Publications by authors named "Costantino Sirca"

The Eddy Covariance (EC) method allows for monitoring carbon, water, and energy fluxes between Earth's surface and atmosphere. Due to its varying interdependent data streams and abundance of data as a whole, EC is naturally suited to Artificial Intelligence (AI) approaches. The integration of AI and EC will likely play a crucial role in the climate change mitigation and adaptation goals defined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the Agenda 2030.

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Hemp ( L.) is known to tolerate high concentrations of soil contaminants which however can limit its biomass yield. On the other hand, organic-based amendments such as biochar can immobilize soil contaminants and assist hemp growth in soils contaminated by potentially toxic elements (PTEs), allowing for environmental recovery and income generation, e.

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Rural and forest fires represent one of the most significant sources of emissions in the atmosphere of trace gases and aerosol particles, which significantly impact carbon budget, air quality, and human health. This paper aims to illustrate an integrated modelling approach combining spatial and non-spatial inputs to provide and enhance the estimation of GHG and particulate matter emissions from surface fires using Italy as a case study over the period 2007-2017. Three main improvements characterize the approach proposed in this work: (i) the collection and development of comprehensive and accurate data inputs related to burned area; (ii) the use of the most recent data on fuel type and load; and (iii) the modelling application to estimate fuel moisture, burning efficiency, and fuel consumption considering meteorological factors and combustion phases.

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The measures taken to contain the spread of COVID-19 in 2020 included restrictions of people's mobility and reductions in economic activities. These drastic changes in daily life, enforced through national lockdowns, led to abrupt reductions of anthropogenic CO emissions in urbanized areas all over the world. To examine the effect of social restrictions on local emissions of CO, we analysed district level CO fluxes measured by the eddy-covariance technique from 13 stations in 11 European cities.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The FLUXNET2015 dataset encompasses ecosystem-scale data on carbon dioxide, water, and energy exchange, collected from 212 global sites contributing over 1500 site-years of data until 2014.
  • - The dataset was systematically quality controlled and processed, facilitating consistency for various applications in ecophysiology, remote sensing, and ecosystem modeling.
  • - For the first time, derived data products such as time series, ecosystem respiration, and photosynthesis estimates are included, and 206 sites are made accessible under a Creative Commons license, with the processing methods available as open-source codes.
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