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Papers by Donatella Cesaroni

Research paper thumbnail of Volunteers Recruitment, Retention, and Performance during the CSMON-LIFE (Citizen Science MONitoring) Project and 3 Years of Follow-Up

Sustainability

Volunteers’ contribution to research is growing, especially since the beginning of the 21st centu... more Volunteers’ contribution to research is growing, especially since the beginning of the 21st century. Given the constant increase of Citizen Science initiatives, recruiting strategies have to be planned properly. Retention is pivotal as well, especially when time is invested in volunteers’ training. However, practically no follow-up data are available on retention after major Citizen Science initiatives. CSMON-LIFE (Citizen Science MONitoring) was a 42-month project (2014–2017) funded by the European Commission in the framework of the LIFE+ programme (LIFE13 ENV/IT/842). It aimed at increasing awareness on Citizen Science among citizens, researchers, and decision makers in Italy. During CSMON-LIFE, recruitment was based on extensive awareness raising actions on different media. In total, 5558 volunteers were engaged in different field activities during the project and its follow-up. They gathered a total of 30062 geo-referenced observations, each with an image of the reported organis...

Research paper thumbnail of Scientists by chance: reliability of non-structured primary biodiversity data. Insights from Italian Forums of Natural Sciences

Biogeographia – The Journal of Integrative Biogeography

Research paper thumbnail of ClimCKmap, a spatially, temporally and climatically explicit distribution database for the Italian fauna

Scientific Data

Understanding and counteracting biodiversity losses requires quantitative knowledge on species di... more Understanding and counteracting biodiversity losses requires quantitative knowledge on species distribution and abundance across space and time, as well as integrated and interoperable information on climate conditions and climatic changes. In this paper we developed a new biodiversity-climate database for Italy, ClimCKmap, based on the critical analysis, quality estimation and subsequent integration of the CKmap database with several high-resolution climate datasets. The original database was quality-checked for errors in toponym, species name and dating; the retained records were georeferenced and their distribution polygonised via Voronoi tessellation. We then integrated the species distribution information with several high-resolution climatic datasets: average monthly minimum and maximum temperature and total monthly precipitation were reconstructed for each Voronoi cell and year. The resulting database contains 268,977 occurrence records from 8,445 binomials and 16,332 localit...

Research paper thumbnail of Chemically mediated species recognition in two sympatric Grayling butterflies: Hipparchia fagi and Hipparchia hermione (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae, Satyrinae)

Research paper thumbnail of Tackling critical parameters in metazoan meta-barcoding experiments: a preliminary study based on coxI DNA barcode

PeerJ

Nowadays DNA meta-barcoding is a powerful instrument capable of quickly discovering the biodivers... more Nowadays DNA meta-barcoding is a powerful instrument capable of quickly discovering the biodiversity of an environmental sample by integrating the DNA barcoding approach with High Throughput Sequencing technologies. It mainly consists of the parallel reading of informative genomic fragment/s able to discriminate living entities. Although this approach has been widely studied, it still needs optimization in some necessary steps requested in its advanced accomplishment. A fundamental element concerns the standardization of bioinformatic analyses pipelines. The aim of the present study was to underline a number of critical parameters of laboratory material preparation and taxonomic assignment pipelines in DNA meta-barcoding experiments using the cytochrome oxidase subunit-I (coxI) barcode region, known as a suitable molecular marker for animal species identification. We compared nine taxonomic assignment pipelines, including a custom in-house method, based on Hidden Markov Models. More...

Research paper thumbnail of Deciphering range dynamics: effects of niche stability areas and post-glacial colonization on alpine species distribution

Journal of Biogeography, 2016

Research paper thumbnail of Valerio Sbordoni, Giuliana Allegrucci and Donatella Cesaroni, Population Structure. In: WilliamB. White and David C. Culver, editors, Encyclopedia of Caves. Chennai: Academic Press, 2012, pp. 608-618.ISBN: 978-0-12-383832-2Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc.Academic Press

Research paper thumbnail of Testing Classical Species Properties with Contemporary Data: how 'Bad Species' in the Brassy Ringlets (Erebia tyndarus complex, Lepidoptera) Turned Good

Research paper thumbnail of Population genetic structure, speciation and evolutionary rates in cave dwelling organisms

Research paper thumbnail of Evolutionary genetics and morphometrics of a cave crayfish population from Chiapas (Mexico)

International Journal of Speleology, 1988

Research paper thumbnail of A Multidimensional Approach to the Evolution and Systematics of Dolichopoda Cave Crickets

