Selvicoltura - Forestry and Wood

Silviculture and Forest Ecology - Arezzo

Lab activities are focused on assessing the relationships between forest management and silviculture, climatic factors and ecophysiological attributes and processes in forest ecosystems (stand structure and functionality, stand development, growth, natural evolution patterns, forest resistance and resilience, ecosistem yields and carbon stocks). Further researchers were focused on identifying the relationships between forest dynamics and wildlife population patterns, with specific references on wild ungulates. 

The lab equipments include tools for assessing forest yields and productivity, characterizing canopy and stand architecture, plant ecophysiology, climatic and site conditions. 

The target variables are: 

• Aboveground biomass production and its partitioning (leaves, branches, stem, litter) 
• Litterfall production and its partitioning (seeds, husks, leaves, twigs, branches  flowers) 
• Leaf are index (LAI) and other canopy structural attributes 
• Total solar radiation and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) 
• Soil water content, air and soil temperature 
• Stomal conductance, transpiration and xylematic water potential 

Contact persons: 

Francesco Chianucci (optical canopy instruments) 

Andrea Cutini (litterfall data and tools) 

Paolo Cantiani (silviculture and forest structure research)