Osservatorio della Biodiversità della Regione Autonoma Valle d'Aosta

Vertebrates

Animals presenting, as a distinctive and peculiar feature, a spine that gives support to the body and allows it to move. The vertebrates represent approximately just 2% of all animal life on Earth. They are present in Italy with about 1300 species, accounting for 1 to 2% of the entire Italian fauna. In Aosta Valley about 350 species are present.

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Invertebrates

Large and heterogeneous set of animal species without an internal skeleton. They represent about 97% of all animal life forms on Earth. First to colonize our planet, about 4 billion years ago, they populate any terrestrial environment. In Italy there are about 55100 species, accounting for 98-99% of the Italian fauna

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Protection

The conservation of wildlife must consider multiple biological characteristics of vertebrates and invertebrates species, including high mobility and interactions among even distant populations. More and more often the legislative protection interventions must be transnational and thus they are shared by several Countries and Regions.

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Vascular flora

It represents the set of all those plants equipped with a specialized vascular system for the transport of water, minerals and sugars. Are part of the vascular flora the pteridophytes and phanerogams, all plants equipped with seeds and flowers more or less specialized, which represent, by themselves, about half of all species of the vegetable kingdom.

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Protection

With the Regional Law No 45/2009 - Regulations for the protection and preservation of alpine flora, the Autonomous Region of Aosta Valley regulates the protection and conservation of spontaneous and native alpine flora, as well as some species of ferns, mosses and lichens. Through habitat protection, promotion of conservation and management programs, research and promotion activities, this law is intended to ensure, on the basis of international, community and national laws, the proper conservation of the flora heritage.

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Lichens

Symbiotic organisms resulting from the close association between a fungus and an algae. The fungus absorbs the nourishment from the algae, and in return it provides water, minerals and support. Thanks to this symbiosis the lichen can live in extreme environments, generally inaccessible to other forms of plant life.

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Protection

With the Regional Law No 45/2009 - Regulations for the protection and preservation of alpine flora, the Autonomous Region of Aosta Valley regulates the protection and conservation of the species of lichens, which reproduction and diffusion occur in natural way. Through habitat protection, promotion of conservation and management programs, research and promotion activities, this law is intended to ensure, on the basis of international, community and national laws, the proper conservation of the natural heritage.

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Bryophytes

Very primitive plants that have structures similar to leaves and stems, but they are not provided of real roots and vascular tissues, and for this reason they are small. They are generally pioneer plants, able to colonize inhospitable places, where they retain water and limit soil erosion, thus favoring the settlement of species with more ecological requirements.

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Protection

With the Regional Law No 45/2009 - Regulations for the protection and preservation of alpine flora, the Autonomous Region of Aosta Valley regulates the protection and conservation of the species of mosses whose reproduction and distribution occur in a natural way. Through habitat protection, promotion of conservation and management programs, research and promotion activities, this law is intended to ensure, on the basis of international, community and national laws, the proper conservation of the natural heritage.

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Mushrooms

Systematic heterogeneous group, which includes organisms with very different shapes and sizes. In general, being unable to perform the photosynthetic process, unlike the plant they must draw nourishment from other organisms. They can be parasites of animals or plants or they can live on dead organic matter, accelerating its processes of decomposition.

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Signalisations

In this section you can enter the signalisations for:
-Fauna
-Flora
-Lichens
-Bryophyte
-Mushrooms

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Crusty
Form of growth with the typical appearance of hardened crust; these lichens develop in parallel and in close contact with the substrate. The body, said thallus, homogeneous or cracked, is formed by small plates, said areolas, or small granules. Some species, the endolithic lichens, develop themselves in depths of a few millimeters between the cracks of the rocks
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Fruity

Form of growth in which the thallus is presented erect, pendulous or prostrate, respect to the substrate to which it adheres only by its basal portion. The filaments of which they are composed, the lacinias, may be more or less branched and have a circular or flattened section. At the center, the lacinia may be hollow or formed by a structure, the medulla, composed only by the cells of the fungus.

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Leafy
Form of growth on which the thallus is developed in a more or less flattened manner respect to the substrate. We can distinguish an upper and a lower face, and most of the species present lobed margins. Many leafy lichens adhere to the substrate due to rhizines, structures formed only by the cells of the fungus that grows on the underside of the thallus.
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Leprosum
Form of growth in which the thallus is reduced to a mass-sorediosa powder, water repellent, without bark.
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Placoids
Form of growth intermediate between the leafy and the crusty types. The central part of the thallus is crusty, while the margins have ray-shaped lobes, typical of the leafy form. Unlike the leafy ones, they never present rhizines.
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Squamous
Form of growth in which the thallus is formed by squamous structures, sometimes disposed like tiles on a roof, and that they adhere, wholly or partly, to the substrate.
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