Molecular Techniques in Taxonomy, 1991

Research paper thumbnail of Population Structure

Encyclopedia of Caves, 2012

Research paper thumbnail of Molecular Phylogenies in Dolichopoda Cave Crickets and mtDNA Rate Calibration

Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 1993

Five species of Dolichopoda cave crickets have been studied by means of mtDNA RFLPs. The phylogen... more Five species of Dolichopoda cave crickets have been studied by means of mtDNA RFLPs. The phylogenetic relationships among them were previously inferred from two different molecular measures: allozyme polymorphisms and DNA-DNA hybridization. mtDNA data generate a phylogeny exactly matching those obtained from the other two genetic markers. This is not always the case for other organisms studied so far. This result is discussed in respect of the performance of the three molecular approaches and the population biology of these cave dwelling insects. A tentative calibration of mtDNA rate for Dolichopoda produces an estimate of about 2%/lineage/Myr. The comparison between mtDNA and scnDNA divergence estimates suggests that in these crickets changes accumulate approximately 2-3 times faster in mitochondrial than single copy nuclear sequences.

Research paper thumbnail of Genetic differentation between Penaeus kerathurus and P. japonicus (Crustacea, Decapoda)

Marine Ecology Progress Series, 1983

Research paper thumbnail of Trophic niche, age structure and seasonality in Dolichopoda cave crickets

Ecography, 1995

... Luigi de Pasquale, Donatella Cesaroni, Claudio di Russo and Valerio Sbordoni ... method (Snea... more ... Luigi de Pasquale, Donatella Cesaroni, Claudio di Russo and Valerio Sbordoni ... method (Sneath and Sokal 1973) The computer programs uti-hzed were NTSYS-pc (PCA, UPGMA, Rohlf 1988), BMDP7M (CVA, Jennnch and Sampson 1977), BMDP3D (Fu and Douglas 1977). ...

Research paper thumbnail of Phylogeography of Parnassius apollo: hints on taxonomy and conservation of a vulnerable glacial butterfly invader

Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010

Research paper thumbnail of Is radon emission in caves causing deletions in satellite DNA sequences of cave-dwelling crickets?

PloS one, 2015

The most stable isotope of radon, 222Rn, represents the major source of natural radioactivity in ... more The most stable isotope of radon, 222Rn, represents the major source of natural radioactivity in confined environments such as mines, caves and houses. In this study, we explored the possible radon-related effects on the genome of Dolichopoda cave crickets (Orthoptera, Rhaphidophoridae) sampled in caves with different concentrations of radon. We analyzed specimens from ten populations belonging to two genetically closely related species, D. geniculata and D. laetitiae, and explored the possible association between the radioactivity dose and the level of genetic polymorphism in a specific family of satellite DNA (pDo500 satDNA). Radon concentration in the analyzed caves ranged from 221 to 26000 Bq/m3. Specimens coming from caves with the highest radon concentration showed also the highest variability estimates in both species, and the increased sequence heterogeneity at pDo500 satDNA level can be explained as an effect of the mutation pressure induced by radon in cave. We discovered ...

Research paper thumbnail of Cloning and characterization of the European seabass, Dicentrarchus labrax, mitochondrial genome

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from the European seabass, Dicentrarchus labrax, has been cloned and ch... more Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from the European seabass, Dicentrarchus labrax, has been cloned and characterized. Its gene organization was deduced by a comparison of the sequenced termini of different subclones obtained from European seabass mtDNA to the completely-sequenced mtDNAs from carp and freshwater loach. The difference in genome size between the European seabass mtDNA (approximately 18 kb) and most of the other characterized fish mtDNAs (approximately 16.5 kb) is accounted for by the displacement-loop (D-loop). Comparisons have been performed between the derived amino-acid sequences of three sequenced genes, cytochrome c oxidase subunit 2 (COII), NADH dehydrogenase subunit 4L (ND4L) and ATP synthase subunit 8 (ATPase8), from D. labrax, and their counterparts in other fishes and Xenopus laevis.

