Roma 13/02/2018

Roma 13/02/2018

Monitoring climate change effects on forestry and agroforestry ecosystems

Giuseppe Scarascia-MugnozzaUniversity of Tuscia, Viterbo

Roma 13/02/2018

Welcome to the Anthropocene

Starting from 1950

our planet Earth has

entered a new

geological era, the Anthropocene

Global environmental changes

A “global experiment” never occurredbefore

Land use change

Increase of [CO2] (and otherGHG, NOx, CH4) in the atmosphere

Atmospheric [CO2]

300

310

320

330

340

350

360

370

380

1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

years

ppm

v

Climate change

Agro-ecosystems, Forests and Oceans are impacted by

“global change”, but are also part of the solution as they

can contribute substantially to mitigation

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The role of the Biosphere (ex. forestsand oceans) is highly relevant, contributing up to 50% to the

mitigation of greenhouse gasesemissions

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Biophysical assessment:

24.7 Mln ton x 0.5 ton C/ton biomass 12.4 Mln ton C

Economic evaluation (present value of a Carbon credit ≈ 20 €/ton C):

12.4 Mln ton C x 20 € ≈ 250 Mln €

Ecosystem service:

C-absorption by Italian forests (Carbon sink)

Importance of environmental

services of forests: up to 2 Billions €

for C-sequestration in Italy in the last

few years (INFC 2015)

The Forest issue has never been so

popular in media, intergovernmental

summits and in global economy,

as today

Relevant ecosystem services provided by

Mediterranean forests & trees!

Landscape, recreation, cultural services: 246 Mln tourists

per year (most important industry in Mediterranean region)

Water production: up to 75% of water from forest basins

Mitigation: forests sequester ca. 50 Mln ton C per year

Soil protection from erosion and landslides

Urban forests remove O3 and PM 10,5 for better air quality

C-flux measuring station in forest

meteo/deposition station out of forest

Equipments for monitoring forest-air GHG fluxes

Annual trend of C-absorption/emission by forests (NEE)

-10

-8

-6

-4

-2

0

2

4

1 31 61 91 121 151 181 211 241 271 301 331 361

Giorno dell'anno 2007

NE

Ed

ay (

gC

m-2

yr-

1)

-700

-600

-500

-400

-300

-200

-100

0

100

200

NE

Ecu

m (

gC

m-2

)

Validation by direct measurements of biomass

Biomass below-ground

Soil organic Carbon

Biomass above-ground

LiDAR: animazione

Presentation of «Laboratorio pubblico-privato ALForLab» project PON, in Calabria (Italy)

Network CarboEurope-IP: ecosystems C-budget

103 Sites for Eddy fluxes

50 forests

28 grasslands

22 agricultural crops

3 others

12 Sites validations

Central database

Global network FLUXNET 2004

Fluxnet-Canada

Ameriflux

LBA

CarboAfrica

Carboeurope TCOS

Asiaflux

Ozflux

Chinaflux

ICOS – The European Infrastructure on Carbon Observatory

ICOS-ERIC has been officially established in November 2015, the first GeneralAssembly met in December. ICOS-ERIC Director nominated and sites labellingstarted. ERIC members: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway,Sweden, Czech Republic, Denmark, UK and Finland, with Switzerland as observer.

The ICOS Ecosystem Thematic Center is coordinated by Italy (CMCC and Universityof Tuscia) and located in Viterbo. Two additional ETC offices/labs are France (INRABordeaux) and Belgium (University of Antwerp). It has the coordination and dataprocessing role. All the measurements are standardized and produced Near RealTime (one day).

ICOS ecosystem network

Near real time CO2 fluxes (last 10 days)

www.icos-etc.eu

(Alkama & Cescatti, 2016)

In 2003–2012, forest cover

loss caused a biophysical

warming on land by about

18% (mainly in arid and

semi-arid areas)

Forests have relevant influence on local climate

(Penuelas et al., 2017; Zhao & Running, 2010)

Shift from a period dominated by the

positive effects of fertilization to a

period characterized by negative

impacts of climate change.

But….high temperatures and drought by CC greatly impact on the role of forest as Carbon sink

Likelihood of climate change impacts

• Ensemble of 20 LPJ simulations (A1B up to 2050)

• Adopting IPCC likelihood terminology

Santini M., Collalti A., Valentini R. (Regional Environmental Change, 2014)

NPP

runoff

C loss by fires

In the Mediterranean region most important effects of Climate Change expected

on water scarcity and forest fires

Geo-engineering: plantation and minimal irrigation of trees and forests may cause a positive impact on regional climate (-4°/-8°C on mean air temperatures)

Green dream (ScienceNOW Daily News 2009)Green Great Wall (FAO 2015)

(Ornstein et al., Climatic Change 2009)

Great Green Wall Initiative in Sahel and Sahara by AUC, FAO, EU, UN-CCD, WB & many others

Phytotechnologies use trees and shrubs to restore degraded environments andresources (i.e. soil and water); financed by Italian Cooperation and ItalianMinistry of Environment

In different sites, we developed an integrated approach to reduce water pollution (treating the wastewater by constructed wetland) and to promote land rehabilitation (planting trees according to amultipurpose scheme and local needs).

PHYTOTECHNOLOGIES IN SOUTH-MEDITERRANEAN (Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia)

Projects sponsors

Université de Mascara

Scientific & technical partners

Oasis of Brezina (Algeria)Forest plantation with water flowing from phyto-remediation plant

(Cupressus sempervirens, Elaeagnus angustifolia , Medicago arborea)

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• Important role of forest and agroforestry systems in C-mitigation as well as direct climatic effects

• Consider the socio-ecological implications of mitigation/adaptation: go landscape!

• Economic relevance of ecosystem services by forests

• But…..absolute need for monitoring future impacts of changing climate on forest/agroforestry ecosystems

• International cooperation is a priority!

Synthesis

Thanks to you!

AcknowledgementsPaolo De Angelis, Università della Tuscia

Alberto Del Lungo, FAO

Alessio Collalti, CMCC

Mauro Centritto, CNR

Giorgio Matteucci, CNR

Mauro Maesano, CNR