March 31 – 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
UNIgreen’s JRC4 – Biodiversity, Forestry, and Agroecology
Webinar Series: Episode 5
This event, organized within the UNIgreen JRC4 Living Lab framework, brings together researchers, students, and forest practitioners to discuss aliens and flames – when fire ecology meets invasion ecology.
Thematic
This seminar presents a case-study of natural restoration intervention carried out in the “Marco Biagi” Park in Reggio Emilia (Italy), within the LIFE CityAdap3 project. The study quantifies ecosystem services provided by an urban green area enriched with multiple landscape elements, offering a replicable model of urban restoration. Four types of NBS are analyzed: two micro-forests, rural edges, tree rows, and a constructed wetland. The micro-forests were established following the Miyawaki method, using both native and Mediterranean-adapted species. Preliminary results from two years of monitoring (2024–2025) highlight differences in biodiversity, structure, and ecosystem functioning among the interventions. The study also evaluates microclimatic mitigation by comparing green and built-up areas.
When?
On Tuesday, 31 March, 2026, join us for an online event, from 14:00 to 15:00 CET with expert speaker and engaging discussions.
Who should join?
Researchers, students, forest managers, and anyone curious about forest ecology and sustainability.
Speaker
Giulia Santunione
Researcher at
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
Giulia Santunione is a researcher in Environmental and Applied Botany at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy). She holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering and a MSc in Biology. Her research focuses on urban vegetation, biodiversity, and ecosystem services, with particular attention to urban forestry and Nature-Based Solutions for climate adaptation. She works on the assessment of plant diversity, structural and functional traits of urban trees, and their role in microclimatic mitigation, carbon sequestration, and air quality improvement. She has extensive experience in tree and shrub inventories, biodiversity monitoring in urban and peri-urban green spaces, and the evaluation of adaptive responses of woody species to environmental and thermal stress. She is the author of over 30 peer-reviewed scientific publications indexed in Scopus and Web of Science and collaborates closely with local administrations on applied research projects aimed at enhancing urban resilience and biodiversity under changing climatic conditions.He has led or currently leads six nationally funded research projects and has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed articles indexed in the Web of Science and Scopus databases, primarily in forest ecology, invasion ecology, and fire ecology. In addition, he has authored over 190 non-indexed publications, including conference proceedings, book chapters, and technical reports, and has served as editor of six books. He has served on six national scientific expert panels on forest fires, appointed by the Portuguese Government and the Portuguese Parliament. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the environmental NGO League for the Protection of Nature (LPN) and a member of the Portuguese Society for Forest Science.
