BIODIVERSITY & ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING

Ricotta, C., Pavoine, S. (2025) What do functional diversity, redundancy, rarity, and originality actually measure? A theoretical guide for ecologists and conservationists. Ecological Complexity 61: 101116.  DOI: 10.1016/j.ecocom.2025.101116

Pavoine, S., Ricotta, C. (2024) Functional and phylogenetic β diversities and their link with clustering/overdispersion and uniqueness/redundancy. EcoSphere 15: e70045. DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.70045 

Chianucci, F., Napoleone, F., Ricotta, C., Ferrara, C., Fusaro, L., et al. (2024) Silvicultural regime shapes understory functional structure in European forests. Journal of Applied Ecology 61: 2350-2364. DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.14740

Di Giulio, M., Lososová, Z., Carboni, M., Ricotta, C. (2024) Measuring plant functional specialization in urban environments with Grime’s CSR strategies. Applied Vegetation Science 27: e12803. DOI: 10.1111/avsc.12803

Pavoine, S., Ricotta, C. (2024) Combining extinction probability and functional or phylogenetic distinctiveness to define conservation priorities. Biological Conservation 295: 110657. DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2024.110657

Ricotta, C., Pavoine, S. (2024) A new look at functional beta diversity. Ecological Indicators 163: 112136. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2024.112136

Ricotta, C., Feoli, E. (2024) Hill numbers everywhere. Does it make ecological sense? Ecological Indicators 161: 111971. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2024.111971

Ricotta, C., Podani, J., Schmera, D., Bacaro, G., Maccherini, S., Pavoine, S. (2023) The ternary diagram of functional diversity. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 14: 1168-1174 (Perspective paper). DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.14100

Pavoine, S., Ricotta, C. (2023) Identifying functionally distinctive and threatened species. Biological Conservation 284: 110170. DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110170

Ricotta, C., Dalle Fratte, M., Pierce, S., Carboni, M., Cerabolini, B.E.L., Pavoine, S. (2023) Quantifying the extent of plant functional specialization using Grime’s CSR strategies. Ecological Indicators 148: 110066. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2023.110066

Schmera, D., Ricotta, C., Podani, J. (2023) Components of functional diversity revisited: A new classification and its theoretical and practical implications. Ecology and Evolution 13: e10614. DOI: 10.1002/ece3.10614

Puglielli, G., Carmona, C.P., Varone, L., Laanisto, L., Ricotta, C. (2022) Phenotypic dissimilarity index: correcting for intra- and interindividual variability when quantifying phenotypic variation. Ecology e3806. DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3806

Ricotta, C., Bacaro, G., Maccherini, S., Pavoine, S. (2022) Functional imbalance not functional evenness is the third component of community structure. Ecological Indicators 140: 109035. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109035

Pavoine, S., Ricotta, C. (2022) Trade-offs in the conservation of phylogenetically distinctive species. Biological Conservation 270: 109565. DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109565

Ricotta, C., Pavoine, S. (2022) A new parametric measure of functional dissimilarity: Bridging the gap between the Bray-Curtis dissimilarity and the Euclidean distance. Ecological Modelling 466: 109880. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2022.109880

Dalle Fratte, M., Caccianiga, M., Ricotta, C., Cerabolini, B.E.L. (2022) Identifying typical and early warning species by the combination of functional‑based diagnostic species and dark diversity. Biodiversity and Conservation 31: 1735-1753. DOI: 10.1007/s10531-022-02427-4

Pavoine, S., Ricotta, C. (2021) On the relationships between rarity, uniqueness, distinctiveness, originality and functional/phylogenetic diversity. Biological Conservation 263: 109356. DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2021.109356

Ricotta, C., Kosman, E., Caccianiga, M., Cerabolini, B.E.L., Pavoine, S. (2021) On two dissimilarity-based measures of functional beta diversity. Ecological Informatics 66: 101458. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoinf.2021.101458

Ricotta, C., Szeidl, L., Pavoine, S. (2021) Towards a unifying framework for diversity and dissimilarity coefficients. Ecological Indicators 129: 107971. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.107971

Ricotta, C., Kosman, E., Laroche, F., Pavoine, S. (2021) Beta redundancy for functional ecology. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 12: 1062–1069. DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.13587

Ricotta, C., Pavoine, S., Cerabolini, B.E.L., Pillar, V. (2021) A new method for indicator species analysis in the framework of multivariate analysis of variance. Journal of Vegetation Science 32: e13013. DOI: 10.1111/jvs.13013

Ricotta C. (2021) From the euclidean distance to compositional dissimilarity: What is gained and what is lost. Acta Oecologica 111: 103732. DOI: 10.1016/j.actao.2021.103732

Ricotta, C., Acosta, A.T.R., Caccianiga, M.,  Cerabolini, B.E.L., Godefroid, S., Carboni, M. (2020) From abundance-based to functional-based indicator species. Ecological Indicators 118: 106761. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106761

