The Bambapp Project: a citizen science network for monitoring and defining the distribution of bamboos in Piedmont and Aosta Valley (NW Italy)

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24 July 2021

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The Bambapp Project: a citizen science network for monitoring and defining the distribution of bamboos in Piedmont and Aosta Valley (NW Italy)

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6. = THE BAMBAPP PROJECT: A CITIZEN

SCIENCE NETWORK FOR MONITORING

AND DEFINING THE DISTRIBUTION OF BAMBOOS

IN PIEDMONT AND AOSTA VALLEY (NW ITALY)

Andrea Mainetti

1 _{, Simone Ravetto Enri}

1 _{, Valerio Mezzasalma}

2 _{, Fabrizio De Mattia}

2 _{, Jessica Frigerio}

2 _,

Roberto Damilano

3 _{, Sandra Buzio}

3 _{, Michele Lonati}

1

_{Department of Agriculture, Forest and Food Sciences, University of Torino, Largo Paolo Braccini 2, 10095 Grugliasco (TO), Italy;}

2

_{FEM2-Ambiente srl,}

Piazza della Scienza 2, 20126 Milano (MI), Italy;

3

_{Ente di gestione delle Aree Protette del Po torinese, Corso Trieste 98, 10024 Moncalieri (TO), Italy}

The subfamily Bambusoideae comprises the least-understood and most diverse group of plants in Poaceae (1). Three tribes belong to this subfamily: Bambuseae (tropical woody bamboos), Olyreae (herbaceous bamboos), and Arundinarieae (temperate woody bamboos), all of them not native to Europe. However, in the last years several bamboo species (mainly Arundinarieae) have been spreadedfor both ornamental and productive purposes among plant nurseries and private citizens in Europe and Italy as well. In Piedmont and Aosta Valley (North-western Italy) some species belonging to

Phyllostachys genus have been included in local black lists (2, 3) due to their vegetative expansion often remarkable. Nevertheless, the issue of bamboo invasiveness and threat to natural environment is still

uncertain (4). The ‘BambApp’ project (December 2017-April 2019) aimed to fill the knowledge gap about the presence and distribution of bamboo species naturalized in Piedmont and Aosta Valley, as a preliminary step toward the definition of bamboo invasiveness.

The project was based on the participation of private citizens using the iNaturalist mobile application (5) for the monitoring. Within the project, contributors were asked to provide for every record of naturalized bamboo:

• Latitude/longitude;

• _Altitude;

• _{Stand extension;}

• Four pictures (i.e. a plant basis, an intermediate node, leaves, and entire stand);

• Two specimens (i.e. one branch and some leaves).

The leaf specimens were used to identify 100 stands at species level through DNA barcoding and RAPD methods (6). The resulting species represented the reference base to recognize the morphological characters used for the visual identification all other records, from the respective pictures.

1) Soderstrom T. & Calderon C., 1979. A Commentary on the Bamboos. Biotropica, 11(3): 161-172. 2) Reg. Piemonte, 2015. Black list-Management list. Gruppo di lavoro specie esotiche RP, Torino, Italy.

3) Bovio M., 2016. Agg. Lista Rossa e Nera della flora vascolare della Valle d’Aosta. Rev. Vald. Hist. Nat.70: 57-74. 4) Pagad S., 2016. Bamboos and Invasiveness. INBAR Working Paper 77.

5) https://www.inaturalist.org/

6) Eevera T., Rajandran K., Saradha S. & Lashmi A., 2008. Analysis of genetic variation in selected bamboo species using RAPD. Tree For Sci Biotechnol, 2(1): 54-56. 7) Lonati M. et al., 2019. Guida all’identificazione dei bamboo naturalizzati in Piemonte e Valle d’Aosta. DISAFA, Grugliasco (TO).

Introduction and objectives

Methods

Results

The contributors recorded 937 stands across Piedmont and Aosta Valley, belonging to nine different species (Fig. 1). The most frequent and widespread species were Phyllostachys aurea Carrière ex Rivière & C.Rivière (n=620, 67%), Phyllostachys viridiglaucescens (Carrière) Rivière & C.Rivière (n=148, 16%), and Pseudosasa japonica (Siebold & Zucc. ex Steud.) Makino ex Nakai (n=56, 6%), respectively (Fig. 2). Furthermore, one bamboo species new for the Italian alien vascular flora (Semiarundiaria fastuosa (Mitford) Makino) and two species new for both Piedmont (Semiarundinaria fastuosa, Phyllostachys viridis (R.A.Young) McClure) and Aosta Valley (Phyllostachys viridis, Pseudosasa japonica) were found.

