Daniele Da Re

Università degli Studi di Trento | UNITN · Centre Agriculture Food Environment - C3A

Modelling approaches play a crucial role in supporting local public health agencies by estimating and forecasting vector abundance and seasonality. However, the reliability of these models is contingent on the availability of standardized, high-quality data. Addressing this need, our study focuses on collecting and harmonizing egg count observation...

Aim Understanding the processes underlying the distribution of species through space and time is fundamental in several research fields spanning from ecology to spatial epidemiology. Correlative species distribution models rely on the niche concept to infer or explain the distribution of species, though often focusing only on the abiotic component...

Modelling approaches play a crucial role in supporting local public health agencies by estimating and forecasting vector abundance and seasonality. However, the reliability of these models is contingent on the availability of standardized, high-quality data. Addressing this need, our study focuses on collecting and harmonizing egg count observation...

Various modelling techniques are available to understand the temporal and spatial variations of the phenology of species. Scientists often rely on correlative models, which establish a statistical relationship between a response variable (such as species abundance or presence-absence) and a set of predominantly abiotic covariates. The modelling app...

In this synthesis paper, we stress the importance of incorporating causal relationships for the modelling of species distribution. Here, we propose the modelling relation as a conceptual framework for modelling complex and hierarchical processes underlying the distribution of living organisms. We provide an application of the modelling relation usi...

The global decline of terrestrial species is largely due to the degradation, loss and fragmentation of their habitats. The conversion of natural ecosystems for cropland, rangeland, forest products and human infrastructure are the primary causes of habitat deterioration. Due to the paucity of data on the past distribution of species and the scarcity...

The global decline of terrestrial species is largely due to the degradation, loss and fragmentation of their habitats. The conversion of natural ecosystems for cropland, rangeland, forest products and human infrastructure are the primary causes of habitat deterioration. Due to the paucity of data on the past distribution of species and the scarcity...

Simple Summary Habitat loss profoundly influences animal behaviour, impacting the long-term viability of species. In this study, we explored the link between the flight capabilities of the woodland-specialist butterfly, Limenitis camilla, and the spatial-temporal connectivity of its main habitat—broadleaved forests. We examined the shifts in forest...

1. Habitat suitability models infer the geographical distribution of species using occurrence data and environmental variables. While data on species presence are increasingly accessible, the difficulty of confirming real absences in the field often forces researchers to generate them in silico. To this aim, pseudo-absences are commonly sampled ran...

Aim Assessing how different sampling strategies affect the accuracy and precision of species response curves estimated by parametric species distribution models. Major Taxa Studied Virtual plant species. Location Abruzzo (Italy). Time Period Timeless (simulated data). Methods We simulated the occurrence of two virtual species with different eco...

Ecological processes are often spatially and temporally structured, potentially leading to autocorrelation either in environmental variables or species distribution data. Because of that, spatially-biased in-situ samples or predictors might affect the outcomes of ecological models used to infer the geographic distribution of species and diversity....

The abundance and diversity of plants and insects are important indicators of biodiversity, overall ecosystem health and agricultural production. Bees in particular are interesting indicators as they provide a key ecosystem service in many agricultural crops. Worldwide, habitat loss and fragmentation, agricultural intensification and climate change...

Aim: Assessing how different sampling strategies affect the accuracy and precision of species response curves estimated by parametric Species Distribution Models. Major taxa studied: Virtual plant species. Location: Abruzzo (Italy). Time period: Timeless (simulated data). Methods: We simulated the occurrence of two virtual species with different ec...

Aim: In species distribution models (SDMs), the quality and quantity of data describing the species distribution determine the quality of the estimate of the species-environment relationship. However, SDMs usually rely on opportunistic datasets sampled from existing projects/repositories with different purposes than modelling the distribution of th...

1. Correlative habitat suitability models infer the geographical distribution of species using occurrence data and environmental variables. While data on species presence are increasingly accessible, the difficulty to confirm real absences in the field often forces researchers to generate them in silico. To this aim, pseudo-absences are commonly ra...

Human induced environmental changes are accelerating at an unprecedented pace, forcing organisms to rapidly adjust their behaviours. There is broad evidence that the main driver of the ongoing biodiversity crisis is land-use change, that reduces and fragments natural habitats. However, the consequence of habitat fragmentation on behavioural respons...

Spatio-ecological heterogeneity is strongly linked to many ecological processes and functions such as plant species diversity patterns and change, metapopulation dynamics, and gene flow. Remote sensing is particularly useful for measuring spatial heterogeneity of ecosystems over wide regions with repeated measurements in space and time. Besides, de...

Understanding the causal processes determining the geographical distribution of species is a fundamental question in ecology but has relevant implications in epidemiology. Infectious diseases are a public health concern for humans, livestock, and wildlife, and their relevance has fostered the interest in tools allowing the delineation of areas at r...

