The Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Catania, Sicily (Italy)
University of Catania (Photo: P. Pavone)
The Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences was born in June 2011, arising for the joining of three departments (zoology, botany and earth sciences) and following an administrative reform and functional re-organization of the University of Catania.
A staff of more than 80 people (including researchers, technicians, and administrative personnel) is involved in many different fields of biology (for example, biochemistry, molecular biology, botany, plant physiology, cytology, ecology, animal physiology, genetics, ethology, zoology), and geology as well.
The Department is currently structured in four sections: 1) plant biology, 2) animal biology, 3) biochemistry and molecular biology, and 4) earth sciences. In particular, the section “plant biology” is involved in scientific researches chiefly focused on plant systematics and ecology, plant diversity and habitat conservation/restoration, and finally on environmental education. Such research is mainly carried out through floristic and vegetation studies of the Mediterranean territories (both terrestrial and marine), nomenclatural and taxonomical investigations on Mediterranean taxa, karyological, molecular, micro- and macro-morphological surveys on species or critical groups of the Mediterranean flora, as well as through the implementation of plans and programmes specifically addressed to the environmental assessment and monitoring of threatened plants and habitats.
University of Catania (Photo: P. Pavone)
These activities are also supported by the Botanical Garden, Herbarium (CAT), and Seed Bank (BGS-CAT).In particular, many historical collections are preserved in the Herbarium, such as the pre-Linnaean one of F. Cupani (late of XVII century) or the “Flora Sicula” of F.Tornabene, while the modern collection includes more than 400,000 dried specimens, collected during the last decades in almost all the Mediterranean countries (most of the exsiccata are available on-line, www.dipbot.unict.it).
The Botanical Garden, founded in 1858, is well-known for its huge collections of exotic plants, especially succulents and palms, but also for the so-called “Sicilian garden” where autochthonous Sicilian plants are cultivated, and the main environments characterizing the Sicilian landscape are reconstructed. Aim of this area is to show the extraordinary plant and habitat diversity of Sicily: dunes, volcanic substrates, carbonatic rocky outcrops, temporary ponds, wetlands, Mediterranean maquis and thermophilous woods are only few examples of this amazing variety. Furthermore, hundreds of endemic species, mostly rare or endangered, are propagated by seeds coming from the Seed Bank, and cultivated in-field. The Seed Bank (BGS-CAT) was established since 2004 for enhancing the ex-situ conservation of the Sicilian flora, especially of those taxa, endemic and/or endangered, whose taxonomical, phytogeographical and ecological value is extremely important.