As additional outcome of the project, a descriptive photographic guide for the identification of naturalized bamboo species of Piedmont and Aosta Valley was released in March 2019 (7).

Only 0.3% of the stands were reported above 800 m a.s.l., up to 1034 m a.s.l. for a

Phyllostachys viridis (R.A.Young) McClure stand (Fig. 3). Stand size ranged between few

square meters to more than one hectare but more than 73% covered less than 100 m2

(Fig. 4).

Fig. 2 – Spatial distribution in Piedmont and Aosta Valley of the four most abundant species Fig. 3 – Altitude distribution of the recorded bamboo stands in Piedmont and Aosta Valley

Fig. 4 – Stand extension of the recorded bamboo species in Piedmont and Aosta Valley

Phyllostachys edulis (<1%) Phyllostachys aurea (67%) Phyllostachys viridiglaucescens (16%) Semiarundinaria fastuosa (1%) Phyllostachys viridis (2%) Phyllostachys nigra (2%) Phyllostachys flexuosa (2%) Phyllostachys reticulata (= P. bambusoides) (5%) Pseudosasa japonica (6%)

Fig. 1 – Species abundance (% on total recorded stands)

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1 11 21 31 41 51 61 71 81 91 101 111 121 131 141 151 161 171 181 191 201 211 221 231 241 251 261 271 281 291 301 311 321 331 341 351 361 371 381 391 401 411 421 431 441 451 461 471 481 491 501 511 521 531 541 551 5610 571 581 591 601 611 621 631 641 651 661 671 681 691 701 711 721 731 741 751 761 771 781 791 801 811 821 831 841 851 861 871 881 891 901 911 921 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1 11 21 31 41 51 61 71 81 91 101 111 121 131 141 151 161 171 181 191 201 211 221 231 241 251 261 271 281 291 301 311 321 331 341 351 361 371 381 391 401 411 421 431 441 451 461 471 481 491 501 511 521 531 541 551 561 571 581 591 601 611 621 631 641 651 661 671 681 691 701 711 721 731 741 751 761 771 781 791 801 811 821 831 841 851 861 871 881 891 901 911 921 1 50 100 150 200 250 850 900 926

Stand progressive number

A lti tu d e (m a. s. l.)

UPPER FOOTHILL ZONE (600-800 m a.s.l.) (n = 33; 4% del totale)

Phyll. aurea 48% Phyll. viridiglaucescens 18%

Pseudosasa japonica 18% LOWER FOOTHILL ZONE (altitude < 800 m a.s.l.) 99.7% (n = 923)

MONTANE ZONE (altitude > 800 m a.s.l.)

0.3% (n = 3) Phyll. viridis 1034 m Phyll. aurea 991 m Phyll. aurea 851 m Phyll. viridiglaucescens 782 m Pseudosasa japonica 727 m Phyll. nigra 629 m Semiar. fastuosa 624 m Phyll. reticulata 597 m Phyll. flexuosa 431 m [Phyll. edulis 375 m] 1 50 100 150 200 250 850 900 926

Stand progressive number

Stand siz e (m 2 ) S > 1000 m2 4% (n = 40) S between 1000 and 100 m2 23% (n = 213) S ≤ 100 m2 73% (n = 673) Phyll. aurea 44% Phyll. viridiglaucescens 33% Phyll. reticulata 13% Phyll. flexuosa 5% Phyll. viridis 5% ….. Phyll. aurea 61% Phyll. viridiglaucescens 25% Phyll. reticulata 5% Pseud. japonica 4% Phyll. flexuosa 2% ….. Phyll. aurea 70% Phyll. viridiglaucescens 12% Pseud. japonica 8% Phyll. reticulata 5% Phyll. viridis 2% ….. > 1 ha > 1 ha > 1 ha 67% stands recorded

Phyllostachys aurea

Stands surface (m2₎ 16% stands recorded

Phyllostachys viridiglaucescens

Pseudosasa japonica

Phyllostachys reticulata (= P. bambusoides)

Stands surface