Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei DOI 10.1007/s12210-017-0635-x Phytosociology and ecology of the Mediterranean forests ecosystems in the Amalf Coast (Monti Lattari, Italy) Laura Cancellieri 1,2  · Giulia Caneva 2  · Maurizio Cutini 2   Received: 3 July 2017 / Accepted: 7 August 2017 © Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei 2017 presence, and a low relevance of aspect in the discrimina- tion of forest communities. Syntaxonomical interpretations showed the afnity of the local communities with those of the southern Italy, but also some interesting peculiarity. Data highlight the area as a geographical boundary and phytogeo- graphic hinge between central and southern Italy. Keywords Phytogeography · Forest vegetation · Southern Italy · Syntaxonomy · UNESCO site 1 Introduction Over the last few decades, diverse studies have aimed to understand forest ecology and variability in species compo- sition to improve the overall knowledge of this interesting habitat for its conservation and management. In general, the complexity of Italian woodland typologies is extremely high, resulting in a corresponding syntaxonomic articulation and exceptional habitat richness (Biondi et al. 2012). These stud- ies have included the whole forest community analyses in the important Tyrrhenian sectors of Latium (Cutini et al. 2010; Di Pietro et al. 2010), Campania (Corbetta et al. 2004; Rosati et al. 2005, 2010) and Basilicata (Caneva and Cutini 2009). Much efort has been devoted to the syntaxonomy of penin- sular deciduous, semi-deciduous and sclerophyllous woods (Biondi et al. 2003; Blasi et al. 2004, 2006; Tafetani et al. 2012) with many such communities located in Campania. In addition, the important multidisciplinary studies, which have been conducted in Castelporziano Estate (coastal sector of Latium), led to a description of the forest communities (Pig- natti et al. 2001), highlighting several ecological features of the complex Mediterranean ecosystems (Moretti et al. 2015; Pignatti et al. 2015; Salvati et al. 2015). Abstract The forest vegetation of the southern sector of the Monti Lattari complex (Amalf Coast) has been inves- tigated due to the lack of information on vegetation within an area of worldwide relevance and with a high foristic richness. This area shows several environmental peculiari- ties due to the marked orography, with pedologic features varying from carbonate to volcanic character, and biocli- matic conditions varying in a relatively short space from Mediterranean to temperate types. The study involved an extensive phytosociological survey and the analyses revealed clear diferences among the forest communities, whose syn- taxonomical queries and the biogeographic and ecological characters have been discussed. The communities varied from the coastal sclerophyllous forests (Cyclamino repandi– Quercetum ilicis) to the mixed thermophilous deciduous forests (Festuco exaltatae–Aceretum neapolitani, Seslerio autumnalis–Aceretum obtusati), and from the mountain neu- tral–subacid forests (Salvio glutinosae–Alnetum cordatae, Castanea sativa groupment, Asperulo taurinae–Alnetum cordatae) to the mountain beech forest (Anemono apen- ninae–Fagetum sylvaticae). Multivariate analysis showed the high relevance of steepness, elevation and pyroclastic All the auhtors are contributed equally to this work. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12210-017-0635-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Maurizio Cutini maurizio.cutini@uniroma3.it 1 DAFNE Department of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, University of Tuscia, 01100 Viterbo, Italy 2 Dipartimento di Scienze, Università Roma Tre, Viale G. Marconi 446, 00146 Rome, Italy