XXXVIII Congress of the Società Italiana di BIOGEOGRAFIA

The XXXVIII Congress of the Italian Society of Biogeography (Società Italiana di Biogeografia - SIB) will face one of the key themes of the National Strategy for Biodiversity sponsored by the Ministry of Environment in 2010.
The Congress will focus on the type and extent of changes in biodiversity in Italy and will take stock of the situation after half a century of research activities of the Italian Society of Biogeography.
The topic is of great interest and relevance, but it is also a sensible issue often downgraded by the media; an issue which instead requires authoritative scientific assessment.
SIB, by organizing a series of thematic conferences and the subsequent publication of monographs, has played an important role in the promotion of the knowledge of the biodiversity of our country over the past 50 years.
Zoologists, botanists, ecologists and marine biologists of the SIB are therefore among the most recognized researchers to assess the nature and extent of the changes in Italian biodiversity and to contribute to the guidelines for its management and safeguard.

On the afternoon of December 14th, at the same site and in cooperation with the CNR, a workshop will be held for the official presentation of the program "LIFE WATCH", the European infrastructure on Biodiversity, a broad project with a major involvement of our country.

Some of the topics covered by the Congress:

Methodological aspects
· Available databases
· Future scenarios and critical evaluation of tools and models

The nature of the changes
· Local extinctions and rarefactions
· Impacts on species phenologies
· Changes in the area of distribution
· Ecological shifts
· Alien species

Global and local climate change
· To what extent are we able today to document the effects of climate change on biodiversity?