Attività

Our research deals with different aspects of Forest Science, including silviculture and ecology of mountain forests, restoration ecology, wildfire modelling and fire ecology, and biomass and timber production.

Areas of Scientific Expertise

Silviculture and ecology of mountain forests

Managing forests for the provision of ecosystem services, with special reference to protection from gravitational hazards; upper treeline dynamics and impact of land use change on forest growth and establishment; forest-wildlife relationships; impact of climate change and natural disturbances by means of dendrochronology, species distribution modeling, and forest dynamics modeling at the stand and landscape scale.

European old-growth forests and long-term ecological research (LTER)

Competition, regeneration, and mortality in old-growth forests and in forests that have been withdrawn from regular management; quantity, quality and ecological role of coarse woody debris; tree retention to promote biodiversity and old-growth features in managed forests; natural and anthropogenic disturbance regimes, disturbance interactions, post-disturbance dynamics, and management of forests affected by stand-replacing disturbances.

Restoration ecology and Natura 2000 sites

Restoration of artificial forest stands and degraded sites; effects of land-use change; monitoring and controlling of alien invasive species; restoration of fragmented forest habitats; forest management to promote the habitat of endangered animal species.

Wildfire modelling

Lab and field fire experiments in Alpine and Mediterranean vegetation to model fire danger, fuel characteristics, fire behavior and ecological effects.

Prescribed burning

Planning, realization and analysis of prescribed burning experiments for fire hazard abatement, grazing management and nature conservation; informing fire use prescriptions in conifer and broadleaved forests, shrublands and grasslands.

Fire ecology

Research on the ecological role of wildfire and the impact of the foreseen changes in fire regimes in the Alps and Mediterranean as a consequence of climate and land use changes; post-fire restoration techniques to inform forest management.

Biomass and timber production

Best practices for the establishment and management of short rotation forestry (SRF) with poplar, willow and black locust, and valuable broadleaves.

Valorizing wood as a raw material and its derived products

Product and process innovation; classification, certification and performance analysis for supporting technical standardization; forest-wood-building-energy chain oriented at local sustainable development; wood-based composites for acoustic improvement; models for multipurpose use of forest resources at the regional scale; adaptation of solid wood elements produced with national species to the current regulations on wood structural use; demonstrative structures to illustrate the potential of local wood products in the construction sector.

Research Facilities

• Dendrochronology lab: sanding machines, LINTAB for tree-ring measurement
• Fire ecology lab: oven, high precision scales, climatic chamber
• Wood technology lab: optical and stereo microscopes, microtome, impedance tube, woodworking and testing machines
• Field sites for fire experiments
• Long-term ecological research sites (30 georeferenced 1-ha sites with repeated tree measures across the Alps and Balkans)
• Field equipment to measure fire behavior (thermocouples; weather station)
• Field equipment for dendroecological sampling (borers, tree calipers, measuring tapes, Vertex® hypsometers, relascope, Fieldmap® total station and software, GPS units, fisheye lens)

Research Group

• G. Bovio
• Creminini
• Marzano
• Minotta
• R. Motta
• Nosenzo
• R. Zanuttini