Research activities in the Gran Paradiso National Park

Research activities in the 

Gran Paradiso National Park 

Achaz von Hardenberg, Bruno Bassano 

et many al. 

Servizio sanitario e della Ricerca scientifica

RESEARCH PROJECTS 

BIODIVERSITY MONITORING 

Ramona Viterbi, Cristiana Cerrato, Emanuel Rocchia et al. 

IMPACT OF ALIEN FISH ON ALPINE LAKES 

Rocco Tiberti et al. 

LIFE HISTORY AND POPULATION DYNAMICS 

OF ALPINE IBEX 

Antonello Provenzale, Marco Festa-Bianchet, Alice 

Brambilla, Stefano Grignolio et al. 

BEHAVIOURAL ECOLOGY OF ALPINE MARMOTS 

Caterina Ferrari, Cristian Pasquaretta, Francois Dumont, 

Denis Reale, Giuseppe Bogliani et al. 

REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS AND POPULATION 

DYNAMICS OF ALPINE EAGLE 

Ugo Mellone et al. 


Five generations of Park 

Wardens 


RESEARCH PROJECTS 

BIODIVERSITY MONITORING 

Ramona Viterbi, Cristiana Cerrato, Emanuel Rocchia et al. 

IMPACT OF ALIEN FISH ON ALPINE LAKES 

Rocco Tiberti et al. 

LIFE HISTORY AND POPULATION DYNAMICS 

OF ALPINE IBEX 

Antonello Provenzale, Marco Festa-Bianchet, Alice 

Brambilla, Stefano Grignolio et al. 

BEHAVIOURAL ECOLOGY OF ALPINE MARMOTS 

Caterina Ferrari, Cristian Pasquaretta, Francois Dumont, 

Denis Reale, Giuseppe Bogliani et al. 

REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS AND POPULATION 

DYNAMICS OF ALPINE EAGLE 

Ugo Mellone et al. 


BIODIVERSITY MONITORING PROGRAM 


GOALS 

ANIMAL BIODIVERSITY 

1 - Study animal biodiversity along an altitudinal gradient and investigate 

the parameters that influence the composition of communities along the 

gradient; 

2 - Identify the species or taxa which are more sensible to those changes 

and which can be used as indicators of the communities; 

3 - Analyse the effects of climatic and environmental variation on the 

community composition (invertebrates and vertebrates). 


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Valle Orco, Gran Piano di Noasca 

Valle Soana, Campiglia-S.Besso 

Val di Rheme, Vaudalettaz 

Val di Cogne, Lauson 

Orvielles 

Valsavaranche, Orvielles 

Lauson 

San Besso 

Vaudalettaz 

Gran Paradiso 

# 

Servizio sanitario e della Ricerca scientifica 

Gran Piano

- 6-7 plots for each transect 

- approx. 30 plots in total 

- Altitudinal range: 1200 – 2600 m 

Sampling unit: 

plot with a 

- radius of 100 m 

- height difference 

between each plot: 200 m 


Staphylinidae 

Carabidae 

Araneidae 

Pitfall traps 

10 samplings for each 

transect from May 

to October 

Lepidopterae 

Linear 

transects 

4-5 samplings for each 


to October 

2-3 samplings for 

2 transects 

Agust-September 

Orthoptera 


Linear 

transects

2 samplings for each 


to July 

Birds 

Point counts 

3 capture nights 

for each plot 

(valle Orco) 

Small mammals 

Capture-mark-recapture 

All the season 

Mammals 


Direct and indirect signs

Census techniques have to be 

as much as possible: 

-Simple 

-Standardized 

- Cheap 

Repeatability over time of transects 

in order to analyse variations 


Protected species 

Parnassius apollo 

Maculinea arion 

Microthermal species, 

Related to low temperatures 

Erebia pandrose 

Oensis glacialis 

Pontia callidice 

Agriades glandon 

Albulina orbitulus 

Artogeia bryoniae 

Allodola 

Aquila 

Codirossone 

Coturnice 

Fagiano di monte 

Gheppio 

Gipeto 

Gracchio corallino 

Picchio nero 

Picchio rosso maggiore 

Picchio verde 

Poiana 

Zigolo muciatto 


Euphydryas aurinia 

Species with low dispersion 

potential 

Foto:Antonello Provenzale 

27 species 

Endemic invertebrates 

Carabidae 18 species 

Stafilinidae 10 species 

Lepidopterae13 species

0.30 

0.28 

0.26 

0.24 

Endemic species 

0.30 

0.28 

0.26 

0.24 

Vulnerable species 

0.22 

0.22 

0.20 

0.20 

0.18 

0.18 

0.16 

0.16 

0.14 

0.14 

0.12 

0.12 

0.10 

0.10 

0.08 

0.08 

0.06 

0.06 

0.04 

0.04 

0.02 

Mountain level Ecotone Meadow 

0.02 

Piano montano 

Ecotono 

Prateria 

Naturalistic value indexes 

Which habitat is worth to protect? 

