LFU:online

The students are expected: -To recognize the past present land use types in mountain areas in a historical perspective. -To recognize the main resources and conditions influencing plant growth. -To understand and assess the multiple ecosystem services. To be able to quantify the different variables influencing mountain agricultural systems in the viewpoint of an efficient, sustainable agriculture. -To be able of organize simple experiments in order to quantify plant and animal impacts on the environment. -To be able to conceive scenarios with modifications in land use and climate in order to be able to take actions for the optimization of the ecosystem services in a changing world.

-The mountain landscapes as affected by historical land use. Near-natural woods, thickets and pastures at high elevation ranges. Formations created and maintained by human activities.

-The limiting factors influencing mountain and alpine plants establishment and growth. Specificity of cultivations in mountain ranges.

-The animal and human-induced impacts on ecosystem functioning.. Agricultural production, biodiversity and multiple ecosystem services in mountain areas. Composting and bioremediation.

-The application of the concept of ecosystem in the study of biotic/abiotic interactions. The solar radiation and the atmosphere. The Liebig’s law and the limiting factors. Favourable and unfavourable, direct and indirect biotic interactions.

-The energy budget and its quantification. The available energy, the albedo, the Stefan-Boltzmann law. -The hydrological budget and its quantification, with special reference to evapotranspiration. The Penman-Monteith equation.

-The carbon budget and its quantification. The net ecosystem production and the net ecosystem carbon balance.

-The Nitrogen cycle -

The measurement and modelling of ecosystem properties and functions: direct measurements, proximal sensing and remote sensing.

-The measurements of matter and energy exchange at leaf and canopy level. Reflectance indices. Fluorescence based estimates of vegetation activity. Biogeochemical modelling. Model-data fusion.

Frontal lectures with PowerPoint presentation slides. Practical lessons during field excursions, laboratory and computational activities are also foreseen.

oral

Recent scientific literature, online material of the presentations given during the lectures and didactic material for the exercises will be provided. In addition, required formative readings are: Vegetation Ecology of Central Europe, 4th Edition, Heinz H. Ellenberg, Cambridge University Press, 2009. Alpine Plant Life, Functional Plant Ecology of High Mountain Ecosystems; Christian Körner, Elsevier, 2003. Principles of Environmental Physics, Plants, Animals, and the Atmosphere, Fourth Edition. John L. Monteith and Mike H. Unsworth. Academic Press, 2013.

Gemeinsame Vorbesprechung für alle Studierenden im Master Environmental Management of Mountain Areas (EMMA) am 5.10.2020, 08:30 - 09:00, online:   teilnehmen