Un approccio allometrico-funzionale allo studio della complessità ecologica delle foreste vetuste
Pubblicato 2026-10-06
Parole chiave
- equivalenza energetica,
- modello-H,
- distribuzione diametrica,
- meccanica statistica
Come citare
Copyright (c) 2026 Tommaso Anfodillo, Gaia Pasqualotto, Marco Carrer, Amos Maritan

Questo lavoro è fornito con la licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale 4.0 Internazionale.
Abstract
Le foreste vetuste rappresentano sistemi ecologici complessi nei quali la struttura di comunità emerge dall’interazione di processi di lungo periodo in condizioni di disturbo limitato e con un uso prossimo alla saturazione delle risorse disponibili. In quanto tali, esse costituiscono sistemi di riferimento fondamentali per comprendere il funzionamento delle foreste e per testare modelli ecologici basati su principi generali. In questo lavoro viene presentato un quadro metodologico per descrivere e prevedere la struttura delle foreste vetuste a partire da relazioni allometriche individuali e assumendo che la comunità forestale sia in grado di utilizzare completamente le risorse disponibili. Utilizzando il volume di chioma come proxy dell’uso di risorse a livello individuale, e assumendo un pieno uso delle risorse da parte della comunità, si dimostra come la distribuzione diametrica emerga come conseguenza diretta delle leggi di scala individuali e converga verso una distribuzione coerente con il principio di equivalenza energetica (Energetic Equivalence Principle, EEP). L’approccio, fondato sul cosiddetto modello-H consente di interpretare la pendenza delle distribuzioni diametriche (o delle altezze) come metrica quantitativa del grado di vetustà, di disturbo e di stadio successionale. Le foreste vetuste vengono così proposte come sistemi di riferimento funzionali per lo studio della complessità ecologica e per lo sviluppo di strategie di gestione forestale in aderenza ai principi della selvicoltura prossima alla natura.
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