Carabidae : 

- dispersion power 

– geographic distribution 


INV = Index natural value (Pizzolotto 1993) 

Vegetation zone Mean INV 

Mountain plane 2.34 

Ecotone 2.41 

Meadows 2.73

Indicator species 

IndVal (Dufrene e Legendre,1997) 

Orizzonte Taxon Specie Indval Sig 

Ecotone lepidoptera Plebejus argus 45,55 * 

Ecotone aves Parus montanus 48,64 * 

Ecotone carabidae Laemostenus janthinus coeruleus 39,72 * 

Ecotone stafilinidae Platydracus stercorarius 50,06 ** 

Piano montano lepidoptera Erebia euryale 55,95 NS 

Piano montano aves Fringilla coelebs 53,93 ** 

Piano montano carabidae Carabus depressus 63,4 * 

Piano montano stafilinidae Zyras humeralis 86,37 ** 

Meadows lepidoptera Erebia carmenta 64,33 ** 

Meadows aves Anthus spinoletta 82,08 ** 

Meadows carabidae Carabus heteromorphus 72,49 ** 

Meadows stafilinidae Omalium excavatum 34,65 NS 


0.600 

0.500 

0.400 

Biodiversity indicators 

0.300 

0.200 

0.100 

0.000 

Succ -Scar Sstaf -Scar Sstaf - Succ Succ - Slep Sstaf - Slep Slep - Scar 

1.0 

Lepidotteri 

0.500 

Correlation coefficient (Spearman) 

0.400 

0.300 

0.200 

0.100 

Carabidae 

Birds 

Staphilinidae 

Factor 2 : 24,97% 

0.5 

0.0 

-0.5 

Uccelli 

Carabidi 

Stafilinidi 

Butterflies 

0.000 

-1.0 

-1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 


Factor 1 : 43,82%

Butterflies altitudinal range 

41% of species found at a higher altitude than maximum 

altitudinal range reported about 10 years ago… 

Average difference: 

380 m 

2800 

2600 

Difference in max altitude between this study and Hellmann 

2400 

2200 

Altitude 

2000 

1800 

1600 

1400 

1200 

1000 


gl t-student p 

Hellmann 97 -6,43 < 0,0001

Long term results 

Analyse the transformations due to: 

•Climate changing 

•Antropic pressure (livestock,tourism) 

•Changes in vegetation cover 

•More sensitive areas and taxa 

•Taxa with best predictive ability 


2 years of monitoring to avoid the bias due to 

temporal and demographic stocasticity 

Five years later another two year 

session to analyse changes and 

then again again and again… 

2 yr 

5 yr stop 

2 yr 

5 yr stop 

2 yr 

Monitoring 




2 years of monitoring to avoid the bias due to 

temporal and demographic stocasticity 

Three years later another two year 

session to analyse changes and 

then again again and again… 

2 yr 

3 yr stop 

2 yr 

3 yr stop 

2 yr 





Long term results 

Analyse the transformations due to: 

•Climate changing 

•Antropic pressure (livestock,tourism) 

•Changes in vegetation cover 

•More sensitive areas and taxa 

•Taxa with best predictive ability 


IMPACT OF BROOK TROUT (Salvelinus fontinalis) 

ON ALPINE LAKE ECOSYSTEMS 


SALVELINUS FONTINALIS 



ALPINE LAKES 

•Recent origin (mostly post-glacial) 

• Absence of ice cover only for a short period (summer) 

• Low temperature 

• Oligotrophy 



Daphnia middendorffiana 

Lmax: 3,7 mm 


Cyclops abyssorum 

Lmax: 2mm 


ROTIFERA 

Lmax: 0,14 mm 


Hypothesis 1 

Larger zooplanktonic taxa are 

selectively predated by Salvelinus 

fontinalis 


Genere Daphnia 

Pesci B = -2.440 E.S. = 0.443 F = 730.265 p = 0.0009 

Daphnia gr. longispina 

Pesci B = -1.847 E.S. = 0.704 F = 76.887 p = 0.034 

Log (Daphnia) 

