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Beano

cropland

46°00’12.40 N 13°01’34.7 E 19 m asl

Site description

An agricultural field of 13.3 ha was selected N-E Italy in the late fall of 2006. In this field, irrigated maize (Zea mays L.) was cultivated during the last thirty years and the soil was tilled using a winter plow to a depth of 0.35 m and a spring soil preparation (5 cm) prior to sowing. At the beginning of the experiment (December 2006) the study area was divided into two sections so to obtain an eastern area of 8.6 ha and a western area of 4.7 ha. Maize was cultivated in the East field. Instead, the West field was converted to fodder alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), with a late winter (February 2007) plowing at 0.35 m (thereafter corn-alfalfa, C-A).

Soil

The 0-30 cm soil layer has the following characteristics: total SOC = 48.4 t C ha-1, total N = 4.2 t N ha-1, soil bulk density = 1.25 g cm-3, soil field capacity = 23 %v/v, wilting point = 12 %v/v and pH = 7.1. Sand = 27%, silt = 58%, Clay = 15%. Strong C4 signal.

Measurements

Description	time-step
precipitation	half-hourly
global or short wave incoming radiation	half-hourly
reflected or short wave outgoing radiation	half-hourly
long wave incoming radiation	half-hourly
long wave outgoing radiation	half-hourly
net radiation	half-hourly
photosynthetic photon flux density	half-hourly
reflected photosynthetic photon flux density	half-hourly
light interception	half-hourly
air temperature	half-hourly
pressure	half-hourly
canopy radiative temperature	half-hourly
bole temperature	half-hourly
soil temperature superficial (5 cm)	half-hourly
soil temperature medium (15 cm)	half-hourly
soil temperature deep (20 cm)	half-hourly
soil water content superficial (0-20 cm)	half-hourly
soil heat flux	half-hourly
relative humidity	half-hourly
Wind direction	half-hourly
Wind horizontal speed	half-hourly
CO2 concentration	half-hourly
H2O concentration	half-hourly
Ecosystem NEE	half-hourly
Sensible heat	half-hourly
Latent heat	half-hourly
Momentum	half-hourly
Friction velocity	half-hourly
Total soil respiration	two-hours
Heterotrophic respiration	two-hours
Growth analysis (total biomass, above below ground biomass, LAI)	periodically
Soil carbon content	periodically
N2O and CH4 soil flux	periodically
Nitrates	periodically

Treatments within the CARBO-Extreme project

land use change from continuous maize to alfalfa ; reduced tillage

An eddy-covariance flux tower was installed in August 2006 in each field (tilled maize and alfalfa) to assess mass, momentum and energy ecosystem exchanges. For each crop (maize and alfalfa, till and no till), three replicates (10x10 m) were established to study C dynamics, crop growth, biomass partitioning and soil respiration. Continuous soil respiration measurements were performed every two hours using three automated soil respiration systems. A detailed description of the system is reported in Delle Vedove et al. (2007).

Plotsize (m2)	Soil respiration: 10x10 m; 3 replicates for each treatment; Eddy: >4 ha
Period the data are available for	2006-2007-2008-2009

Related projects

• NitroEurope
• CarboItaly

Pictures

Contact

Alessandro Peressotti
peressotti@uniud.it

Giorgio Alberti
alberti@uniud.it

Ilaria Inglima
ilaria.inglima@uniud.it

web page of the experimental site

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