Ricotta, C., Laroche, F., Szeidl, L., Pavoine, S. (2020) From alpha to beta functional and phylogenetic redundancy. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 11: 487–49. DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.13353

Chao, A., Ricotta, C. (2019) Quantifying evenness and linking it to diversity, beta diversity, and similarity. Ecology 100: e02852. DOI: 10.1002/ecy.2852

Ricotta, C., Acosta, A., Bacaro, G., Carboni, M., Chiarucci, A., Rocchini, D., Pavoine, S. (2019) Rarefaction of beta diversity. Ecological Indicators 107: 105606. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.105606

Ricotta,  C.  (2019)    Can  we  trust  the  chord  (and  the Hellinger)  distance?  Community Ecology 20: 104-106. DOI: 10.1556/168.2019.20.1.11

Pavoine, S., Ricotta, C. (2019) A simple translation from indices of species diversity to indices of phylogenetic diversity. Ecological Indicators 101: 552-561. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.01.052

Pavoine, S., Ricotta, C. (2019) Measuring functional dissimilarity among plots: Adapting old methods to new questions. Ecological Indicators 97: 67-72. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.09.048

Chelli et al. (2019) Plant–environment interactions through a functional traits perspective: a review of Italian studies. Plant Biosystems 153: 853–869. DOI: 10.1080/11263504.2018.1559250

Ricotta, C. (2018) A family of (dis) similarity measures based on evenness and its relationship with beta diversity. Ecological Complexity 34: 69-73. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecocom.2018.03.002

Ricotta, C., Bacaro, G., Caccianiga, M., Cerabolini, B.E.L., Pavoine, S. (2018) A new method for quantifying the phylogenetic redundancy of biological communities. Oecologia 186: 339–346. DOI: 10.1007/s00442-017-4026-x

Podani, J., Pavoine, S., Ricotta, C. (2018) A generalized framework for analyzing taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional community structure based on presence-absence data. Mathematics 6: 250 (Special Issue: New Paradigms and Trends in Quantitative Ecology) DOI: 10.3390/math6110250

Gratani, L., Varone, L., Crescente, M.F., Catoni, R., Ricotta, C., Puglielli, G. (2018) Leaf thickness and density drive the responsiveness of photosynthesis to air temperature in Mediterranean species according to their leaf habitus. Journal of Arid Environments 150: 9–14. DOI: 10.1016/j.jaridenv.2017.12.007

Ricotta, C. (2017) Of beta diversity, variance, evenness, and dissimilarity. Ecology and Evolution 7: 4835-4843. DOI: 10.1002/ece3.2980

Ricotta, C., Podani, J. (2017) On some properties of the Bray-Curtis dissimilarity and their ecological meaning. Ecological Complexity  31: 201–205. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecocom.2017.07.003

Pavoine, S., Bonsall, M.B., Dupaix, A., Jacob, U., Ricotta, C. (2017) From phylogenetic to functional originality: Guide through indices and new developments. Ecological Indicators 82: 196-205. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2017.06.056

Ricotta, C., Ari, E., Bonanomi, G., Giannino, F., Heathfield, D., Mazzoleni, S., Podani, J. (2017) Spatial analysis of phylogenetic community structure: New version of a classical method. Community Ecology 18: 37-46. DOI: 10.1556/168.2017.18.1.5

Bonito, A., Ricotta, C., Iberite, M., Gratani, L., Varone, L. (2017) CO2 sequestration in two mediterranean dune areas subjected to a different level of anthropogenic disturbance. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 196: 22-30. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecss.2017.06.040

Ricotta, C., de Bello, F., Moretti, M., Caccianiga, M., Cerabolini, B., Pavoine, S. (2016) Measuring the functional redundancy of biological communities: a quantitative guide. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 7: 1386-1395. DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.12604

Pavoine, S., Marcon, E., Ricotta, C. (2016) ‘Equivalent numbers’ for species, phylogenetic or functional diversity in a nested hierarchy of multiple scales. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 7: 1152-1163. DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.12591

Ricotta, C., Podani, J., Pavoine, S. (2016) A family of functional dissimilarity measures for presence and absence data. Ecology and Evolution 6: 5383–5389. DOI: 10.1002/ece3.2214

Bacaro, G., Altobelli, A., Cameletti, M., Ciccarelli, D., Martellos, S., Palmer, M.W., Ricotta, C., Rocchini, D., Scheiner, S.M., Tordoni, E., Chiarucci, A. (2016) Incorporating spatial autocorrelation in rarefaction methods: Implications for ecologists and conservation biologists.  Ecological Indicators 69: 233–238. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2016.04.026

Ricotta, C., Bacaro, G., Pavoine, S. (2015) A cautionary note on some phylogenetic dissimilarity measures.  Journal of Plant Ecology 8: 12-16 (Editor’s Choice). DOI: 10.1093/jpe/rtu008

