The flora of the Natura 2000 site “ITA020006 - Capo Gallo” (NW Sicily, Italy) and the effects of fire to its composition

Abstract

This study refers to the Natura 2000 site “ITA020006 Capo Gallo”, near Palermo (NW Sicily), whose territory is heavily affected by fires, which have been repeated periodically in the last 60 years. The last of these, which occurred on 24 July 2023, was of strong impact for the flora and biocenoses. We aimed to study the vascular flora and evaluate the impact of fire by examining coverage trends. Our focus included both short-term effects (identifying species that thrive in the post-fire environment) and medium-term consequences (determining which species establish themselves on the altered landscape over time). To this end, we conducted a thorough inventory of the vascular flora, with field investigations covering the last ten years. A total of 720 specific and subspecific taxa currently occurring in the area have been reported, including 45 endemic and 40 alien taxa. For each taxon, the effects of fire, in terms of variation of frequency were estimated. For several taxa of biogeographic interest, more in-depth considerations are presented in the notes. Regarding the last event that occurred in 2023, the majority of therophytes were significantly advantaged; this was to the detriment of taxa related to other biological forms (phanerophytes, chamaephytes and hemicryptophytes), resulting overall in decrease.