Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
which 85.6 % are forests. The climate is Mediterranean Type humid sub humid
with an average yearly rainfall of 780 mm and an air temperature of 15.6 °C.
The forest structure is characterized by two layers: a dominant layer of
Quercus
ilex
L. 12-15 m high and a shrub layer, 2-4 m high, with
Phillirea latifolia
L.
Pistacia lentiscus
L.,
Erica arborea
L.,
Cistus salvifolius
L.,
Cistus incanus
L.,
Cytisus scoparius
L., and some vines (
Clematis flammula
L.,
Hedera helix
L.,
Rubia peregrina
L.,
Smilax aspera
L.). Large trees over 100 years old, and up
to 17 m high and 170 cm in diameter, represent only 1 % of the stand. LAI is
in between 3.2 and 3.8. The herbaceous layers are represented by
Brachipodium
sylvaticum
(Hudson) Beav.,
Cyclamen repandum
Sibth et Sm.,
Carex distachya
Desf.,
Asperula laevigata
L., and
Alliaria petiolata
Bieb. The current
Q. ilex
forest
represent a secondary succession after a fire destroyed the area in 1944. In 1985
the stand was converted from coppice into high forest.
The morphology of the reserve is mostly flat with altitudes ranging between 0 and
85 m.a.s.l. The soil is 40-60 cm deep with a pH 5.8 and the profile of the experiment
is type A-C, with a fairly deep, well draining A horizon, rich in humus and calcium
carbonate. The soil is sandy (75.2 % coarse sand, 11.2 % fine sand, 3.7 % coarse silt,
2.2 % fine silt, and 6.7 % clay). The soil organic matter is 3.4 % between 0 and 20 cm
and 1.1 % between 20 and 40 cm. Organic carbon is 1.9 % in the organic horizon with
a C/N ratio of 66 and is 0.65 % with a C/N ratio of 100 in other mineral Horizons.
The climate is characterized by a dry season extending for 4 months, from the
beginning of May to the end of August. Water deficit during the dry seasons is
406 mm, while excess rainfall in other seasons is 410 mm. The scattered low sum-
mer rains are offset by high night humidity, which over a period of 10-15 days can
contribute to 0.2-0.8 mm of precipitation.
2.2.8 Collelongo (IT-Col)
The experimental site is located near the village of Collelongo, Abruzzo region, in
central Italy, close to the external belt of the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park.
The Selva Piana forest stand (41.84936° N; 13.58814° E, 1,560 m.a.s.l.) belongs to a
3,000 ha forest community which is part of a wider forest area. The environmental and
structural conditions of the stand are representative of central Apennines beech for-
ests. The site was established in 1991 to study ecology and silviculture of Apenninian
beech (
Fagus sylvatica
L.) forest. In 1993, the site was the first European forest to be
instrumented to measure ecosystem level fluxes with Eddy Covariance (Valentini et al.
1996
). In 1995-1996, the area became an ICP-Forests level II and an ICP-IM moni-
toring plot (
http://icp-forests.net/
). Since 2006, the site has become one of the main
stations of the Long-Term Ecological Research site “Forests of the Apennine”. Over
the years, the site was included in several EU and national research, monitoring and
environmental projects. It is a pure beech forest with 830 trees ha
−
1
, with an average
diameter of 22 cm and an average height of 21.5 m. The average tree age is approxi-
mately 120 years (2011). LAI ranges between 4.5 and 6.2 (1992-2011). Aboveground
