from other countries, " said Antonio Carrara, president of the Park.