Una Nuova area sperimentale di lungo termine, per lo studio degli effetti dell'incremento della temperatura e del periodo di aridità in formazioni di sclerofille mediterranee

A new long-term experimental area for studying the effects of climate warming and seasonal drought on a Mediterranean shrubland community. Global changes, such as land use changes, altered atmosphere composition, and climate changes, have been altering the functioning of ecosystems with possible impacts on the degree of biodiversity. Temperature and water availability are the two main determinants of the functional processes of terrestrial ecosystems. Climatic changes could have strong effects on vulnerable ecosystems as Mediterranean shrublands/garrigue/maquis, where the growth and survival of the plants are strictly dependent on the drought and to the high summer temperature. Furthermore, other pressures, such as grazing and wildfires, occur frequently in the Mediterranean area. In order to assess the impacts of the temperature increase and precipitation reduction on Mediterranean shrublands, a new experimental area was established in Sardinia at the Porto Conte forest, Alghero (SS). A system of automatic roofs covers 6 experimental plots (20 m2), in order to simulate an increase of temperature during the night (3 plots) or to intercept the precipitations during a 2-3 months period (3 plots). Three additional plots are used as control. All the observations were conducted in other five European shrubland ecosystems, according to common protocols developed in the context of the European project VULCAN (www.vulcanproject.com). The studies of the different ecological and physiological processes are organised in working packages (Plant, Soil, Fauna, Water) and integrated in a risk assessments evaluation. The aim of this paper is to analyse the first two years of data, to demonstrate the microclimatic modifications induced by the experimental system.