Pignatti, Alessandro (Sandro)

Alessandro Pignatti (in all publications indicated as "Sandro" i.e. S. Pignatti) - born in Venice (Italy) 28.09.1930 - studies in Pavia, Barcelona and Montpellier - thesis on mediter¬ranean vegetation with prof. V.Giacomini, A. de Bolos and J. Braun-Blanquet.

Assistant professor of Botany from 1955 in Pavia and from 1958 in Padova; full professor of Botany in Trieste 1962-1982; professor of Plant Ecology in Roma 1983-1988; from July 1988 full professor of Ecology in Roma "La Sapienza" University. Visiting professor in the Tokyo University for Science and Technology (2003). Retired at Oct. 31, 2005; since 13.7.2006 is professor emeritus of Ecology in Roma "La Sapienza" University.
Author of 380 scientific papers (31.12.2010).
Among the founders of the Ostalpin-dinarische Gesellschaft für Pflanzensoziologie and of the International Association for Vegetation Science and successively President of these associations; past President of the Società Botanica Italiana and former member of the Commission for Environmental Impact Assessment of the Italian Ministery for Environment.
The scientific work of prof. Pignatti can be divided into following main subjects:
1. Analysis of vegetation: the vegetation of several different territories in Southern Europe has been analyzed from the phytosociological point of view; major investigations concern the Lagoon of Venice, the Stelvio mountain range in the Rhaetic Alps and thorny cushion vegetation of Mediterranean mountains; water relations of halophytes and Mediterranean species were studied in detail; some of these investigations include vegetation cartography; from 1969 active in the field of data analysis with computer procedures. Presently working on an extensive data bank for the Italian flora and vegetation. In this field S.Pignatti published the volume “Data processing in phytosociology”, in collab. with van der Maarel E. & Orloci L. (Junk, The Hague, 1980) and the treaty “Ecologia Vegetale” (Utet, 1995); the monograph on flora and vegetation of the Dolomites is in press.
2. Marine algae: studies include ecology and physioecology of representative species of the submersed flora of the Mediterranean Sea; the problems of primary production and the role of osmotic pressure in determining water exchange were investigated. Many data remain unpublished and offer an original approach for the investigation of the effect of global change in marine environments.
3. Flora: the main interest is focused on plants of the coastal vegetation, in particular the critical genus Limonium (Plumbagi¬naceae) treated by S.Pignatti as a specialist for Flora Europaea: the evolutionary patterns of this genus are interpreted and many species were instituted. The “Flora d’Italia” (Edagricole, 1982), is a three-volume standard work of 2200 pages, including the description of about 6000 species; it was conceived as a tool for research in biodiversity of ecosystems and exhibits a complete coding system and descriptors for ca. 60 % of the flora of Europe. A second edition will be ready within 2011.
4. Urban Ecology and landscape: was developed mainly on the problems of Rome, unique example of a city with a continuous development for more than 25 centuries. Flora, vegetation and urban biotopes have been investigated; new procedures for data treatment and perspectives of landscape ecology have been developed. On these subjects S.Pignatti published the treatises Ecologia del Paesaggio (Utet, 1994) and Boschi d’Italia (Utet, 1998) dealing with the plant cover of Italy.
5. Ecosystems: in many contributions vegetation is treated as the autotrophic component of ecosystems; the plant cover of the mediterranean basin and of different tropical zones is investigated (savanna, rain forest). Natural vegetation is the interface between the physical component of the ecosystem and man: this interface remains insufficiently known from the ecosystem point of view and is depleted with increasing velocity all over the world. A new theory interpreting vegetation as the result of self-organisation in the ecosystem was proposed by S.Pignatti, E.O.Box and K.Fujiwara as the keynote lecture of the IAVS International Congress “A new paradigm for the 21th century” (Nagano, Japan, July 2000). Since 2001 started a plant ecological exploration of the Western Australian Desert.
6. Biodiversity: after the appointment as a prof. of Ecology in the Rome University “La Sapienza” in 1988, S. Pignatti concentrated his research activity on biodiversity, developing a comparison between mediterranean type ecosystems in the Mediterranean basin and in SW Australia (several extensive field investigations) and in other continents (California, Chile, S. Africa, Canary Isl., Japan, Mexico). Comparisons are carried out on the basis of floristic components, plant community structure and function. The evolutionary trends of the mediterranean flora and vegetation are investigated and the high biodiversity of the mediterranean ecosystem is explained on the basis of a new theory on the co-evolution of man and plants.
7. Environment and civil society: relationships between environment and the development of human society are investigated on different examples (see also under Biodiversity). Relationships between human activity and biosphere breakdown are discussed in the theoretical essay “Assault on the planet” (Bollati Boringhieri, 2000). The environmental crisis is interpreted as a consequence of the fact that biosphere is a system in steady state, whereas industrial production is steadily expanding. Strategies of compatibility are discussed.

S.Pignatti is National Member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, of the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, of the Academy of Cordoba (Argentina), of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, of the Accademia di Torino and of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. For his scientific activities S.P. has been awarded with the gold medal of the Organization for the Plant Taxonomical Investigation of the Mediterranean Area in 1983, the prize of the Academy of Sciences of Turin and the Prize of the Confalonieri Foundation in Milano; doctor h.c. of the Univer¬sity of Uppsala in 1991 and of the University of Palermo in 2005.

Recent books: Flora d' Italia (1982), Ecologia Vegetale (ed., 1994), Ecologia del Paesaggio (1995), L' Ecosistema Roma (1995), I boschi d’Italia (1998), Ecologia Generale (1998), Assalto al Pianeta (2000, in collab. with B.Trezza, price Gambrinus 2000 for Ecology). Editor in Chief of Rendiconti Lincei, Springer Verl. (2001-2010).

(May 2011)