Concept of greenhouse effect. The extent of climate change. Entity of responses from the major ecosystems. Mitigation and adaptation strategies for climate change. Tools and methodologies for studying the impact of climate change and the mitigation and adaptation strategies
Lessons notes
Didactic material edit by the Professor
Fift Assessment Report of IPCC (WGI, WGII and WGIII), 2013
Learning Objectives
Knowledge acquired: Tools and methodologies to study the role of climate change on ecosystems management
Competence acquired (at the end of the course): elements characterizing the role that climate change will have on ecosystems and the strategies that will have to adopt to manage climate change (mitigation and adaptation strategies)
Skills acquired (at the end of the course): analysis of the problems determined by climate change in the next years in the management of the main agricultural, natural and forest ecosystems; use of the principal tools for determining the response of ecosystems to climate change and for developing strategies to minimise the damages.
Prerequisites
Teaching Methods
Total hours of the course: 150 (= 6 x 25)
Hours reserved to private study and other individual formative activities: 102
Contact hours for: Lectures (hours): 24
Frequency of lectures and practices: recommended
Teaching tools: software open-source
Type of Assessment
Exam modality: test on the subjects of lectures
Course program
LECTURES.
Concept of greenhouse effect. Role in the thermal regime. Atmosphere constituents having a role in greenhouse effect. Effect on the radiative budget. Feedback phenomena
The extent of climate change. Changes observed in terms of temperature, precipitation and other socio-economic parameters. Economic, demographic and social future scenarios. Climatic variations previewed for the next decades at various spacial and temporal retail.
Entity of responses from the major ecosystems. Concepts of exposure, sensibility, impact, adaptation capability, vulnerability. Impacts already observed and expected in the coming decades in terms of responses from the major ecosystems at both global and local scale. Identification of the most vulnerable areas and ecosystems.
Mitigation and adaptation strategies for climate change. Definition of mitigation concept. The role of the ecosystems in carbon and nitrogen budget. Major sources of emissions of CO2, CH4 and NxO by ecosystems. Identification of the main mitigation strategies and quantification of potentiality. Definition of adaptation concept. Economic and environmental adaptation strategies. Short-term and long-term adjustments. Interactions between mitigation and adaptation strategies. Factors limiting the introduction of adaptation and mitigation strategies.
Tools and methodologies for studying the impact of climate change and the mitigation and adaptation strategies. General circulation models of the atmosphere. Systems for the analysis of vegetal ecosystems in high CO2 concentration. Simulation models of the main bio-physical processes.
TRAINING COURSES and SEMINARS:
Training courses on the instruments described during the lessons. 2 technical seminars conducted by experts.