Ricotta, C., Pavoine, S. (2015) A multiple-site dissimilarity measure for species presence/absence data and its relationship with nestedness and turnover. Ecological Indicators 54: 203-206. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2015.02.026

Ricotta, C., Pavoine, S. (2015) Measuring similarity among plots including similarity among species: An extension of traditional approaches. Journal of Vegetation Science 26: 1061-1067. DOI: 10.1111/jvs.12329

Ricotta, C., Carboni, M., Acosta, A.T.R. (2015) Let the concept of indicator species be functional! Journal of Vegetation Science 26: 839-847. DOI: 10.1111/jvs.12291

Loreto, F., Bagnoli, F., Calfapietra, C., Cafasso, D., De Lillis, M., Filibeck, G., Fineschi, S., Guidolotti, G., Sramkó, G., Tökölyi, J., Ricotta, C. (2014) Isoprenoid emission in hygrophyte and xerophyte European woody flora: Ecological and evolutionary implications. Global Ecology and Biogeography 23: 334-345. DOI: 10.1111/geb.12124

Pavoine, S., Ricotta, C. (2014) Functional and phylogenetic similarity among communities. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 5: 666-675. DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.12193

Ricotta, C., Acosta, A.T.R. (2014) On the functional diversity of partially distinct species: Some theory and a practical example. Community Ecology 15: 205-211. DOI: 10.1556/ComEc.15.2014.2.9

Gratani, L., Varone, L., Ricotta, C., Catoni, R. (2013) Mediterranean shrublands carbon sequestration: Environmental and economic benefits. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 18: 1167-1182. DOI: 10.1007/s11027-012-9415-1

Ricotta, C., Feoli, E. (2013) Does Ordinal Cover Estimation Offer Reliable Quality Data Structures in Vegetation Ecological Studies? Folia Geobotanica 48: 437-447. DOI: 10.1007/s12224-013-9152-6

Carboni, M., Acosta, A.T.R., Ricotta, C. (2013) Are differences in functional diversity among plant communities on Mediterranean coastal dunes driven by their phylogenetic history? Journal of Vegetation Science 24: 932-941. DOI: 10.1111/jvs.12095

Podani, J., Ricotta, C., Schmera, D. (2013) A general framework for analyzing beta diversity, nestedness and related community-level phenomena based on abundance data. Ecological Complexity 15: 52-61. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecocom.2013.03.002

Pavoine, S., Ricotta, C. (2013) Testing for phylogenetic signal in biological traits: The ubiquity of cross-product statistics. Evolution 67: 828-840. DOI: 10.1111/j.1558-5646. 2012.01823.x

Ricotta, C., Pavoine, S., Bacaro, G., Acosta, A.T.R. (2012) Functional rarefaction for species abundance data. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 3: 519-525. DOI: 10.1111/j.2041-210X.2011.00178.x

Ricotta, C., Bacaro, G., Marignani, M., Godefroid, S., Mazzoleni, S. (2012) Computing diversity from dated phylogenies and taxonomic hierarchies: Does it make a difference to the conclusions? Oecologia 170: 501-506. DOI: 10.1007/s00442-012-2318-8

Ricotta, C., Moretti, M. (2011) CWM and Rao’s quadratic diversity: A unified framework for functional ecology.  Oecologia 167: 181-188. DOI: 10.1007/s00442-011-1965-5

Ricotta, C. (2010) On beta diversity decomposition: Trouble shared is not trouble halved. Ecology 91: 1981-1983. DOI: 10.1890/09-0126.1

Ricotta, C., Moretti, M. (2010) Assessing the functional turnover of species assemblages with tailored dissimilarity matrices. Oikos 119: 1089-1098. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0706.2009.18202.x

Jost, L., Devries, P., Walla, T., Greeney, H., Chao, A., Ricotta, C. (2010) Partitioning diversity for conservation analyses. Diversity and Distributions 16: 65-76. DOI: 10.1111/j.1472-4642.2009.00626.x

Ricotta, C., Szeidl, L. (2009) Diversity partitioning of Rao’s quadratic entropy. Theoretical Population Biology 76: 299-302. DOI: 10.1016/j.tpb.2009.10.001

Chiarucci, A., Bacaro, G., Rocchini, D., Ricotta, C., Palmer, M., Scheiner, S. (2009) Spatially constrained rarefaction: Incorporating the autocorrelated structure of biological communities into sample-based rarefaction. Community Ecology 10: 209-214. DOI: 10.1556/ComEc.10.2009.2.11

Ricotta, C., Burrascano, S. (2008) Beta diversity for functional ecology. Preslia 80: 61-72

Ricotta, C. (2008) Computing additive ß-diversity from presence and absence scores: A critique and alternative parameters. Theoretical Population Biology 73: 244-249. DOI: 10.1016/j.tpb.2007.10.005

Bacaro, G., Ricotta, C. (2007) A spatially explicit measure of beta diversity. Community Ecology 8: 41-46. DOI: 10.1556/ComEc.8.2007.1.6

