IUCN SSC Freshwater Plant Specialist Group

I worked as an ornithologist from 1979 to 1990 in the UK, Ireland, France, Malaysia and Thailand. In 1991 I obtained an MSc in EIA at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Since 1994, I have been self-employed, I am joint county bryophyte recorder for Gloucestershire for the British Bryological Society; and general aquatics referee and taxon-specific referee for Callitriche, Sparganium, Zannichellia and Ranunculus subgenus Batrachium for the Botanical Society of the British Isles. I serve on the IUCN freshwater Sub-committee and chair both the IUCN SSC Freshwater Plant Specialist Group and the Natural England Taxon Advisory Group for Aquatic Plants. I mainly undertake three types of work: • Taxon-specific work - including studies of Alisma gramineum, Damasonium alisma, Luronium natans, Pilularia globulifera, Ranunculus tripartitus, Ranunculus tripartitus and Tolypella intricata. • Use of standardised survey techniques such as RHS, RCS, LEAFPACS, Macrophyte Survey, MTR, Phase I and Phase II habitat survey and NVC, as well as Site Condition Monitoring of standing and flowing waters and non-standardised surveys of fungi and bryophytes. • Ecological surveys for Environmental Impact Assessment. I have published more than 50 scientific articles and contributions to books and have worked more than forty countries.

Current position: Associate Professor (Botany and Conservation Biology) at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences of the University of Pavia.

Career summary:

- 2023: PI for the Project of National Relevance (PRIN) PHOTOPLANT “Response of arctic and alpine ecosystems to photoperiod-climate interaction in the context of climate change”.

- 2023: Leader of the expedition that rediscovered Nymphaea thermarum in Rwanda.

- 2016-2018: Head of the research unit of UNIPV for the LIFE project LIFE14 - NAT/IT/000759 “Conservation of amphibians and butterflies of open wet areas and their habitats at the Foreste Casentinesi National Park”

- 2007-2010: PhD in Experimental Ecology and Geobotanyrn- Since 2012: Associated Editor of Plant Ecology (Springer).

Published articles: 99; Citations: 1731; H-Index: 24 (Source: Scopus November 2023)

Research activity: my research activity can be assigned to three main research fields: 1) effect of climate change and connected processes on plant species and community, with a special focus on alpine areas (Alps, Apennines) and partially on arctic and sub-arctic areas. 2) plant conservation with a worldwide perspective and with theoretical and practical approaches, with a focus on wetland-dependent plants 3) relationships between agriculture and plant conservation in highly productive farming lands.