78289 - Agriculture Meteorology And Ecology

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student will know the main meteorological parameters, the concepts of interaction between plant organisms in agro-ecosystems. He will get the elements to develop analytical skills about current environmental issues of agricultural interest. In particular, the student will be able to understand measurement tools and data processing methods, as well as calculating water budgets and water requirements of sport turfs and main ornamental and landscape plants.

Course contents

Prerequisites - The student who accesses this teaching should have a of good capacity for abstract thought, good fundamentals of mathematics, physics and ecology from first year courses.
To have a student to acquire the ability to manage with landscape design, it is important to get a full understanding of the basic processes of natural systems such as atmosphere, soil and the way they interact with plants in a sustainable way. The course is divided in two teaching units, a theoretical and a practical one.

Theoretical unit (30 hours) is composed of the sections:
1. Terrestrial Atmosphere (10 hours)
- Solar radiation
- Radiation at ground

- Structure of the atmosphere
- Atmospheric umidity
- Dynamics of the atmosphere
- Meteorology

2. Soil (4 hours)

- Structure

- Hydrology
3. Environment and plants (8 hours)
- Evapotranspiration
- Water balance and irrigation

- Autoecology: environmental factors and production
4. Applied Ecology (8 hours)
- Resources, organisms, habitat
- Energy, productivity, food chains and ecological niche
- Water cycle, Carbon cycle, Nitrogen cycle
- Sustainable agriculture
Know-how acquire in Theoretical unit
By this course unit, the student will have learned the information necessary to critically analyze the environment to a proper design and maintenance of landscape.

Practical unit (20 hours) consists of two sections:
1. Environmental observation (5 hours)
This unit is based on the analysis of instrumentation used to record meteorological and soil data, showing their use by means of a visit of a collection of illustruments and of a meteorological station.
2. Computer Tutorials (15 hours)
In this section, the student will learn how to collect climatic data from measurement stations and perform basic data processing to the computer on meteorological data, to obtain graphs and hydrological budgets.

Know-how acquired in Practical unit
By this course unit, the student will approach activity related to the know-how given in the theoretical part.The student will practice with meteorological and soil records by operating the most typical processing techniques to be used to get the most significant information useful in landscape design and maintenance.

 

Readings/Bibliography

Introduzione alla Fisica Ambientale - Vitali, Giuliano (2017) p. 117. DOI 10.6092/unibo/amsacta/5520 [http://doi.org/10.6092/unibo/amsacta/5520] AlmaDL. Manuali (Lang:it)

Introduzione alla Fisica del Terreno - Vitali, Giuliano (2017), p. 170. DOI 10.6092/unibo/amsacta/2616 [http://doi.org/10.6092/unibo/amsacta/2616] AlmaDL. Manuali (Lang:it)

Ecologia Vegetale Agraria - Vazzana - 1998, Pàtron ed. Bologna(Lang:it)

Teaching methods

The course is divided into two teaching units, a theoretical and a practical one which interconnected both on contents and in lecture scheduling, details of which will be determined on the basis of the schedule of classes. The aim of the practical part will be to give the student the skills necessary to a full understanding of the theoretical information provided in the theoretical teaching unit.

PPT presentation, made available at teacher's website http://greenlab.unibo.it/gv/gv-it.html, will only be used as a course baseline. Book chapters to be studied are discussed at lesson. Students that are prevented to be present at lesson should contact the teacher for an interview about textbook and study material.

Assessment methods

The course assesment will take place by an interview aimed at discussing contents of lectures. The student may integrate the inetrview with a discussion of a written report about one of the topics covered during the lectures, to be chosen in agreement with the teacher

Teaching tools

PC, video-projector, computer lab

Links to further information

http://greenlab.unibo.it/gv/gv-it.html

Office hours

See the website of Giuliano Vitali