Ricotta, C., Marignani, M. (2007) Computing ß-diversity with Rao’s quadratic entropy: A change of perspective. Diversity and Distributions 13: 237-241. DOI: 10.1111/j.1472-4642.2007.00316.x

Ricotta, C. (2007) A semantic taxonomy for diversity measures. Acta Biotheoretica 55: 23-33. DOI: 10.1007/s10441-007-9008-7

Ricotta, C., Szeidl, L. (2006) Towards a unifying approach to diversity measures: Bridging the gap between the Shannon entropy and Rao’s quadratic index. Theoretical Population Biology 70: 237-243. DOI: 10.1016/j.tpb.2006.06.003

Ricotta, C., Anand, M. (2006) Spatial complexity of ecological communities: Bridging the gap between probabilistic and non-probabilistic uncertainty measures. Ecological Modelling 197: 59-66. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2006.03.001

Ricotta, C. (2005) On parametric diversity indices in ecology: A historical note. Community Ecology 6: 241-244. DOI: 10.1556/ComEc.6.2005.2.12

Ricotta, C. (2005) A note on functional diversity measures. Basic and Applied Ecology 6: 479-486. DOI: 10.1016/j.baae.2005.02.008

Ricotta, C. (2005) Through the jungle of biological diversity. Acta Biotheoretica 53: 29-38. DOI: 10.1007/s10441-005-7001-6

Ricotta, C. (2004) A parametric diversity measure combining the relative abundances and taxonomic distinctiveness of species. Diversity and Distributions 10: 143-146. DOI: 10.1111/j.1366-9516.2004.00069.x

Ricotta, C. (2003) On parametric evenness measures. Journal of Theoretical Biology 222: 189-197. DOI: 10.1016/S0022-5193(03)00026-2

Ricotta, C., Ferrari, M., Avena, G. (2002) Using the scaling behaviour of higher taxa for the assessment of species richness. Biol. Conservation 107: 131-133. DOI: 10.1016/S0006-3207(02)00045-9. See also The New York Times (23 Aug. 2011) and Huffington Post (29 Sept. 2018)

Ricotta, C. (2002) Bridging the gap between ecological diversity indices and measures of biodiversity with Shannon’s entropy: Comment to Izsák and Papp. Ecological Modelling 152: 1-3. DOI: 10.1016/S0304-3800(01)00468-9

Ricotta, C., Carranza, M.L., Avena, G. (2002) Computing ß-diversity from species-area curves. Basic and Applied Ecology 3: 15-18

Ricotta, C. (2000) From theoretical ecology to statistical physics and back: self-similar landscape metrics as a synthesis of ecological diversity and geometrical complexity. Ecological Modelling 125: 245-253. DOI: 10.1016/S0304-3800(99)00185-4

FIRE ECOLOGY

Costa-Saura, J.M., Midolo, G., Ricotta, C., Baudena, M., Calfapietra, C., Elia, M., Fiorucci, P., Mereu, S., Sirca, C., Spano, D., Vivaldo, G., Ottaviani, G. (2025) Are trait responses of tree species across pyroregions indicative of fire-modulated plant functional strategies? Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 67: 125867. DOI: 10.1016/j.ppees.2025.125867

Pezzatti, G.B., De Angelis, A., Bekarb, I., Ricotta, C., Bajocco, S., Conedera, M. (2020) Complementing daily fire-danger assessment using a novel metric based on burnt area ranking. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 295: 108172. DOI: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2020.108172

Bajocco, S., Ferrara, C., Guglietta, D., Ricotta, C., (2020) Easy-to-interpret procedure to analyze fire seasonality and the influence of land use in fire occurrence: a case study in Central Italy. Fire 3: 46. DOI: 10.3390/fire3030046

Bajocco, S., Ferrara, C., Guglietta, D., Ricotta, C. (2019) Fifteen years of changes in fire ignition frequency in Sardinia (Italy): A rich get-richer process. Ecological Indicators 104: 543-548. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.05.030

Conedera, M., Krebs, P., Valese, E., Cocca, G., Schunk, C., Menzel, A., Vacik, H., Cane, D., Japelj, A., Muri, B., Ricotta, C., Oliveri, S., Pezzatti, G.B. (2018) Characterizing Alpine pyrogeography from fire statistics. Applied Geography 98: 87–99. DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2018.07.011

Ricotta, C., Bajocco, S., Guglietta, D., Conedera, M. (2018) Assessing the Influence of Roads on Fire Ignition: Does Land Cover Matter? Fire 1: 24. DOI: 10.3390/fire1020024

Bajocco, S., Koutsias, N., Ricotta, C. (2017) Linking fire ignitions hotspots and fuel phenology: The importance of being seasonal. Ecological Indicators 82: 433-440. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2017.07.027

Bajocco, S., Guglietta, D., Ricotta, C. (2015) Modelling fire occurrence at regional scale: does vegetation phenology matter? European Journal of Remote Sensing 48: 763-775. DOI: 10.5721/EuJRS20154842

