Evaluating the Effects of Environmental Changes on the Gross Primary Production of Italian Forests

DISAFRI, Universita della Tuscia, Via S. Camillo de Lellis, 01100, Viterbo, Italy; E-Mails: anna.barbati@unitus.it (A.B.); piermaria.corona@unitus.it (P.C.). * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: maselli@ibimet.cnr.it; Tel.: +39-055-522-6024; Fax: +39-055-444-083. Received: 15 October 2009; in revised form: 6 November 2009 / Accepted: 16 November 2009 / Published: 19 November 2009 Abstract: A ten-year data-set descriptive of Italian forest gross primary production (GPP) has been recently constructed by the application of Modified C-Fix, a parametric model driven by remote sensing and ancillary data. That data-set is currently being used to develop multivariate regression models which link the inter-year GPP variations of five forest types (white fir, beech, chestnut, deciduous and evergreen oaks) to seasonal values of temperature and precipitation. The five models obtained, which explain from 52% to 88% of the inter-year GPP variability, are then applied to predict the effects of expected environmental changes (+2 °C and increased CO

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