International Journal of Biodiversity and Conservation Vol. 1(3) pp. 060-066 July, 2009 Available online http://www.academicjournals.org/ijbc ©2009 Academic Journals Full Length Research Paper Environmental quality in the park of Naples hills (Italy) before the opening of Chiaiano’s dump (Naples) Maria F. Caliendo1*, Lucilla Fusco,2 Silvana Grimaldi1 and E. Gabriele De Filippo2 1Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, sez. Zoologia, Università degli Studi “Federico II”, via mezzocannone,8-80134 Napoli, Italy. 2Istituto di Gestione della Fauna, via Mezzocannone,8.tel/fax 081/2535141 –Napoli, Italy. Accepted 24 June, 2009 The metropolitan Park of Naples hills (Italy) was instituted by the regional law 17/2003 with the aim of the green area’s safeguard of the city hills. However, in consequence of the waste emergency in the Campanian region, the Italian government decided the opening of a dump in Chiaiano, a quarter located inside the Park. Through the utilization of the birds as bioindicators, we studied the environmental quality of the whole area, correlating the avifaunal indices to some landscape indices. The results show, generally, that the various areas of the park were constituted from a fragmented landscape and not many mature birds communities. The dump site, called Chiaiano wood, was not so different from other areas of the park because of a similar landscape, formed from old chestnut coppices alternated to cultivation and buildings. This is an important nesting site for some predators, as Falco peregrinus and Falco tinnunculus and of some Chiroptera. This is why the dump might cause the lost of rocky habitats in the Chiaiano wood with a remarkable impact on the ecosystem. Key words: Naples hills, birds, landscape, dump, destruction of rocky habitat. INTRODUCTION Urban parks represent an example of correct environ- reference frame of the environmental quality of the park mental planning for biodiversity conservation and land- and to foresee the possible future impacts of the different scape protection, and a place where people can find the actions of the dump project on the environment. We uti- connection between the urban and the natural environ- lized birds as bioindicators of environmental quality, be- ment. For this aim in Napoli (South Italy) was instituted cause they are representative of all the faunistic commu- the Metropolitan Park of the Naples Hills by the regional nities (Gregory et al., 2003). In fact the birds were largely law n° 17/2003. This park represents a wide environ- considered good indicators of farmland-wooded habitats mental reserve, compensating the excessive surrounding (BirdLife International, 2004; Fornasari et al., 2005), as urbanization. But with the Law Decree n° 90/2008, provi- well as the urban environment (Milone et al., 2000; Ca- ding the actions to face up the waste emergency in the liendo et al., 2003). Besides, we correlated the bird com- Campanian region, the Italian government authorized the munity with the landscape (Andren 1994, Jokimaki and realization of some dumps in different campanian territo- Huhta, 1996), because this analysis will determine the ries, as Chiaiano (Rifle-range’s quarry), inside the Park of impact’s hypothesis and will provide important directions the Naples hills. for the interventions of environmental recovery (de Filippo Since the ornithological studies on the above-mention- et al., 2008). ed park were scants and partials (Fraissinet, 2006; Gugli- elmi et al., 2006), we censed the bird community in differ- MATERIALS AND METHODS rent areas of the park in 2007 winter and 2008 spring be- fore the opening of the dump (2008 October) to obtain a Study area In our study we considered the whole Park of Naples hills and not only the area interested by the dump (Chiaiano wood), because the different actions of the dump project could interfere also with birds *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]. feeding in the areas surrounding Chiaiano. The metropolitan Park Caliendo et al. 061 of the Naples Hills extends for 2215 hectares in the north-west side Area weighted mean shape Ind. (AWMSI) of the town and covers 1/5 of the whole municipal area. The whole Mean perimeter area ratio (MPAR) hill’s structure is based on a yellow tuff’s base called “Neapolitan”, Mean patch fractal dim. (MPFD) characterized by a remarkable presence of deep valleys, large ba- Area weighted mean patch fractal dim. (AWMPFD) sins and natural cavities alternat-ing with wide cultivated areas in terraces. The Park is divided in seven morphological areas (www. Diversity indices: parcodelle-collinedinapoli.it): Shannon diversity index (SDI). 1. Pisani basin (76, 20 ha), a farmland–wooded area Shannon evenness index (SEI). 