Guglietta, D., Migliozzi, A., Ricotta, C. (2015) A Multivariate approach for mapping fire ignition risk: The example of the National Park of Cilento (Southern Italy). Environmental Management 56: 157-164. DOI: 10.1007/s00267-015-0494-0

Bajocco, S., Dragozi, E., Gitas, I., Smiraglia, D., Salvati, L., Ricotta, C. (2015) Mapping forest fuels through vegetation phenology: The role of coarse-resolution satellite time-series. PLoS ONE 10: e0119811. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0119811

De Angelis, A., Ricotta, C., Conedera, M., Pezzatti, G.B. (2015) Modelling the meteorological forest fire niche in heterogeneous pyrologic conditions. PLoS ONE 10: e0116875. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0116875

Ricotta, C., Di Vito, S. (2014) Modeling the landscape drivers of fire recurrence in Sardinia. (Italy) Environmental Management 53: 1077-1084. DOI: 10.1007/s00267-014-0269-z

Conedera, M., Torriani, D., Neff, C., Ricotta, C., Bajocco, S., Pezzatti, G.B. (2011) Using Monte Carlo simulations to estimate relative fire ignition danger in a low-to-medium fire-prone region. Forest Ecology and Management 261: 2179-2187. DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2010.08.013

Bajocco, S., Salvati, L., Ricotta, C. (2011) Land degradation versus fire: A spiral process? Progress in Physical Geography 35: 3-18. DOI: 10.1177/0309133310380768

Bajocco, S., Pezzatti, G.B., Mazzoleni, S., Ricotta, C. (2010) Wildfire seasonality and land use: When do wildfires prefer to burn? Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 164: 445-452. DOI: 10.1007/s10661-009-0905-x

Bajocco, S., Ricotta, C. (2008) Evidence of selective burning in Sardinia (Italy): Which land-cover classes do wildfires prefer? Landscape Ecology 23: 241-248. DOI: 10.1007/s10980-007-9176-5

Caldarelli, G., Frondoni, R., Gabrielli, A., Montuori, M., Retzlaff, R., Ricotta, C. (2001) Percolation in real wildfires. Europhysics Letters 56: 510-516.  DOI: 10.1209/epl/i2001-00549-4. See also Nature News and Views (13 Aug. 2001)

Ricotta, C., Arianoutsou, M., Díaz-Delgado, R., Duguy, B., Lloret, F., Maroudi, E., Mazzoleni, S., Manuel Moreno, J., Rambal, S., Vallejo, R., Vázquez, A. (2001) Self-organized criticality of wildfires ecologically revisited. Ecological Modelling 141: 307-311. DOI: 10.1016/S0304-3800(01)00272-1

Ricotta, C., Avena, G., Marchetti, M. (1999) The flaming sandpile: Self-organized criticality and wildfires. Ecological Modelling 119: 73-77. DOI: 10.1016/S0304-3800(99)00057-5

INVASION ECOLOGY

Celesti-Grapow, L., Ricotta, C. (2021) Plant invasion as an emerging challenge for the conservation of heritage sites: the spread of ornamental trees on ancient monuments in Rome, Italy. Biological Invasions 23: 1191-1206. DOI: 10.1007/s10530-020-02429-9

Padullés Cubino, J., Borowy, D., Knapp, S., Lososova, Z., Ricotta, C., Siebert, S., Cavender-Bares, J., Sol, D., Jeliazkov, A., Swan, C. (2021) Contrasting Impacts of Cultivated Exotics on the Functional Diversity of Domestic Gardens in Three Regions with Different Aridity. Ecosystems 24: 875–890. DOI: 10.1007/s10021-020-00556-x

Godefroid, S., Ricotta, C. (2018) Alien plant species do have a clear preference for different land uses within urban environments. Urban Ecosystems 21: 1189–1198. DOI: 10.1007/s11252-018-0792-4

Ricotta, C., Rapson, G.L., Asmus, U., Pyšek, P., Kühn, I., La Sorte, F.A., Thompson, K. (2017) British plants as aliens in New Zealand cities: residence time moderates their impact on the beta diversity of urban floras. Biological Invasions 19: 3589–3599. DOI: 10.1007/s10530-017-1590-2

Lososova, Z., Chytry, M., Tichy, L., Danihelka, J., Ricotta, C. (2016) Biotic homogenization of urban floras by alien species: the role of species turnover and richness difference. Journal of Vegetation Science 27: 452-459. DOI: 10.1111/jvs.12381 (plus commentary by A. Hahs & M.J. McDonnell: ‘Moving beyond biotic homogenization: searching for new insights into vegetation dynamics’. Journal of Vegetation Science 27: 439-440)

Ricotta, C., Celesti-Grapow, L., Kühn, I., Rapson, G., Pyšek, P., La Sorte, F.A., Thompson, K. (2014) Geographical constraints are stronger than invasion patterns for European urban floras. PLoS ONE 9: e85661. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0085661

