20 June 2017

In June, botanists of Life PonDerat completed the Carpobrotus eradication activities in Ventotene on all public surfaces and accessible without any safety issues. Overall, over 500 square meters have been manually cleared from Carpobrotus.

In Ventotene and Palmarola, we also started to monitor plant cover to evaluate the future effects of Carpobrotus elimination and wild goat removal. Specifically, ante-operam floristic-vegetation surveys were carried out to assess the composition and coverage of species within sample areas (permanent plots), which can be reconstructed annually by using GPS and metric tape.

To monitor the effect of Carpobrotus eradication in Ventotene, 2x2 m fixed-size plots have been located in Punta Eolo, Parata Grande, Municipal Tower and Punta dell’Arco, for a total of 6 plot pairs, respectively in invaded areas (where Carpobrotus was present) and not-invaded areas (where no Carpobrotus was present, used as a control test).

To monitor the effect of eliminating or removing invasive animals, we set 5x5 m plots in Mediterranean scrub and prairie formations and 10x10 m plots in forest formations. In Ventotene, the surveys involved scrub and prairie formations in the areas of Parata Grande, Punta dell'Arco and Cala Postina, for a total of 5 sample areas. In Palmarola we located and surveyed 6 sampling areas, 3 in the area of ??the area between Monte Tramontana and Forcina, and 3 in the area between Monte Guarniere and Punta di Mezzogiorno, two of which were in the scrub and one in the olm oak forest.