2. Camaldoli hill (789, 73 ha), characterized by a wood including a large public Park Ornitological indices were correlated with some fragmentation’s in- 3. Chiaiano farms (133, 55 ha), a prevalent farmland area. dices, as NUMP, SDI, SEI, ED, TE, showing a significant correlation 4. Chiaiano wood (566, 51 ha), a prevalent wooded area including in other studies (de Filippo et al., 1996), through Sperman correla- some closed tuff quarries, directly interested by the dump. tion (Fowler and Cohen, 1963). 5.) San Rocco deep valley (301, 15 ha), a 6 km long deep valley excavated in the tuff, prevalently wooded. 6.) Scudillo (122, 50 ha), a prevalent farmland-wooded area, includ- RESULTS ing a public park (Hillock’s Park). 7.) San Martino hill (10, 75 ha), separated from the others, presents The landscape indices showed that often the S. Martino old vineyard terraces and other mediter-ranean cultivations. hill presents different and lower values compared to other areas, except for ED and MPAR, in which presents the Sampling highest values. Instead, Camaldoli hill presents often higher values, remarkably too, as for area indices, CA, The bird abundance has been monitored in the year 2007-2008 MPS, MEDPS, TE, MPE. Chiaiano wood shows the high- using Variable Circular Plot method (VCP) (de Filippo et al., 1991), est values for TE and SDI (Table 1). where, during 15’ min, every species seen or heard was counted and identified, according to every 15 days. We chose forty sampling Regarding to the ornithological indices, we noted that points representing the various typologies of habitat in the park that the species richness and the not passerifomes/passeri- is urban, farmland and woodland. We considered only the breeding formes indices did not show any significant differences, (April, May and June) and the wintering (December, January and neither in the wintering nor in the breeding period February) data, without the spring and autumn migration’s data, be- (Figures 1 and 4). In the wintering period the Shannon in- cause it is not demonstrated that this area is a migratory way and dex and the evenness index showed slight variability in besides the data of migratory months are very variable (Fulgione et al., 2007), and they could alter the results. the S. Martino hill values compared to other areas of the Park, which were significantly higher when compared to the Chiaiano farms and Chiaiano wood values (p < 0.05). Elaborations In the breeding period the Shannon index recorded a sig- The structure of the communities was evaluated by: species rich- nificant difference between S. Martino values and Chiai- ness (S), Shannon diversity (BSD), evenness (J) (Pielou, 1966), not ano farms (p < 0.05), while the evenness index was signi- passeriformes/passeriformes ratio (NP /P). ficantly different between the S. Martino area and the The landscape analysis was carried out interpreting aerial pho- others, except for Scudillo ( p < 0.05) (Figures 2 and 3). tos (1:100.000) of the park, utilizing the ED_1950 _UTM_Zone_33N coordinate system with Transverse_ Mercator projection. We elabo- In the wintering period 30 species were present (Table rated a vegetation physiog-nomic map (1:10000) with the ArcView 2), of which seven were ubiquitous (Columba livia f. do- GIS software 3.2 (ESRI, 2000) in a 1 km radius buffer surrounding mestica, Erithacus rubecula, Passer italiae, Sylvia mela- the sample plot. Then the landscape diversity of these areas was nocephala, Fringilla coelebs, Serinus serinus, Turdus me- analyzed in a 250 m radius buffer surrounding the sample plot thro- rula). Some species has been observed in only one cen- ugh synthetic fragmentation indices of landscape ecology (FRAG sus point: the Fan-Tailed warlbler (Cisticola juncidis) in STAT 2.0, McGarigal and Marks, 1995) as follow: the Vallone S. Rocco, the Jackdaw (Corvus monedula) in Area indices: the Scudillo, the Firecrest (Regulus ignicapillus) and the Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos) in the San Martino hill Class area (ha) (CA) and the Stonechat (Saxicola torquata) in the Pisani basin. Landscape area (ha) (TLA) Indices of density, measure and variability of the patch There were 36 breeding species (Table 3), of which se- Number of patches (NUMP) ven were ubiquitous (Falco tinnunculus, Larus michahel- Mean patch size (ha) (MPS) lis, Passer italiae, T. merula, C. livia f. domestica, Sylvia Median patch size (ha) (MEDPS) melanocephala, Sylvia atricapilla). The species registered Patch size coeff. of variance (%) (PSCoV) in only one census point were the Firecrest (Regulus igni- Patch size standard deviation (ha) (PSSD) Edge indices capillus), the Jay (Garrulus glandarius) and the Short- Total Edge (m) (TE) toed Treecreeper (Certhia brachydactila) in the Pisani ba- Edge density (m/ha) (ED) sin and the Peregrine (Falco peregrinus) in the Chiaiano Mean Patch Edge (MPE) wood. Regarding to significant Sperman correlation, we noted Shape indices: that during the wintering period SEI vs J (r = -0.87; 0.01 < Mean shape Ind (MSI) p < 0.005), SDI vs BSD (r = -0.72; 0.05 < p < 0.025), SEI 062 Int. J. Biodvers. Conserv. Table 1. Landscape indices in the seven areas of the park. Pisani Camaldoli Chiaiano Chiaiano S.Rocco S.Martino Abbrev.