Gabriella BUFFA

Position
Full Professor
Telephone
041 234 7738 / Lab. 7739
E-mail
buffag@unive.it
Scientific sector (SSD)
Botanica sistematica [BIOS-01/B]
Website
www.unive.it/people/buffag (personal record)
Office
Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics
Website: https://www.unive.it/dep.dais
Where: Campus scientifico via Torino
Room: office Z.C23 (Zeta C building)
Research Institute
Research Institute for Green and Blue Growth
Research Institute
Research Institute for Complexity
Safety Role
Preposto di Laboratorio
Responsabile dell’Attività di Didattica e Ricerca in Laboratorio (RDRL)

She is Full Professor of Botany at the Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, where she teaches Plant Biology and Landscape Ecological Planning and Design. She graduated from the University of Padua, where she also began her academic career as a permanent lecturer. She has been a visiting scholar at the Institute of Integrative Nature Conservation Research (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria), and a visiting researcher at the Conservatoire Botanique National de Bailleul (France), the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain), and the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain).

Her research activity focuses on the study of terrestrial ecosystems, with the aim of contributing to the understanding, conservation, and management of biodiversity across different levels of organization, from species diversity to community diversity and up to the landscape scale. Particular attention is devoted to plant organisms, the complex interactions they establish with the environment and other organisms, and their role in maintaining ecosystem functioning. Her research adopts an integrated approach, combining multiple spatial and temporal scales and complementary methodologies, including vegetation science, functional ecology, conservation ecology, and restoration ecology. This approach is aimed at interpreting ecological processes in relation to both natural environmental gradients and anthropogenic pressures.

Her main research lines include:

  • Analysis of the structure, functions, and dynamics of terrestrial plant communities and landscapes;
  • Investigation of ecological interactions, particularly plant–pollinator networks, across different levels of biodiversity organization;
  • Assessment of the effects of environmental pressures and land-use changes on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning;
  • Planning and monitoring of green infrastructure and Nature-based Solutions for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services;
  • Development, implementation, and evaluation of restoration interventions for degraded ecosystems, in line with the objectives of the EU Restoration Law;
  • Study of invasion dynamics of alien species and their impacts on native biodiversity, with particular reference to coastal ecosystems.

She is involved in several national and international research projects, including the LIFE REDUNE project on the restoration of coastal dune systems (Project Coordinator), the LIFE PollinAction project aimed at developing green infrastructure in urban and rural areas to support pollination services (Project Coordinator), and the PRIN PNRR BeeVol project (partner), which focuses on assessing the effects of climate variability on honeybee colonies.