Lorenzo Ricci

Disturbance ecology

Research interests:

• Effectiveness of protected areas for plants and threatened species conservation, with a particular focus on the Natura 2000 network and unbiased comparisons between protected and unprotected areas across Europe.
• Plant biodiversity patterns across environmental gradients, including elevational, biogeographic, and spatial-scale effects on taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity.
• Responses of plant communities to environmental disturbances and global change, such as fire dynamics, microclimatic variation, and land-use pressures in Mediterranean and mountain ecosystems.
• Macroecology and biogeography of plants and multitaxa, combining field data, spatial databases, and advanced statistical methods to inform conservation planning and policy.