Persone PhD CandidatesXLI ciclo Caterina Sottili

XLI ciclo Caterina Sottili

1st year

Curriculum: Agricultural and Forest Engineering

Supervisor: Leonardo Conti

Email: caterina.sottili@unifi.it

Office address:  Via di San Bonaventura, 13, 50145, Firenze 

 Profile

I am Caterina Sottili, born on July 26, 1991, in Fiesole (FI). I hold a Bachelor's degree in Wildlife Science and a Master's degree in Wildlife and Environmental Science and Management, both from the University of Florence, at the Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Forestry Science and Technologies. From January 2024 to November 2025, I worked as a research fellow at the Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Forestry Science and Technologies, where I started the PhD in Sustainable Management of Agricultural, Forestry, and Food Resources, Curriculum Agricultural and Forest Engineering (IAF). I participate to the Erasmus+ Traineeship project two times, first for a period of 3 months at Mendel University, in Brno, Czech Republic, where I worked on a monitoring project of the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in the Moravian-Silesian Carpathians, (CZ), then for 3 months at Associação Transumância e Natureza, in Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo, Portugal, where I worked on a project concernig the monitoring and conservation of Red kite, Egiptian vulture, Eurasian Griffon vulture and Cinereus vulture.

Research interests and PhD project

My interests have always been focused on wildlife and environment, particularly in terms of monitoring and conservation. For my master's thesis, I also worked on Habitat Suitability Modelling (HSM) and Species Distribution Modelling (SDM), mainly using QGIS software. My PhD research investigates the Habitat suitability of the Rook (Corvus frugilegus) wintering population in Northern Italy through maximum entropy models using MaxEnt models with the aim to analyse the population (size, trend and distribution), to identify the factors that potentially influencing the habitat frequentation, to develop habitat suitability maps of the species, to identify the areas with a higher probability of species occurrence and to determine the bioclimatic factors related to climate change (particularly global warming) that could influence the migration of this species in its wintering quarters.

Papers

•  Conti, L.; Armanasco, P.; Sottili, C.; Camiciottoli, S.; Liberto, D.; Moretta, M.; Masoni, A.; Palchetti, E. Agricultural Terraced Areas in the Tuscan Archipelago (Italy): Mapping, Consistency, and Territorial Analysis. Land 2025, 14, 822.

• Conti L, Angeloni G, Masella P, Sottili C., Corti F, Camiciottoli S, Racanelli V, Spadi A, Garbati Pegna F, Parenti A. Electronic Playback Devices to Reduce Ungulates’ Attendance in an Olive Grove Farm in the Province of Florence (Italy). AgriEngineering. 2025; 7(1):20. 

• Leonardo Conti, Simona Iacobelli, Caterina Sottili, Pier Luigi Taiariol (2022). Analysis of the Rook (Corvus frugilegus) wintering population in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region (Italy) using maximum entropy models. Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia - Research in Ornithology, 92 (2): 7-20, 2022.

Conference talks and seminars

• L. Conti, R. Pinheiro Amantea, G. Santalmasi, M. Bianchi, G. Miotti, C. Sottili (2024). Camera trap data to estimate wildlife census and habitat use: preliminary results in the Dynamo Oasis (Pistoia, Italy). In: 11th European Conference on Precision Livestock Farming (ECPLF), Bologna, 9-12 settembre 2024, Alma Mater Studiorum, pp. 1814-1823, ISBN:979-12-210-6736-1

• Leonardo Conti, Simona Iacobelli, Caterina Sottili, Giovanna Piracci (2016). Studio sulla presenza della Lince Euroasiatica (Lynx lynx) sui Monti Beskydy e Javorníky (Carpazi Occidentali) mediante il fototrappolaggio. Poster - III Congresso Nazionale Fauna Problematica - Cesena, 24-26 novembre 2016.