Ricotta, C., La Sorte, F.A., Pyšek, P., Rapson, G.L., Celesti-Grapow, L., Thompson, K. (2012) Phylogenetic beta diversity of native and alien species in European urban floras. Global Ecology and Biogeography 21: 751-759. DOI: 10.1111/j.1466-8238.2011.00715.x

Ricotta, C., Godefroid, S., Rocchini, D. (2010) Invasiveness of alien plants in Brussels is related to their phylogenetic similarity to native species. Diversity and Distributions 16: 655-662. DOI: 10.1111/j.1472-4642.2010.00676.x

Ricotta, C., Godefroid, S., Rocchini, D. (2010) Patterns of native and exotic species richness in the urban flora of Brussels: Rejecting the ‘rich get richer’ model. Biological Invasions 12: 233-240. DOI: 10.1007/s10530-009-9445-0

Ricotta, C., La Sorte, F.A., Pyšek, P., Rapson, G.L., Celesti-Grapow, L., Thompson, K. (2009) Phyloecology of urban alien floras. Journal of Ecology 97: 1243-1251. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2745.2009.01548.x. Selected for the Virtual Issue on Biodiversity of the British Ecological Society

LANDSCAPE & URBAN ECOLOGY

Swan, C., Brown, B., Borowy, D., Cavender-Bares, J., Jeliazkov, A., Knapp, S., Lososova, Z., Padullés Cubino, J., Pavoine, S., Ricotta, C., Sol, D. (2021) A framework for understanding how biodiversity patterns unfold across multiple spatial scales in urban ecosystems. Ecosphere 12: e03650. DOI: 10.1002/ECS2.3650 

Sol, D., Trisos, C., Murria, C., Jeliazkov, A., Gonzalez-Lagos, C., Pigot, A.L., Ricotta, C., Swan, C.M., Tobias, J.A., Pavoine, S. (2020) The worldwide impact of urbanisation on avian functional diversity. Ecology Letters 23: 962–972. DOI: 10.1111/ele.13495

Marcantonio, M., Iannacito, M., Thouverai, E. Da Re, D., Tattoni, C., Bacaro, G., Vicario, S., Ricotta, C., Rocchini, D. (2020) R-Package RasterDiv

Thouverai, E., Pavoine, S., Tordoni, E., Rocchini, D., Ricotta, C., Chiarucci, A., Bacaro, G. (2020) R-Package RAREFY

Rocchini, D., Garzon-Lopez, C.X., Marcantonio, M., Amici, V., Bacaro, G., Bastin, L., Brummitt, N.,  Chiarucci, A., Foody, G.M., Hauffe, H.C., He, K.S., Ricotta, C., Rizzoli, A., Rosà, R. (2017) Anticipating species distributions: Handling sampling effort bias under a Bayesian framework. Science of the Total Environment 584-585: 282–290. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.12.038

Bajocco, S., Ceccarelli, T., Smiraglia, D., Salvati, L., Ricotta, C. (2016) Modeling the ecological niche of long-term land use changes: The role of biophysical factors. Ecological Indicators 60: 231-236. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2015.06.034

Ricotta, C., Godefroid, S., Heathfield, D., Mazzoleni, S. (2015) Limited evidence of local phylogenetic clustering in the urban flora of Brussels. Plant Biosystems 149: 31–37. DOI: 10.1080/11263504.2013.809029

Carranza, M.L., Frate, L., Acosta, A.T.R., Hoyos, L., Ricotta, C., Cabido, M. (2014) Measuring forest fragmentation using multitemporal remotely sensed data: Three decades of change in the dry Chaco. European Journal of Remote Sensing 47: 793-804. DOI: 10.5721/EuJRS20144745

Manes, F., Incerti, G., Salvatori, E., Vitale, M., Ricotta, C., Costanza, R. (2012) Urban ecosystem services: Tree diversity and stability of tropospheric ozone removal. Ecological Applications 22: 349-360. DOI: 10.1890/11-0561.1

Ricotta, C., Heathfield, D., Godefroid, S., Mazzoleni, S. (2012) The effects of habitat filtering on the phylogenetic structure of the urban flora of Brussels (Belgium). Community Ecology 13: 97-101. DOI: 10.1556/ComEc.13.2012.1.12

Rocchini, D., McGlinn, D., Ricotta, C., Neteler, M., Wohlgemuth, T. (2011) Landscape complexity and spatial scale influence the relationship between remotely sensed spectral diversity and survey-based plant species richness. Journal of Vegetation Science 22: 688-698. DOI: 10.1111/j.1654-1103.2010.01250.x

Rocchini, D., Hortal, J., Lengyel, S., Lobo, J.M., Jiménez-Valverde, A., Ricotta, C., Bacaro, G., Chiarucci, A. (2011) Accounting for uncertainty when mapping species distributions: The need for maps of ignorance. Progress in Physical Geography 35: 211-226. DOI: 10.1177/0309133311399491

