Distribution of the Italian fauna

 

 

The geographic information included in the Checklist is: a) distribution of terrestrial and freshwater species in 4 geographical regions of the Italian territory (North, South, Sicily, Sardinia); distribution of marine species in 3 areas (western basins, upper and middle Adriatic sea, remaining basins). The sectors are illustrated in the following map:

 

 

N

Northern Italy, including: Friuli Venezia Giulia, Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige, Lombardia, Val d'Aosta, Piemonte, Liguria, Emilia-Romagna

S

Peninsular Italy, including Toscana, Marche, Umbria, Lazio, Abruzzi, Molise, Campania, Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria

Si

Sicily and smaller islands

Sa

Sardinian and smaller islands

3

western Thyrrenian sea

4

northern and central Adriatic sea

5

southern Adriatic, Jonic sea and other areas

 

 

A preliminary analysis of the distribution of Italian fauna was discussed by Stoch (2000) for the invertebrates. The distribution of Italian species in the geographical regions used in the Checklist is reported in the following table:

 

 

NtV

NtI

Area (km2)

N

629

33414

97741

S

545

24297

153710

Si

399

12988

25708

Sa

365

9841

24090

3

455

6529

-

4

317

3958

-

5

394

3717

-

 

Species numbers of total species of vertebrates (NtV) and invertebrates (NtI), excluding ‘protozoans’, compared with area of: northern Italy  (N); central and southern Italy (S); Sicily (Si); Sardinia (Sa); western Thyrrenian sea (3); northern and central Adriatic sea (4); southern Adriatic, Jonic sea and other seas (5)

 

Following these results, terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity shows a dramatic decrease from North to South. This “faunistic gradient”, already pointed out by other researchers (Massa, 1982; Contoli, Penko, 1996) as regards vertebrates, may be explained considering a “peninsular effect” (Stoch, 2000), which reflects the increasing difficulty of colonizing peripheral areas. Apart from history, the relative importance of further variables, like habitat diversity, disturbance, and climate, should be taken in account in the explanation of biodiversity patterns in Italy; moreover, less complete faunistic data are available for southern Italy (Stoch, 2003).

 

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