11 years of limnological research in the Gran Paradiso National Park (GPNP, Torino, Italy): between research and conservation

Established in 1921, the Gran Paradiso National Park (Western Italian Alps, Torino) is the oldest protected area in Italy and one of the oldest in the world. During its nearly century-old history it was able to conserve most of the terrestrial alpine biodiversity and have the invaluable merit of having saved from extinction the Alpine ibex (Capra ibex), the symbol of the GPNP as well as of the alpine wilderness. However in the last decades, at a local level, most of the dangers to the integrity of the GPNP biodiversity derived from exploitation and mismanagement of water resources (e.g. dams and connected infrastructures construction, rivers channelization, alien fish introductions, water eutrophication). To address these relatively new conservation issues the GPNP had to fill a gap in its body of knowledge. In 2006 a long term monitoring campaign of alpine lakes began, starting a 11-years long research season on aquatic ecosystems, which turned out to influence the conservation policies of the GPNP. In the following years (1) the participation of the GPNP as a partner of the EU financed FP7 ACQWA (Assessing Climate Impacts on the Quantity and Quality of Water) project, (2) the obtainment of an important co-financing within the LIFE+ Project BIOAQUAE (Biodiversity Improvement Of Alpine Aquatic Ecosystems, www.bioaquae.eu), as well as (3) the collaboration with an increasing number of research centers and universities, fueled for a long time (2008-2017) the research and conservation activities in aquatic habitats. The most prominent characteristic of the limnological research carried out in the GPNP is its strong connection to applied conservation issues, often providing feasible indications which convinced the GPNP authorities to take the path of active conservation. The BIOAQUAE project and its conservation actions (the eradication of alien fish from alpine lakes, the re-oligotrophication of aquatic habitats through the use of phyto-depuration plans, and the conservation actions for the Marble trout Salmo marmoratus) represent a first important achievement of this new attitude of GPNP towards the conservation of aquatic environments. At the same time the long-term limnological studies are progressively creating a database of ecological variables which will provide a reference against which to quantify the effects of the global change, inevitably affecting the protected area. The aim of this presentation is to tell about the history of the limnological research and of its achievements in the GPNP as an example of integration between biodiversity conservation and scientific research, in a protected area which is just an hour's drive from the conference venue.