Environmental Systems and Anthropic Impact

The course aims to provide advanced knowledge for the sustainable management of agroforestry and urban ecosystems, utilising plants and natural molecules with allelopathic properties. It will equip students with the tools to understand the principles of allelopathy and its ecological implications, using them as a potential means for ecosystem management. This approach will integrate concepts of plant eco-physiology, chemistry of natural metabolites, and microbiology of soil and the rhizosphere.
Students will acquire knowledge of the chemical-physical characteristics, biological activity, and fate of allelopathic molecules in the environment, analysing their effects on soil microorganisms and ecosystem services. The multidisciplinary approach, combining theory, lab work, and field research, will provide students with scientific tools for innovative management of ecosystems degraded by the presence of alien/invasive species, exploiting soil-plant-microorganism interactions.

By the end of the course, students will have gained multidisciplinary tools to develop sustainable agroforestry and urban green management solutions based on allelopathy. Specifically, they will be able to:

- Identify ecosystems degraded by the presence of alien/invasive species.
- Understand the main eco-physiological characteristics that characterize a potentially allelopathic species.
- Comprehend the biosynthetic pathways, chemical-physical characteristics, mechanism of action, and environmental fate of specialised metabolites.
- Understand plant-microorganism interaction mechanisms to assess the impact of alien/invasive species on microbial communities and their effects on soil biological activity.
- Identify allelopathic molecules by analytical techniques and evaluate their applicability in ecological management.
- Propose a plan for using allelopathic plants based on the analysis of a case study addressed during the course, integrated with the most recent scientific evidence within the legislative framework to enhance and conserve natural, forest, and environmental resources.