4 

3 

2 

1 

0 

N = 

20 

0 

23 

1 


pesci

Cyclops abyssorum 

Pesci B = -1.725 E.S. = 0.5677 F = 9.31247 p = 0.019 

Log Cyclops abyssorum 

4,0 

3,0 

2,0 

1,0 

0,0 

N = 

20 

0 

23 

1 


pesci


Smaller zooplanctonic taxa are 

indirectly favoured by Salvelinus 

fontinalis 


ROTIFERA 

Log Daphnia B = -0.493 E.S. = 0.120 F = 16,914 p = 0,0003 

ROTIFERA 

PESCI B = 1.807 E.S. = 0.508 F = 12.646 p = 0,0093 

Log (ROTIFERI) 

3,0 

2,5 

2,0 

1,5 

1,0 

,5 

0,0 

N = 

20 

0 

23 

1 


pesci


Fish predates selectively larger 

individuals belonging to 

macrozooplanktonic taxa 


Log L Daphnia gr longispina 

PESCI B = -0,364 E.S. = 0,114 F = 10,169 p = 0,0153 

L Daphnia gr. longispina (mm) 

1,4 

1,2 

1,0 

,8 

N = 

1085 

,00 

178 

1,00 


pesci


RANA TEMPORARIA

Conteggio 

7 

6 

4 

1 

5 

5 

4 

3 

2 

2 

RIP 

1 

si 

0 

no 

no 

si 

pesci 


Foto: L. Ramires 

Life history of Alpine ibex 


Beginning 

‘800 

Alpine ibex almost 

extinct surviving only in 

the Gran Paradiso Area 

with less than 100 

individuals 


1856: The Royal 

Hunting reserve 


Vittorio Emanuele II in the hunting camp 

of Orvielles (1860)

Royal hunting 

wardens 

(end ‘800) 


ALPINE IBEX: 

Genetic bottleneck? 

• Demographic stocasticity 

• inbreeding depression 

• Risk of extinction 

Photo: L. Ramires 

• Genetic variability 

• Adaptive potential 


(Luikart & Cornuet, 1998)

Population dynamics from 1923 

4500 

4000 

3500 

3000 

2500 

2000 

1500 

1000 

500 

0 

1996 

1923 

1926 

1929 

1932 

1935 

1938 

1941 

1945 

1948 

1951 

1954 

1957 

1960 

1963 

1966 

1969 

1972 

1975 

1978 

1981 

1984 

1987 

1990 

1993 

1999 


GENETIC VARIABILITY 

Average 

Heterozigosity 

(in 7 populations , 

With 19 markers): 

0.30 – 0.44 

(Luikart et al., 1999) 

Number of ibex in 1879: 790 

( 369 males; 354 females; 67 kids - Passerin d’Entreves, 2000) 


Sea lion 

Average heterozigosity: 0.55 

(Hoelzel, 1999) 

White rinoceront 

Average heterozigosity: 0.57 

(Florescu et al., 2003) 


Alpine ibex is one of the wild 

mammals with the lowest genetic 

variability! 


Research on life history 

needs the observation 

over time of many 

individuallly tagged 

subjects 



Body mass 

Males should invest in body mass until the age in which they start to 

partecipate to reproduction 


(Stearns, 1992)

Scale 

Display 


Body weight of males 

120 

100 

WEIGHT (Kg) 

Weight (Kg) 

80 

60 

40 

20 

0 

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 

AGE (Years) 


(von Hardenberg, 2005)

Bighorn sheep rams attain asymptotic 

body mass faster than ibex males 

100 

% OF ASYMPTOTIC MASS 

80 

60 

40 

20 

Weight 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 

AGE (years) 

ibex 

bighorn 


% OF HORN LENGTH AT 10 YEARS 

100 

75 

50 

25 

0 

The horns of bighorn sheep rams grow 

faster than the horns of ibex males 

ibex 

1 3 5 7 9 

AGE (years) 

Horns 

bighorn sheep 

(Festa-Bianchet, 2003)

200 

Ibex horns grow slowly 

HORN INCREMENT (mm) 

150 

100 

50 

IBEX 

BIGHORN SHEEP 

0 

2 4 6 8 10 12 


AGE 

(Festa-Bianchet, 2004)

Survival 


NUMBER SURVIVING 

1000 

800 

600 

400 

200 

0 

Survival of cohorts of 1000 males 

of 3 species of ungulates 

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 

AGE 

Bighorn, SR 

Bighorn, RM 

Alpine ibex 

Mountain goat 

(Festa-Bianchet, 2003) 


survival of ibex males in 4 populations 

1 

0.8 

SURVIVAL 

0.6 

0.4 

0.2 

Belledonne 

Haute-Maurienne 

Sassiere 

Levionaz 

0 

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 


AGE 

(Festa-Bianchet et al., 2004)


Thank you!

Research activities in the Gran Paradiso National Park

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