Mosquito species belonging to the genus Aedes have attracted the interest of scientists and public health officers because of their capacity to transmit viruses that affect humans. Some of these species were brought outside their native range by means of trade and tourism and then colonised new regions thanks to a unique combination of eco-physiolo...

Ticks have medical and economic importance due to their ability to transmit pathogens to humans and animals. In tropical and sub-tropical countries, tick-borne diseases (TBD) are among the most important diseases affecting livestock and humans. The fast spread of ticks and TBD requires a quick development and application of efficient prevention and...

1. Mosquito species belonging to the genus Aedes have attracted the interest of scientists and public health officers for their invasive species traits and efficient capacity of transmitting viruses affecting humans. Some of these species were brought outside their native range by human activities such as trade and tourism, and colonised new region...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting nations globally, but with an impact exhibiting significant spatial and temporal variation at the sub-national level. Identifying and disentangling the drivers of resulting hospitalisation incidence at the local scale is key to predict, mitigate and manage epidemic surges, but also to develop targeted m...

The variation of species diversity over space and time has been widely recognised as a key challenge in ecology. However, measuring species diversity over large areas might be difficult for logistic reasons related to both time and cost savings for sampling, as well as accessibility of remote ecosystems. In this paper, we present a new package - -...

Aedes aegypti are feared invasive mosquitoes as they transmit pathogens which cause debilitating diseases in humans. Although mainland Europe has not yet witnessed re-establishment and dispersal of Ae. aegypti populations, several urban areas along coastlines represent suitable habitats for the species. In addition, European coastal areas are chara...

Aim The majority of work done to gather information on the Earth's biodiversity has been carried out using in‐situ data, with known issues related to epistemology (e.g., species determination and taxonomy), spatial uncertainty, logistics (time and costs), among others. An alternative way to gather information about spatial ecosystem variability is...

Abstract 1. Ecosystem heterogeneity has been widely recognized as a key ecological feature, influencing several ecological functions, since it is strictly related to several ecological functions like diversity patterns and change, metapopulation dynamics, population connectivity, or gene flow. 2. In this paper, we present a new R package - rasterd...

Ecosystem heterogeneity has been widely recognized as a key ecological feature, influencing several ecological functions, since it is strictly related to several ecological functions like diversity patterns and change, metapopulation dynamics, population connectivity, or gene flow. In this paper, we present a new R package - rasterdiv - to calculat...

Aim The majority of work done to gather information on Earth diversity has been carried out by in-situ data, with known issues related to epistemology (e.g., species determination and taxonomy), spatial uncertainty, logistics (time and costs), among others. An alternative way to gather information about spatial ecosystem variability is the use of s...

The majority of work done to gather information on Earth diversity has been carried out by in-situ data, with known issues e related to epistemology (e.g., species determination and taxonomy), spatial uncertainty, logistics (time and costs), among others. An alternative way to gather information about spatial ecosystem variability is the use of sat...

The variation of species diversity over space and time has been widely recognised as a key challenge in ecology. However, measuring species diversity over large areas might be difficult for logistic reasons related to both time and cost savings for sampling, as well as accessibility of remote ecosystems. In this paper, we present a new R package -...

Efficient planning of measures limiting epidemic spread requires information on farm locations and sizes (number of animals per farm). However, such data are rarely available. The intensification process which is operating in most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), comes together with a spatial clustering of farms, a characteristic epidemiol...

Mapping the distribution of invasive species under current and future climate conditions is crucial to implement sustainable and effective conservation strategies. Several studies showed how invasive species may benefit from climate change fostering their invasion rate and, consequently, affecting the native species community. In the Canary Islands...

Background Hybridisation associated with biological invasions may generate new phenotypic combinations, allowing hybrids to occupy new ecological niches. To date, few studies have assessed niche shifts associated with hybridisation in recently introduced populations while simultaneously characterising the niche of parental species in both native an...

Aedes aegypti are feared invasive mosquitoes as they transmit pathogens which cause debilitating diseases in humans. Although mainland Europe has not yet witnessed re-establishment and diffusion of Ae. aegypti populations, several urban areas along coastlines represent suitable habitats for the species. In addition, European coastal areas are chara...

Atmospheric dispersion model (ADM) simulations are increasingly used as management tools in air pollution monitoring programs, even in the absence of proper validation. Biomonitors can provide important information for ADM validation, but an open question is their temporal frame of application, particularly when native organisms are used. In this s...

The analysis of census data aggregated by administrative units introduces a statistical bias known as the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP). Previous researches have mostly assessed the effect of MAUP on upscaling models. The present study contributes to clarify the effects of MAUP on the downscaling methodologies, highlighting how a priori choi...

Understanding biodiversity changes in time is crucial to promptly provide management practices against diversity loss. This is overall true when considering global scales, since human-induced global change is expected to make significant changes on the Earth's biota. Biodiversity management and planning is mainly based on field observations related...

