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The Fondotoce Special Nature Reserve
The Fondotoce Special Nature
Reserve on a surface of 365
hectares, stretches out on the
final section of the Toce River.
The protected area is the last
bastion of the wetlands. It has
an high level of biodiversity.
The most popular enviroment
in the nature is the reed bed.
The Common reed is the ideal
ecosystem for its numerous
lake fish to reproduce and for
some 100 bird species.
The importance of the reed
bed is also due to its
fundamental function as a
“green filter”. The reed
absorb numerous pollutants
thus contributing to
purifying the water. As for
the flora, there are different
types of willows, two rare
ferns only found in
wetlands and rich aquatic
vegetation. The Reserve is
a shelter for over 200
species of birds. Endemic
species of water chestnut
Trapanatans verbanensis.
The ecological succession in wetlands
Ecological succession is the gradual and orderly process of change in an ecosystem caused
by the progressive replacement of one community by another until a stable climax is
established
SUBMERGENT PLANTS
FLOATING-LEAF PLANTS
In the ecological
Plants that have most of their
Plants that have floating leaves on the surface of the water
succession are
structures below water
involved different
kinds of plants
according to the
amount of water:
The rushes
•
The rushes marks the passage beetwen
water and land, the rushes host a great
variety of animal species: among around 25
species of fishes, 200 species of birds and
and caracteristic species of plants: the reeds
PHRAGMITES AUSTRALIS or REED
•
•
•
It can grow in damp ground, in standing
water up to 1 metre or so deep, or even
as a floating mat.
the tallest plants growing in areas with
hot summers and fertile growing
conditions.
They have been used to make arrows.
The elastic structure of the plant can
act as a great wood structure. In many
European countries reeds have been
used extensively for many centuries in
the construction of thatched roofs
THE
SHRUBS
•
•
The shrubs are small trees growing to 10
meter tall usually multistemmed, with an
irregular, often leaning crown.
Untily the 60s the willows of this areas has
been cutted to obtain flexible ties for vines
and vegetables gardens
SALIX TRIANDRA or ALMOND WILLOW
SALIX ALBA or WHITE WILLOW
THE
RIPARIAN WOODS
•
•
The riparian woods forms along the banks of
watercourses. In these periodically flooded
areas, white willow is prevalent, togheter
with poplars and alders.
Today this wood is left to its natural
evolution: dead plants are not removed
since they constitute an important stage in
the life cycle of the wood.
A pollinator is the biotic agent
(vector) that moves pollen from
the male anthers of a flower to
the female stigma of another
flower to accomplish fertilization.
Some bee specimens, of unusual dimension for the Italian
fauna, have nested in wooden railway sleepers within the
Nature Reserve in Fondotoce in July 2009.
•Useful organism
•Non-competitive invasion
•Bioindicator of climate change
EXPANSION
The specimens were found belong to the species
Megachile sculpturalis.
1.Japan
2. South-east Asian coast
original
countries
3. North America
since 1990
4. Europe
recently been
reported
Expansion maps of Megachile sculpturalis
ARTIFICIAL NESTS
Two tipes of artificial trap-nests
• Thuja: tree trunk segment
shaped to stand securely on
a horizontal support and
drilled with 31 holes.
•Arundo donax: bundling a
number of giant reeds stems,
with a diameter of no less than 1
cm.
MIGRATION RESEARCH CENTER:
FONDOTOCE
A Migration Research Centre has been set up to study the bird life of the
wetland; this is in effect a bird ringing station with 300 metres of nets
hidden amongst the dense reeds.
Birds in particular find the reed bed a congenial environment (more than
130 species have been counted), as a place to nest or for migrating birds, to
rest.
The most captured species was the swallow and the reed warbler.
• The ringing station of Fondotoce provide a scientific research program, aimed to study the bird population as they travel
between areas of wintering and nesting and to increase a sistematic knowledge on birds of lake maggiore area. The
station is part of a vast network of capture and ringing centers covering migration routes from northern europe to the
trans-saharan africa region’s. The center of Fondotoce will operate in close cooperation with the natural reserve of Bolle di
Magadino in Ticino (Switzerland).
• The ringing station of Fondotoce (operative since 1992) began its activity in 2001 with the objective of monitoring the
reed population over the year, with particular attention to the period of spring and autumn migration, collaborating on
data collection with "euring swallow project "and" alps project ".
• During 2004,170 days of capture were conducted with ringing of 30,517 copies of birds and the recapture of 95 birds
ringed belonging to other stations
Macroinvertebrates are Biological Indicators.
They are less than a millimeter-sized bodies and therefore visible
to the naked eye. Among the macroinvertebrates present in the
aquatic environment we take into consideration the following
groups:
• INSECT (beetles, mayflies, stoneflies, caddis flies, Diptera)
• MOLLUSCS
• SHELLFISH
• "WORMS" (cylindrical and flat)
A Biological Indicator is any organism which is able to provide
information on the quality of the environment and its changes.
They are mainly species susceptible to pollutants, whose
disappearance indicates the presence of foreign or harmful
products for the environment.
• Many species of Macroinvertebrates are sensitive to
pollution.
• Their relationship with the environment of streams
and rivers is well known.
• Living mainly on underlying substrates (benthic
organisms) they are not subjected to continuous
migrations and having life cycles lasting less than one
year, they are regularly found in watercourses.
• They are sampled and classified easily.
• Fish depend on Macroinvertebrates for their food.