Forest ecology and biogeochemical cycles group
Climate change effect on ecosystems and the role of the ecosystem in mitigating climate change are some of the most actual themes of environmental research. The Trentino district area can be considered as a big outdoor laboratory for these research activities, as a result of vegetation and climate variability which can be found in this region.Research activities are focused on the interactions between vegetation canopy and the atmosphere chemical-physical layer; considering also soil structure and functionality. In particolar, energy and matter (carbon, water, nitrogen) fluxes between atmosphere and biosphere are analysed and models simulating vegetation systems and turbulent and radiative transfer are used. Those results are upscaled at a regional scale to obtain a carbon balance integrating ground data bases and remote sensing data. The interdisciplinary study on the interactions between vegetation, soil and climate is carried out also analysing the soil-canopy interaction, focusing on humus dynamics.Those activities are organized within two projects EU (DG Research, VI framework) and one project FIRS.Those studies on vegetation-soil-climate interactions lead to very interesting results both for the international scientific community (pilot projects development on carbon balance at a regional scale) and for the regional stakeholders (management optimisation, definition of guidelines for a sustainable use of forestal resources)
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