Research paper thumbnail of Evolutionary divergence in Dolichopoda cave crickets: A comparison of single copy DNA hybridization data with allozymes and morphometric distances

Research paper thumbnail of Genetic variability and divergence between populations and species of Nesticus cave spiders

Genetica, 1981

Genetic variability and divergence at 21 enzyme loci were studied in and between Italian populati... more Genetic variability and divergence at 21 enzyme loci were studied in and between Italian populations of the cave spiders Nesticus eremita (13 populations), N. menozzii and N. sbordonii (one population each). The three species differ with respect to the degree of specialization to cave life, dispersion ability, isolation of populations, abundancy, extent of the distribution area, and range from the

Research paper thumbnail of Volunteers Recruitment, Retention, and Performance during the CSMON-LIFE (Citizen Science MONitoring) Project and 3 Years of Follow-Up

Sustainability

Volunteers’ contribution to research is growing, especially since the beginning of the 21st centu... more Volunteers’ contribution to research is growing, especially since the beginning of the 21st century. Given the constant increase of Citizen Science initiatives, recruiting strategies have to be planned properly. Retention is pivotal as well, especially when time is invested in volunteers’ training. However, practically no follow-up data are available on retention after major Citizen Science initiatives. CSMON-LIFE (Citizen Science MONitoring) was a 42-month project (2014–2017) funded by the European Commission in the framework of the LIFE+ programme (LIFE13 ENV/IT/842). It aimed at increasing awareness on Citizen Science among citizens, researchers, and decision makers in Italy. During CSMON-LIFE, recruitment was based on extensive awareness raising actions on different media. In total, 5558 volunteers were engaged in different field activities during the project and its follow-up. They gathered a total of 30062 geo-referenced observations, each with an image of the reported organis...

Research paper thumbnail of Scientists by chance: reliability of non-structured primary biodiversity data. Insights from Italian Forums of Natural Sciences

Biogeographia – The Journal of Integrative Biogeography

Research paper thumbnail of ClimCKmap, a spatially, temporally and climatically explicit distribution database for the Italian fauna

Scientific Data

Understanding and counteracting biodiversity losses requires quantitative knowledge on species di... more Understanding and counteracting biodiversity losses requires quantitative knowledge on species distribution and abundance across space and time, as well as integrated and interoperable information on climate conditions and climatic changes. In this paper we developed a new biodiversity-climate database for Italy, ClimCKmap, based on the critical analysis, quality estimation and subsequent integration of the CKmap database with several high-resolution climate datasets. The original database was quality-checked for errors in toponym, species name and dating; the retained records were georeferenced and their distribution polygonised via Voronoi tessellation. We then integrated the species distribution information with several high-resolution climatic datasets: average monthly minimum and maximum temperature and total monthly precipitation were reconstructed for each Voronoi cell and year. The resulting database contains 268,977 occurrence records from 8,445 binomials and 16,332 localit...

Research paper thumbnail of Chemically mediated species recognition in two sympatric Grayling butterflies: Hipparchia fagi and Hipparchia hermione (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae, Satyrinae)

Research paper thumbnail of Tackling critical parameters in metazoan meta-barcoding experiments: a preliminary study based on coxI DNA barcode

PeerJ

Nowadays DNA meta-barcoding is a powerful instrument capable of quickly discovering the biodivers... more Nowadays DNA meta-barcoding is a powerful instrument capable of quickly discovering the biodiversity of an environmental sample by integrating the DNA barcoding approach with High Throughput Sequencing technologies. It mainly consists of the parallel reading of informative genomic fragment/s able to discriminate living entities. Although this approach has been widely studied, it still needs optimization in some necessary steps requested in its advanced accomplishment. A fundamental element concerns the standardization of bioinformatic analyses pipelines. The aim of the present study was to underline a number of critical parameters of laboratory material preparation and taxonomic assignment pipelines in DNA meta-barcoding experiments using the cytochrome oxidase subunit-I (coxI) barcode region, known as a suitable molecular marker for animal species identification. We compared nine taxonomic assignment pipelines, including a custom in-house method, based on Hidden Markov Models. More...

Research paper thumbnail of Deciphering range dynamics: effects of niche stability areas and post-glacial colonization on alpine species distribution

Journal of Biogeography, 2016

Research paper thumbnail of Valerio Sbordoni, Giuliana Allegrucci and Donatella Cesaroni, Population Structure. In: WilliamB. White and David C. Culver, editors, Encyclopedia of Caves. Chennai: Academic Press, 2012, pp. 608-618.ISBN: 978-0-12-383832-2Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc.Academic Press

Research paper thumbnail of Testing Classical Species Properties with Contemporary Data: how 'Bad Species' in the Brassy Ringlets (Erebia tyndarus complex, Lepidoptera) Turned Good

Research paper thumbnail of Population genetic structure, speciation and evolutionary rates in cave dwelling organisms

Research paper thumbnail of Evolutionary genetics and morphometrics of a cave crayfish population from Chiapas (Mexico)

International Journal of Speleology, 1988

Research paper thumbnail of A Multidimensional Approach to the Evolution and Systematics of Dolichopoda Cave Crickets

