Effects of species diversity on litter production and decomposition in Mediterranean maquis: modelling analysis
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Coordinator
Prof Stefano Mazzoleni - University of Naples "Federico II" -
Description
The relationships between species diversity and ecosystem processes have received a growing attention in recent years. Several studies on carbon cycling and decomposition have been done on single species. The results from these studies have improved the understanding of the effects on these processes by climatic conditions, litter quality, decomposers, soil factors, pollution and global warming, but the role of biodiversity remains effectively unexplained. In general, studies on mixed litters showed that their decomposition processes cannot be simply related to the dynamics of decomposition of single species litters. There is a clear need of experimental work on he effects of litter diversity in order to model the biogeochemical cycles in the soil. In particular, no such studies have been performed in Mediterranean ecosystems despite their high biodiversity and their very fine spatial grain of vegetation composition and cover. Objective of this project will be the experimental and modelling study of the primary production and decomposition processes of a Mediterranean maquis in relation to plant biodiversity. The expected results by the different research units will be used to develop a new integrated model able to simulate spatially distributed C and N fluxes. The model will be implemented on the basis of an existing model built during a previous national research programme. The simulation results will be statistically analysed by means of advanced methods including deterministic and stochastic approaches and the use of neural networks. This will make possible a model evaluation and discussion on the possible impacts of biodiversity changes on ecosystem processes at different spatial and temporal scales. Simulation exercises will be run under different scenarios of climatic and environmental conditions and different regimes of human disturbances. -
Founded by
Ministero dell'Università e delle Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica -
initial/final proposal
01/02/2006-2008 -
Staff
Stefano MAZZOLENI (internal responsable)
Francesco GIANNINO
Giuliano BUONANOMI -
Reserach associated
Plant growth modeling and vegetation dynamics
Modelling software development -
Grant amount
€ 50.000,00