Ricotta, C., Godefroid, S., Celesti-Grapow, L. (2008) Common species have lower taxonomic diversity: Evidence from the urban floras of Brussels and Rome. Diversity and Distributions 14: 530-537. DOI: 10.1111/j.1472-4642.2008.00467.x

Ricotta, C., DiNepi, M., Guglietta, D., Celesti-Grapow, L. (2008) Exploring taxonomic filtering in urban environments. Journal of Vegetation Science 19: 229-238. DOI: 10.3170/2008-8-18363

Rocchini, D., Ricotta, C. (2007) Are landscapes as crisp as we may think? Ecological Modelling 204: 535-539. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2006.12.028

Ricotta, C., Corona, P., Marchetti, M. (2003) Beware of contagion! Landscape and Urban Planning 62: 173-177. DOI: 10.1016/S0169-2046(02)00146-9

Ricotta, C., Carranza, M.L., Avena, G., Blasi, C. (2002) Are potential natural vegetation maps a meaningful alternative to neutral landscape models? Applied Vegetation Science 5: 271-275

Ricotta, C., Celesti Grapow, L., Avena, G., Blasi, C. (2001) Topological analysis of the spatial distribution of plant species richness across the city of Rome (Italy) with the echelon approach. Landscape and Urban Planning 57: 69-76. DOI: 10.1016/S0169-2046(01)00187-6

SATELLITE ECOLOGY, GIS & REMOTE SENSING

Bajocco, S., Ricotta, C., Bregaglio, S. (2025) Bridging the gap between remotely sensed phenology and the underlying ecophysiological processes: The SWELL model. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 16: 1473-1488. DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.70067

Torresani, M., Rossi, C., Perrone, M., Hauser, L.T., Féret, J.B., Moudrý, V., Simova, P., Ricotta, C., Foody, G.M., Kacic, P., Feilhauer, H., Malavasi, M., Tognetti, R., Rocchini, D. (2024) Reviewing the spectral variation hypothesis: Twenty years in the tumultuous sea of biodiversity estimation by remote sensing. Ecological Informatics 82: 102702. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoinf.2024.102702

Thouverai, E., Marcantonio, M., Lenoir, J., Galfré, M., Marchetto, E. et al. (2023) Integrals of life: Tracking ecosystem spatial heterogeneity from space through the area under the curve of the parametric Rao’s Q index. Ecological Complexity 52: 101029. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecocom.2023.101029

Rocchini, D., Santos, M.J., Ustin, S.L., Féret, J.-B., Asner, G.P., Beierkuhnlein, C., et al. (2022) The spectral species concept in living color. Journal of Geophysical Research, Biogeosciences 127:  e2022JG007026.  DOI: 10.1029/2022JG007026

Rocchini, D., Thouverai, E., Marcantonio, M., Iannacito, M., Da Re, D., Torresani, M., Bacaro, G., Bazzichetto, M., Bernardi, A., Foody, G.M., Furrer, R., Kleijn, D., Larsen, S., Lenoir, J., Malavasi, M., Marchetto, E., Messori, F., Montaghi, A., Moudrý, V., Naimi, B., Ricotta, C., Rossini, M., Santi, F., Santos, M.J., Schaepman, M.E., Schneider, F.D., Schuh, L., Silvestri, S., Ŝímová, P., Skidmore, A.K., Tattoni, C., Tordoni, E., Vicario, S., Zannini, P., Wegmann, M. (2021) Rasterdiv – an information theory tailored R package for measuring ecosystem heterogeneity from space: To the origin and back. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 12: 1093–1102. DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.13583

Thouverai, E., Marcantonio, M., Bacaro, G., Da Re, D., Iannacito, M., Marchetto, E., Ricotta, C., Tattoni, C., Vicario, S., Rocchini, D. (2021) Measuring diversity from space: a global view of the free and open source rasterdiv R package under a coding perspective. Community Ecology 22: 1-11. DOI: 10.1007/s42974-021-00042-x

Rocchini, D., Marcantonio, M., Da Re, D., Bacaro, G., Feoli, E., Foody, G.M., Furrer, R., Harrigan, R.J., Kleijn, D., Iannacito, M., Lenoir, J., Lin, M., Malavasi, M., Marchetto, E., Meyer, R.S., Moudry, V., Schneider, F.D., Šímová, P., Thornhill, A.H., Thouverai, E., Vicario, S., Wayne, R.K., Ricotta, C. (2021) From zero to infinity: Minimum to maximum diversity of the planet by spatio-parametric Rao’s quadratic entropy. Global Ecology and Biogeography 30: 1153–1162. DOI: 10.1111/geb.13270

Bajocco, S., Raparelli, E., Teofili, T., Bascietto, M., Ricotta C. (2019) Text Mining in Remotely Sensed Phenology Studies: A Review on Research Development, Main Topics, and Emerging Issues. Remote Sensing 11: 2751. DOI: 10.3390/rs11232751