Despite that congruence across taxa has been proved as an effective tool to provide insights into the processes structuring the spatial distribution of taxonomic groups and is useful for conservation purposes, only a few studies on cross-taxon congruence focused on freshwater ecosystems and on the relations among vascular plants and lichens. We hyp...

The analysis of census data aggregated by administrative units introduces a statistical bias known as the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP). Previous researches have mostly assessed the effect of MAUP on upscaling models. The present study contributes to clarify the effects of MAUP on the downscaling methodologies, highlighting how a priori scal...

Background: The ecological niche occupied by novel hybrids can influence their establishment as well as the potential to coexist with their parents. Hybridisation generates new phenotypic combinations, which, in some cases, may allow them to occupy ecological niches outside the environmental envelope of parental taxa. In other cases, hybrids may re...

Landscape heterogeneity, as measured by the spectral diversity of satellite imagery, has the potential to provide information on the resources available within the movement capacity range of arthropod vectors, and to help predict vector abundance. The Spectral Variation Hypothesis states that higher spectral diversity is positively related to a hig...

Biological invasions are one of the major threats to biodiversity, especially in oceanic islands. In the Canary Islands, the relationships between plant Alien Species Richness (ASR) and their environmental and anthropogenic determinants were thoroughly investigated using ecological models. However, previous predictive models rarely accounted for sp...

Tick distribution and populations dynamics models commonly use Satellite Remote Sensing products (SRS) as proxy of environmental covariates. However, epidemiological studies do not exploit the whole potential of SRS products, often considering only a) the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum useful for vegetation indexes and b) the assemblage of...

Biological invasions are one of the major threats to biodiversity, especially on islands where the number of endemic species is the highest despite their small area. In the Canary Islands, the relationships among invasive alien species (hereafter IAS) and their environmental and anthropogenic determinants have been thoroughly described but robust p...

Coastal sand dunes represent one of the most fragile ecosystems in the Mediterranean basin. These habitats naturally suffer the action of several limiting factors such as sand burial, marine aerosol and low soil fertility; on the other hand, they often host species of high conservation value. Over the last decades, they have also experienced a high...

Negli ultimi decenni la progressiva intensificazione dell’agricoltura ha determinato un crollo generale della biodiversità legata agli agroecosistemi. Questo fenomeno, combinato alla crescente urbanizzazione e alla conseguente perdita di habitat, ha influito in modo negativo su molte specie, tra cui il barbagianni (Tyto alba), specie icona degli am...

The aim of this work was to assess Barn Owl (Tyto alba) ecological preferences and habitat suitability in a high naturality region, in order to better understand the ecological requirements of this predator. The model (runed with MaxEnt) highlighted the most suitable habitat within low-urbanized plain farmland. To provide an improved understanding...

Nowadays, urban areas play a crucial role in biodiversity conservation and habitat protection despite the constant pressures on which these habitats are subjected. They may even host relatively new plant communities due to the peculiar ecosystem where they vegetate. The port of Trieste (NE Italy) is characterized by a mixed mosaic of intensely huma...

Assessing biodiversity from field-based data is difficult for a number of practical reasons: (i) establishing the total number of sampling units to be investigated and the sampling design (e.g. systematic random, stratified) can be difficult; (ii) the choice of the sampling design can affect the results; and (iii) defining the focal population of i...

Biological invasions are one of the major threats to biodiversity, especially in Islands where the number of endemisms is the highest despite their small surface. In Canary Islands, the relationships among invasive alien species (hereafter IAS) and their environmental and anthropogenic determinants have been thoroughly described but robust previsio...

Sand dune ecosystems represent fragile environments that in last decades suffered heavy loss of biodiversity and habitat simplification. Despite they naturally coexist with harsh conditions (e.g. sand burial and marine aerosol), recently they have also experienced additional threats such as anthropic disturbances (tourism, urbanization, O’Shea and...

Spatially-explicit dataset of plant species occurrences collected in the Province of Siena (Central Italy) is analysed, with the aim of investigating a) the relative role of environmental factors in shaping spatial patterns of plant species richness, and b) how the spatial scale at which predictors have been sampled determines the explicative power...

L'Autorizzazione Integrata Ambientale (AIA) prescrive per gli impianti industriali il rispetto degli standard europei in materia di contenimento delle emissioni nell'ambiente. Per fornire una stima del trasporto degli inquinanti emessi in atmosfera e della loro deposizione sul territorio negli ultimi anni ci si affida sempre più spesso a modelli di...

Atmospheric dispersion models are frequently used as a management tool to estimate transport, transformation and deposition of atmospheric pollutants. Beside algorithmic features, model reliability depends on the quality of input emission data and meteorological fields, completeness of chemical kinetics modules, proper calibration of gas/par-ticle...