{"id":1598,"date":"2026-09-10T02:16:36","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T00:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forestlab.unimi.it\/?page_id=1598"},"modified":"2026-09-10T17:24:55","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T15:24:55","slug":"val-di-mello","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/forestlab.unimi.it\/en\/projects\/val-di-mello\/","title":{"rendered":"Val di Mello Climate Change \u2013 biodiversity, resilience and management of Alpine habitats"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>2023\u20132025 \u00b7 Val di Mello Nature Reserve \u00b7 The forest component is based on 65 study plots distributed across the main Natura 2000 forest habitats. Measurements included stand structure, biomass, tree-related microhabitats and habitat conservation status. A further 45 trees \u2013 Norway spruce, European larch and European beech \u2013 were sampled for dendrochronological analysis to reconstruct growth dynamics and climatic responses.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<!-- forestlab-project-image:start -->\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large forestlab-project-main-image\">\n<img width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"\nsrc=\"https:\/\/forestlab.unimi.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2026\/09\/forestlab-17-val-di-mello-1024x683.jpg\"\nalt=\"Val di Mello\"\nclass=\"wp-image-1762\"\n srcset=\"https:\/\/forestlab.unimi.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2026\/09\/forestlab-17-val-di-mello-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/forestlab.unimi.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2026\/09\/forestlab-17-val-di-mello-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/forestlab.unimi.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2026\/09\/forestlab-17-val-di-mello-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/forestlab.unimi.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2026\/09\/forestlab-17-val-di-mello-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/forestlab.unimi.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2026\/09\/forestlab-17-val-di-mello.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/>\n<figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Photo: Emibuzz \/ Wikimedia Commons \u00b7 Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Val_di_Mello_(2).jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n<!-- forestlab-project-image:end -->\n\n\n<p>The project assessed biodiversity and ecosystem conservation status in the Val di Mello Nature Reserve, with particular focus on climate-change impacts. The approach integrates forest, botanical and faunal field surveys, remote sensing and modelling to provide a scientific basis for conservation, management and revision of the Reserve&#8217;s planning tools. The study also assessed erosion vulnerability, carbon storage using the Carbon Budget Model, drought impacts, windthrow vulnerability and bark-beetle outbreak risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Norway spruce forests show the highest standing volumes and biomass and, in model simulations, the largest carbon stocks, but are also particularly exposed to drought, Ips typographus and wind disturbance. Larch, beech, alder and maple-ash forests show different combinations of resilience, conservation value and management opportunities. The botanical component assessed priority habitats and plant species of Community interest, while faunal monitoring addressed reptiles, birds and habitat suitability for Rosalia alpina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related research lines:<\/strong> <a href=\"\/en\/biodiversity-conservation-old-growth-forests\/\">Biodiversity, conservation and old-growth forests<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"\/en\/forest-resilience-extreme-events-disturbances\/\">Forest resilience, extreme events and disturbances<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n<p><strong>Reports and outputs:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/forestlab.unimi.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2026\/08\/Val_di_Mello_Climate_Change_Report_2025.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Conservation status of habitats in the Val di Mello Nature Reserve \u2013 multidisciplinary forest, botanical and faunal assessment (2025)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2023\u20132025 \u00b7 Val di Mello Nature Reserve \u00b7 The forest component is based on 65 study plots distributed across the main Natura 2000 forest habitats. Measurements included stand structure, biomass, tree-related microhabitats and habitat conservation status. A further 45 trees \u2013 Norway spruce, European larch and European beech \u2013 were sampled for dendrochronological analysis to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":274,"featured_media":1762,"parent":570,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1598","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forestlab.unimi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1598"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forestlab.unimi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forestlab.unimi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forestlab.unimi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/274"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forestlab.unimi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1598"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/forestlab.unimi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1765,"href":"https:\/\/forestlab.unimi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1598\/revisions\/1765"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forestlab.unimi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forestlab.unimi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forestlab.unimi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}