Rocchini, D., Marcantonio, M., Da Re, D., Chirici, G., Galluzzi, M., Lenoir, J., Ricotta, C., Torresani, M., Ziv, G. (2019) Time-lapsing biodiversity: An open source method for measuring diversity changes by remote sensing. Remote Sensing of Environment 231: 111192. DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2019.05.011

Torresani, M., Rocchini, D., Sonnenschein, R., Zebisch, M., Marcantonio, M., Ricotta, C., Tonon G. (2019) Estimating tree species diversity from space in an alpine conifer forest: The Rao’s Q diversity index meets the spectral variation hypothesis. Ecological Informatics 52: 26-34. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoinf.2019.04.001

Bajocco, S., Ferrara, C., Alivernini, A., Bascietto, M., Ricotta, C. (2019) Remotely-sensed phenology of Italian forests: Going beyond the species. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 74: 314-321. DOI: 10.1016/j.jag.2018.10.003

Rocchini, D., Luque, S., Pettorelli, N., Bastin, L., Doktor, D., Faedi, N., Feilhauer, H., Feret, J.B., Foody, G.M., Gavish, Y., Godinho, S., Kunin, W.E., Lausch, A., Leitao, P.J., Marcantonio, M., Neteler, M., Ricotta, C., Schmidtlein, S., Vihervaara, P., Wegmann, M., Nagendra, H. (2018)  Measuring β-diversity by remote sensing: A challenge for biodiversity monitoring. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 9: 1787–1798. DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.12941

Rocchini, D., Bacaro, G., Chirici, G., Da Re, D., Feilhauer, H., Foody, G.M., Galluzzi, M., Garzon-Lopez, C.X., Gillespie, T.W., He, K.S., Lenoir, J., Marcantonio, M., Nagendra, H., Ricotta, C., Rommel, E., Schmidtlein, S., Skidmore, A.K., Van De Kerchove, R., Wegmann, M., Rugani, B. (2018)  Remotely sensed spatial heterogeneity as an exploratory tool for taxonomic and functional diversity study. Ecological Indicators 85: 983–990. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2017.09.055

Rocchini, D., Petras, V., Petrasova, A., Chemin, Y., Ricotta, C., Frigeri, A., Landa, M., Marcantonio, M., Bastin, L., Metz, M., Delucchi, L., Neteler, M. (2017) Spatio-ecological complexity measures in GRASS GIS. Computers & Geosciences 104: 166–176.  DOI: 10.1016/j.cageo.2016.05.006

Rocchini, D., Marcantonio, M., Ricotta, C. (2017) Measuring Rao’s Q diversity index from remote sensing: An open source solution. Ecological Indicators 72: 234-238. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2016.07.039

Rocchini, D., Andreo, V., Förster, M., Garzon-Lopez, C.X., Gutierrez, A.P., Gillespie, T.W., Hauffe, H.C., He, K.S., Kleinschmit, B., Mairota, P., Marcantonio, M., Metz, M., Nagendra, H., Pareeth, S., Ponti, L., Ricotta, C., Rizzoli, A., Schaab, G., Zebisch, M., Zorer, R., Neteler, M. (2015) Potential of remote sensing to predict species invasions: A modelling perspective. Progress in Physical Geography 39: 283-309. DOI: 10.1177/0309133315574659

Rocchini, D., Foody, G.M., Nagendra, H., Ricotta, C., Anand, M., He, K.S., Amici, V., Kleinschmit, B., Förster, M., Schmidtlein, S., Feilhauer, H., Ghisla, A., Metz, M., Neteler, M. (2013) Uncertainty in ecosystem mapping by remote sensing. Computers and Geosciences 50: 128-135 (Best Paper Award 2013). DOI: 10.1016/j.cageo.2012.05.022

Rocchini, D., Balkenhol, N., Carter, G.A., Foody, G.M., Gillespie, T.W., He, K.S., Kark, S., Levin, N., Lucas, K., Luoto, M., Nagendra, H., Oldeland, J., Ricotta, C., Southworth, J., Neteler, M. (2010) Remotely sensed spectral heterogeneity as a proxy of species diversity: Recent advances and open challenges. Ecological Informatics 5: 318-329. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoinf.2010.06.001

Rocchini, D., Ricotta, C., Chiarucci, A. (2007) Using satellite imagery to assess plant species richness: The role of multispectral systems. Applied Vegetation Science 10: 325-331

Ricotta, C., Avena, G., De Palma, A. (1999) Mapping and monitoring net primary productivity with AVHRR NDVI time-series: statistical equivalence of cumulative vegetation indices. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 54: 325-331. DOI: 10.1016/S0924-2716(99)00028-3

Ricotta, C., Avena, G.C., Volpe, F. (1999) The influence of principal component analysis on the spatial structure of a multispectral dataset. International Journal of Remote Sensing 20: 3367-3376