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

The course don’t have prerequisites, though the student accessing this teaching should have a of good capacity for abstract thought, got from the fundamentals of mathematics and physics.
To manage with landscape design and plant breeding, it is important to get a full understanding of ecological processes and of plant-soil-atmosphere relations and dynamics, aspects which are more and more important from a sustainability viewpoint.

The course is divided in two teaching units, a theoretical one (30 hours) and a practical one (20 hours), which intertwin to allow for the pratical sessions to consolidate concepts presented in the lectures.

Contents are listed below.

1. Terrestrial Atmosphere
- Solar radiation
- Radiation at ground

- Structure of the atmosphere
- Atmospheric umidity
- Dynamics of the atmosphere
- Meteorology
2. Environment and plants
- Evapotranspiration

- Soil structure

- Soil moisture
- Water balance and irrigation

- Autoecology: environmental factors and production
3. Applied Ecology
- Resources, organisms, habitat
- Energy, productivity, food chains and ecological niche
- Water cycle, Carbon cycle, Nitrogen cycle
- Sustainable agriculture

Practical class - the students will analyse and use sensors and instrumentations to be used in environmental analysis by a visit to a weather station and a collection of historical instruments.
The students will also learn to browse weather networks to collect weather-data, and basic data processing toto obtain climate diagrams, hydrological budgets and thermal sums.

Know-how acquired - By this course the student will obtain the appropriate language to describe environment and climate of a particular area or site, understood the main relations that rule the soil-plant-atmosphere system useful to activities of landscape management and design and plant production systems. Lab trials will allow the students to assimilate main environmental data observation and analysis techniques.

 

Readings/Bibliography

- Vitali G., Introduzione alla Fisica Ambientale, 2017, AMSACTA.unibo.it/5520 (Lang:it)

- Vitali G., Introduzione alla Fisica del Terreno, 2017, AMSACTA.unibo.it/5405 (Lang:it)

Teaching methods

The course is made of lectures intertwin with lab units, with the aim to consolidate concepts presented in theoretical lessons, in terms of language and a full understanding of basic concepts.

PPT presentations, made available at teacher's website http://greenlab.unibo.it/gv/gv-it.html, will only be used as a course baseline, while contents will be fully available in course books chapters.

Students that will not attend lessons should contact the teacher about course material.

The same should do foreign students: the teacher will supply any information on course in English

Assessment methods

The course assesment will take place by an interview aimed at discussing main contents of lectures. Evaluation will be based on main Dublin descriptors, namely subject understanding and language competence. The assessment will take place after the end of course at the published date. Students will subscribe exam lists on-line or contacting the teacher directly.

Evaluation will be communicated afterwords to the responsible of Integrated Course who will register the average score, upon request of the student.

Teaching tools

PC, video-projector, labs

Links to further information

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

Office hours

See the website of Giuliano Vitali