Ricerc@Sapienza

During the second half of the twentieth century, agricultural practices in Italy underwent a fast transition from
extensive and traditional to intensive and specialized. Weed assemblages colonizing cultivated fields were thus
subjected to major shifts, mainly driven by the increased use of herbicides and chemical fertilizers. Moved by the
early intuition that the fight against weeds could deeply alter the balances of arable agroecosystems, already in the

Changes in agricultural practices represent one of themain causes of shift in species composition of arable plant communities. In particular, the intensification of agriculture going on worldwide since several decades led to heavy transformations of arable plant diversity. Basing on a study conducted in 1964 in Latium (central Italy), we re-surveyed the arable plant communities of 21 maize fields in order to assess the shifts that occurred over 50 years.

Since neophytes can become invasive in the future, untangling their ecological preferences is of paramount importance, especially in urban areas where they represent a substantial proportion of the local flora. Studies exploring alien species assemblages in urban environments are however scarce. This study aims to unravel alien plant species preferences for five urban land uses (densely built-up areas, open built-up areas, industrial areas, broadleaved urban forests, and agricultural areas and small landscape elements).