Format: ORAL

Rodolfo Gentili1, Gabriele Galasso2, Sandra Citterio1

1 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy 2 Museo di Storia Naturale di Milano, Milano, Italy

The refugium concept in biogeography, evolutionary biology and conservation science has traditionally been associated with glacial and interglacial periods. Particularly, it has been linked to regions or locations with stable climatic conditions over long time in comparison to the surrounding areas. However, over the last decades the massive global environmental changes and the increase of extinction rate of species has led to the need to identify stable areas for species with respect to different environmental factors and temporal and spatial scales. According to this view refugia are landscape elements that remain marginally affected by anthropogenic environmental factors and that subsequently can continue to support native species and community with reference to ecosystem functions, and biodiversity levels. Therefore, depending on the scale, they are location or regions resilient to disturbances and environmental changes. Recent literature has highlighted the existence of Anthropocene refugia or potential areas providing spatial and temporal shelter to species from human activities in the long-term. However, Anthropocene refugia have not been ecologically characterized which is pivotal for recognizing their role in allowing the persistence of species in context of global environmental changes. Works have emphasized the presence of different kinds of refugia for biodiversity such as urban refugia, marine refugia, biocultural refugia, dark refugia, and fire refugia. Therefore, in this work we aimed at reviewing the recent concepts of refugia over different ecological scales and to define their value for biodiversity accounting, landscape conservation and species evolution as well as identify conservation and management strategies.