Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
the stepwise are springtime temperature, precipitation during CUP and radiation.
The strong control of climate on EBF has been already reported in a study which
showed the effects of hydrological and climatic drivers on a Mediterranean oak
forest (Delpierre et al.
2012
).
To summarize, the analysis of the relationship between annual NEE and CUP
showed that Italian sites sensitivity to CUP variation ranges from
−
2.97 0.64
to
−
3.80 0.56 g C m
−
2
yr
−
1
day
−
1
. EBF and GRA are the PFT with the higher
portion of inter annual and spatial NEE variability explained by CUP.
Considering the relationship between annual NEE and climate variable, this
analysis showed that studies focusing on the relationship between climate and
inter annual variations of NEE should concentrate on the variability of climate var-
iables in particular periods of the seasons rather than on the average climate.
2.5 Conclusions
The Eddy Covariance network of Italy provided a great opportunity for a better
understanding of the carbon cycle and interaction between ecosystems and atmos-
phere. In addition, beside the unique collection of measurements that are today
available to the benefit of the global scientific community, it has been possible to
analyse the relations between NEE and main environmental factors, highlighting
the importance of the growing season length and the role of specific climatic vari-
ables (mainly temperature and precipitation) in particular periods.
Although the CarboItaly project offering the opportunity to build-up the Italian
network has now ended, the teams involved are still trying to do their best in order
to continue the measurements collection in the belief that only a long term moni-
toring activity can provide the basis for an in-depth analysis of how ecosystems
will react to climate changes and what their role can be. The importance of these
measurements is also confirmed by the construction of the ESFRI (European
Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures) infrastructure ICOS—Integrated
Carbon Observing System (
www.icos-ri.eu
)
that will maintain Eddy Covariance
sites running across Europe for the next 20 years.
2.6 The Big Effort of Maintaining the Network
and Acknowledgments
The maintenance of a network of Eddy Covariance sites like the one described in
this chapter has an enormous cost mainly in terms of personnel to be dedicated to
the different sites and database. Equipments selection and setup, sensors calibra-
tion and control, data collection, data screening, fluxes calculation, database man-
agement and additional QA/QC are all fundamental steps that require high level
of expertise and preparation. The CarboItaly project provided the broad scientific
