67478 - Agroclimatology And Experimental Methodology

Course contents

Prerequisites
The student is required to know the basics of agrometeorology, knowledge of the main agro-meteorological quantities and their processing, the basics of climatology. These notions are usually taught in agrometeorology courses, but they are not present in all undergraduate courses, or as part of the courses of agronomy.

The student will have attended a basic course in statistics during the three-year degree, obtaining the necessary knowledge for data analysis using descriptive and inferential statistics. The beginning of this part of the course will be dedicated to a review of the main topics of basic statistics, which are necessary for the understanding of the topics that will be discussed later.

The course of AGROCLIMATOLOGY AND EXPERIMENTAL METHODOLOGY basically consists of two parts, a first part of Agrometeorology and a second of Experimental methodology and Data processing. At the end of the course students will know the main environmental factors and their interactions with agricultural, forest and natural ecosystems, will be able to perform measurements, knowing the instruments and how to evaluate the data; know how to calculate water and energy budgets. They also will be able to organize a scientific experiment in the field or laboratory and to evaluate the results.

Contents of the first part of the course: AGROCLIMATOLOGY

1) Instrumentation and use of instruments for the measurement of the main environmental factors (radiation, temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, precipitation). For each variable the main measuring instruments, mechanical and electronic, are described, so that the student will understand the principles of operation. The main methods of data recording are discussed. The main data processing, depending on the type of data recorded are also described. At the end of this part practice will be done in the field and / or laboratory, during which an agrometeorological station is mounted, some sensors are connected to a data logger, and put into operation.

2) Radiative and energy balances applied to different ecosystems, estimation and measurement of components. Solar radiation and its laws, data processing.

3) Evaporation and evapotranspiration, methods of direct measurement, estimating equations, the Penman-Monteith equation. Crop coefficients and stress coefficients applied to the calculation of actual evapotranspiration.

4) Hydrological cycle and water balance, at local and territorial level, relationships with energy balance.

5) Micrometeorology.

6) Climatology and agroclimatology, climate change, impacts of climate change in agriculture, adaptation and mitigation.

7) Introduction to modeling in agriculture.

8) Statistical basis of GIS. 

Contents of the second part of the course, EXPERIMENTAL METHODOLOGY:

i. Elements of basic statistics: descriptive statistics, population and samples, comparison between samples.

ii. Hypothesis tests, Student's t.

iii. Non-parametric tests.

iv. Analysis of variance: principles and calculation. Conditions of validity of ANOVA. Post ANOVA tests.

v. Experiment planning and experimental schemes.

vi. Simple linear regression and correlation.

vii. Acquisition and management of information sources. Climatic data, hydrological and biological processes. Quality of the data, main methods. Estimation of missing data.

viii. Mathematical-statistical treatment of weather and climate data.

ix. Sensitivity analysis of the models.

In the course of this part are carried out exercises in a computer room, during which statistical exercises are performed on the arguments just discussed, using the additional component of Excel "Data Analysis", which is easily available to all students and sufficient to solve all the problems presented.

At the end of the course there will be a workshop on the monitoring of agroecosystems, showing a practical example of monitoring, which integrates all the topics studied.

Readings/Bibliography

- Monteith, Unsworth: Principle of Environmental Physics, Arnold, 1990.

- Campbell, Gaylon S. / Norman, John M. (eds.): An Introduction to Environmental Biophysics. Springer, New York 1998.

- A Monti. 2005. Metodologia statistica per la sperimentazione agronomica. Aspetti generali. ARACNE Editrice.

- slides from the classes

 

Teaching methods

The course consists of theoretical lectures, practical exercises in the field or in the laboratory, during which agrometeorological instruments are shown, and exercises in the computer lab, during which statistical exercises are solved using Excel.

The course is part of the AGROCLIMATOLOGY, EXPERIMENTAL METHODOLOGY AND PHYSICAL SOIL (CI) - AGROCLIMATOLOGY AND EXPERIMENTAL METHODOLOGY along with the following other teaching: SOIL PHYSICS.

 

The course is also part of the course  66106 - MONITORING AND ANALYSIS OF SOIL-WATER SYSTEM (CI) - EXPERIMENTAL METHODOLOGY AND DATA ANALYSIS of the course 8532 - DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT OF AGRO-ECOSYSTEMS TERRITORIAL, FORESTRY AND THE LANDSCAPE, which consist of 5 credits. For these students, the program includes all the points listed above except the numbers 3, 5 and v.

Assessment methods

Verification of learning takes place through a final exam, which ensures the acquisition of the knowledge and skills expected through the carrying out of a written test. This lasts 2 hours without the aid of notes or books, and is followed by an oral examination.

The written examination consists of 6 questions, three of which refer to the part of agrometeorology and agroclimatology, while the other three are questions are related to experimental methodology. In both cases, these are open questions. Each question allows to obtain a maximum of 5 points. To be eligible to take the oral exam a minimum score of 18 points must be obtained in the written examination.

The oral consists of the discussion of written test.

Teaching tools

Computers and software, statistical exercises in Excel in the computer lab, projector, agro-meteorological instrumentation and dataloggers.

Office hours

See the website of Francesca Ventura