Ecological Filtering and Plant Traits Variation Across Quarry Geomorphological Surfaces: Implication for Restoration Federica Gilardelli • Sergio Sgorbati • Stefano Armiraglio • Sandra Citterio • Rodolfo Gentili Received: 1 April 2014 / Accepted: 27 January 2015 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015 Abstract Revegetation patterns after quarry abandon- ment have been widely studied from several ecological points of view, but a trait-based approach is still lacking. The aim of this study was to characterise the plant species assemblages and the associated functional traits filtered on different geomorphological surfaces in abandoned lime- stone quarry areas: artificial cliffs, embankments, and platforms. We then verified if species with certain traits were better able to overcome the dispersal and environ- mental filters necessary for establishment. To this aim, we analyzed 113 vegetation plots and collected data on 25 morphological, ecological, and dispersal traits to detect species adaptaions across these man-made environments. As a case study, we investigated the extraction basin of Botticino (Lombardy, Italy), the second largest in Italy. The results obtained by SIMPER and CCA analyses showed that rockiness, stoniness, slope, elevation, and time of surfaces are the main filters that varied across quarries and affected plant assemblages at the macro-scale level. Across the three geomorphological surfaces (meso-scale) of quarries, more specific abiotic filters selecting species were found. In turn, traits differentiation according to the three main geomorphological surfaces of quarry empha- sized that further filters acting at the micro-scale imply differences in dispersal mechanisms and resource avail- ability. This work highlighted the utility to study species assemblages and environmental filters to address quarry restoration according to the type of geomorphological surface. The investigation of some traits (chorological form, life forms, seed dispersal,s and plant height) can furnish some interesting indications for practice indi- viduating further abiotic filters acting at the micro-scale. Keywords Ecological requirements Á Morphology Á Plant strategies Á Quarry geomorphological surfaces Á Quarry restoration Introduction Exploring the ecological processes that influence plant communities assemblages in highly degraded habitats like quarry areas may furnish relevant information to address restoration priorities (Tischew and Kirmer 2007; Walker and del Moral 2009; Dal Sasso et al. 2012). Plant com- munity assemblage subsequent to quarry activities is con- trolled by abiotic and biotic filters that select potential colonizing species starting from the dispersal filter; this last restricts the species pool from the regional macro-scale level, to the local, meso- and micro-scale levels (Belyea and Lancaster 1999; Weiher and Keddy 1995). At the local scale, landscape structure and physical environmental gradients may include resource and non-resource limita- tions such as soil characteristics, temperature and light, and then determine plant diversity patterns (Dauber et al. 2003; Lomba et al. 2011). In active quarries or during the first years after quarry abandonment, environmental conditions are adverse for plant establishment, so that only a few patches of ruderal Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00267-015-0450-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. F. Gilardelli (&) Á S. Sgorbati Á S. Citterio Á R. Gentili Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Ambiente e del Territorio e di Scienze della Terra, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126 Milan, Italy e-mail: gila.gilardelli@alice.it S. Armiraglio Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali di Brescia, Via Ozanam 4, 25122 Brescia, Italy 123 Environmental Management DOI 10.1007/s00267-015-0450-z