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Trying to Link Vegetation Units with Biomass Data: The Case Study of Italian Shrublands

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The Greenhouse Gas Balance of Italy

Part of the book series: Environmental Science and Engineering ((ENVSCIENCE))

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Abstract

Although their carbon stock is relevant in assessing the baseline for the negotiation of future agreements with respect to carbon balance, there still are few available studies concerning the biomass and the net ecosystem exchange capacity of Mediterranean shrublands. In this chapter a preliminary overview on the biomass values concerning Italian shrubland communities and/or their dominant/characteristic woody species is provided. Many useful data on above- and belowground biomass issued from investigations carried out in other Mediterranean countries and concerning plant communities, which share the same ecological, floristic and structural traits of Italian shrublands. A preliminary finding of this research is the uneven degree of knowledge concerning the different non-forest woody communities. For example, there is still no literature on the biomass of some 2/3 of all the considered phytosociological units. Besides, both the above and the below-ground biomass of many Mediterranean shrubs show a very wide range of variation as they are strongly influenced by progressive succession processes and by the nature, the intensity and the frequency of disturbance factors. Thus, direct measuring of these values for each vegetation unit and dominant woody species should be encouraged and intensified. Monitoring activities concerning biomass increase are recommended as well: as a matter of fact, at present reference data on this topic are so limited and variable that it is not possible to confidently estimate the annual growth of shrubland communities.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

    Salvatore Pasta & Tommaso La Mantia

  2. Department of Natural and Territorial Science, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy

    Serena Marras, Costantino Sirca & Donatella Spano

  3. Impacts on Agriculture, Forest and Natural Ecosystem Division (IAFENT), Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Changes (CMCC), Sassari, Italy

    Serena Marras, Costantino Sirca & Donatella Spano

  4. Impacts on Agriculture, Forest and Natural Ecosystem Division (IAFENT), Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Changes (CMCC), Viterbo, Italy

    Riccardo Valentini

Authors
  1. Salvatore Pasta
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  2. Tommaso La Mantia
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  3. Serena Marras
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  4. Costantino Sirca
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  5. Donatella Spano
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  6. Riccardo Valentini
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department for Innovation in Biological,Agro-Food and Forest System (DIBAF), Impacts on Agriculture, Forest and Natural Ecosystem Division (IAFENT), Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Changes (CMCC), University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy

    Riccardo Valentini

  2. FoxLab Institute of Biometeorology, National Research Council of Italy (CNR) and Edmund Mach Foundation, San Michele all'Adige, Italy

    Franco Miglietta

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Pasta, S., La Mantia, T., Marras, S., Sirca, C., Spano, D., Valentini, R. (2015). Trying to Link Vegetation Units with Biomass Data: The Case Study of Italian Shrublands. In: Valentini, R., Miglietta, F. (eds) The Greenhouse Gas Balance of Italy. Environmental Science and Engineering(). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32424-6_14

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