Molecular Techniques in Taxonomy, 1991

Research paper thumbnail of Population Structure

Encyclopedia of Caves, 2012

Research paper thumbnail of Molecular Phylogenies in Dolichopoda Cave Crickets and mtDNA Rate Calibration

Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 1993

Five species of Dolichopoda cave crickets have been studied by means of mtDNA RFLPs. The phylogen... more Five species of Dolichopoda cave crickets have been studied by means of mtDNA RFLPs. The phylogenetic relationships among them were previously inferred from two different molecular measures: allozyme polymorphisms and DNA-DNA hybridization. mtDNA data generate a phylogeny exactly matching those obtained from the other two genetic markers. This is not always the case for other organisms studied so far. This result is discussed in respect of the performance of the three molecular approaches and the population biology of these cave dwelling insects. A tentative calibration of mtDNA rate for Dolichopoda produces an estimate of about 2%/lineage/Myr. The comparison between mtDNA and scnDNA divergence estimates suggests that in these crickets changes accumulate approximately 2-3 times faster in mitochondrial than single copy nuclear sequences.

Research paper thumbnail of Genetic differentation between Penaeus kerathurus and P. japonicus (Crustacea, Decapoda)

Marine Ecology Progress Series, 1983

Research paper thumbnail of Trophic niche, age structure and seasonality in Dolichopoda cave crickets

Ecography, 1995

... Luigi de Pasquale, Donatella Cesaroni, Claudio di Russo and Valerio Sbordoni ... method (Snea... more ... Luigi de Pasquale, Donatella Cesaroni, Claudio di Russo and Valerio Sbordoni ... method (Sneath and Sokal 1973) The computer programs uti-hzed were NTSYS-pc (PCA, UPGMA, Rohlf 1988), BMDP7M (CVA, Jennnch and Sampson 1977), BMDP3D (Fu and Douglas 1977). ...

Research paper thumbnail of Phylogeography of Parnassius apollo: hints on taxonomy and conservation of a vulnerable glacial butterfly invader

Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010

Research paper thumbnail of Is radon emission in caves causing deletions in satellite DNA sequences of cave-dwelling crickets?

PloS one, 2015

The most stable isotope of radon, 222Rn, represents the major source of natural radioactivity in ... more The most stable isotope of radon, 222Rn, represents the major source of natural radioactivity in confined environments such as mines, caves and houses. In this study, we explored the possible radon-related effects on the genome of Dolichopoda cave crickets (Orthoptera, Rhaphidophoridae) sampled in caves with different concentrations of radon. We analyzed specimens from ten populations belonging to two genetically closely related species, D. geniculata and D. laetitiae, and explored the possible association between the radioactivity dose and the level of genetic polymorphism in a specific family of satellite DNA (pDo500 satDNA). Radon concentration in the analyzed caves ranged from 221 to 26000 Bq/m3. Specimens coming from caves with the highest radon concentration showed also the highest variability estimates in both species, and the increased sequence heterogeneity at pDo500 satDNA level can be explained as an effect of the mutation pressure induced by radon in cave. We discovered ...

Research paper thumbnail of Cloning and characterization of the European seabass, Dicentrarchus labrax, mitochondrial genome

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from the European seabass, Dicentrarchus labrax, has been cloned and ch... more Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from the European seabass, Dicentrarchus labrax, has been cloned and characterized. Its gene organization was deduced by a comparison of the sequenced termini of different subclones obtained from European seabass mtDNA to the completely-sequenced mtDNAs from carp and freshwater loach. The difference in genome size between the European seabass mtDNA (approximately 18 kb) and most of the other characterized fish mtDNAs (approximately 16.5 kb) is accounted for by the displacement-loop (D-loop). Comparisons have been performed between the derived amino-acid sequences of three sequenced genes, cytochrome c oxidase subunit 2 (COII), NADH dehydrogenase subunit 4L (ND4L) and ATP synthase subunit 8 (ATPase8), from D. labrax, and their counterparts in other fishes and Xenopus laevis.

Research paper thumbnail of Evolutionary divergence in Dolichopoda cave crickets: A comparison of single copy DNA hybridization data with allozymes and morphometric distances

Research paper thumbnail of Genetic variability and divergence between populations and species of Nesticus cave spiders

Genetica, 1981

Genetic variability and divergence at 21 enzyme loci were studied in and between Italian populati... more Genetic variability and divergence at 21 enzyme loci were studied in and between Italian populations of the cave spiders Nesticus eremita (13 populations), N. menozzii and N. sbordonii (one population each). The three species differ with respect to the degree of specialization to cave life, dispersion ability, isolation of populations, abundancy, extent of the distribution area, and range from the