This page has only limited features, please log in for full access.

Dr. Gianfranco Rana
CREA Research Center for Agriculture and Environmetal Research

Basic Info

Basic Info is private.

Research Keywords & Expertise

0 Evapotranspiration
0 Co2 emissions
0 Agricultural Biosystems
0 Micrometeorology
0 ghg emission

Honors and Awards

The user has no records in this section


Career Timeline

The user has no records in this section.


Short Biography

The user biography is not available.
Following
Followers
Co Authors
The list of users this user is following is empty.
Following: 0 users

Feed

Journal article
Published: 01 February 2021 in Atmosphere
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The CO2 fluxes measured by the eddy covariance technique (EC) are presented for a district of the urban area of Bari (Italy). The applicability of the EC method was satisfied even though the measurements were taken at a limited height. The CO2 fluxes are representative of an area with public offices and schools, the university campus, green areas, and busy roads with intensive traffic during school and office times. The measurements were carried out in March–June, covering late winter, characterized by huge vehicle traffic and domestic heating, until late spring, characterized by reduced activities for schools and the university. The source area was determined as a function of atmospheric stability, for data with the ratio between measurement-height/buildings-height in the range of 1.3–1.5. The measured CO2 fluxes were compared to gas consumption values. The results show that the district is a strong source of CO2 during the winter. Emissions were drastically reduced (−82%) after the heating was switched off, and a further decrease in CO2 emissions (−50%) occurred with the reduction of school activities, partly due to the mitigating effect of green areas with large trees in the area.

ACS Style

Gianfranco Rana; Nicola Martinelli; Daniela Famulari; Francesco Pezzati; Cristina Muschitiello; Rossana Ferrara. Representativeness of Carbon Dioxide Fluxes Measured by Eddy Covariance over a Mediterranean Urban District with Equipment Setup Restrictions. Atmosphere 2021, 12, 197 .

AMA Style

Gianfranco Rana, Nicola Martinelli, Daniela Famulari, Francesco Pezzati, Cristina Muschitiello, Rossana Ferrara. Representativeness of Carbon Dioxide Fluxes Measured by Eddy Covariance over a Mediterranean Urban District with Equipment Setup Restrictions. Atmosphere. 2021; 12 (2):197.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Gianfranco Rana; Nicola Martinelli; Daniela Famulari; Francesco Pezzati; Cristina Muschitiello; Rossana Ferrara. 2021. "Representativeness of Carbon Dioxide Fluxes Measured by Eddy Covariance over a Mediterranean Urban District with Equipment Setup Restrictions." Atmosphere 12, no. 2: 197.

Journal article
Published: 28 September 2019 in Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Urban trees provide benefits and services, like improving environmental quality and mitigating impacts of climate change on human health, e.g. through the reduction of greenhouse gases effects, the removal of pollutants from the atmosphere and the improvement of water quality through interception of pollution. Tree transpiration in a multi-species urban garden in southern Italy was investigated for one year, on hourly, daily, seasonal and annual time scale. Water status of trees was determined by means of the Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI). The difference between canopy and air temperature was calculated using transpiration measurements and the canopy energy balance. Transpiration was measured by heat dissipation method (HDM) in more than 14 tree species, grouped in four classes (Olea, Citrus and Eriobotrya, Conifers and Broadleaves) according to number of specimens in the garden and similarity in plant functional category. At single tree scale, the radial trend of sap flux density was modeled considering the sapwood area, while the upscaling to the garden level was performed using the quantile method integrated by trunk diameter classification. Complete daytime time series of sap flux density were obtained by gap filling algorithms, based on multivariate models based on environmental drivers of transpiration. Tree transpiration showed that Olea and Citrus and Eriobotrya had a good adaptation to Mediterranean climates. CWSI values indicated that Conifers suffered a moderate water shortage, while the other species were subjected to higher water shortage. Conifers showed the maximum efficacy in lowering air temperature, followed by Broadleaves, Olea and Citrus and Eriobotrya. The uncertainties were evaluated by error analysis.

ACS Style

Gianfranco Rana; Francesca De Lorenzi; Gianluigi Mazza; Nicola Martinelli; Cristina Muschitiello; Rossana M. Ferrara. Tree transpiration in a multi-species Mediterranean garden. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 2019, 280, 107767 .

AMA Style

Gianfranco Rana, Francesca De Lorenzi, Gianluigi Mazza, Nicola Martinelli, Cristina Muschitiello, Rossana M. Ferrara. Tree transpiration in a multi-species Mediterranean garden. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. 2019; 280 ():107767.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Gianfranco Rana; Francesca De Lorenzi; Gianluigi Mazza; Nicola Martinelli; Cristina Muschitiello; Rossana M. Ferrara. 2019. "Tree transpiration in a multi-species Mediterranean garden." Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 280, no. : 107767.

Original paper
Published: 09 April 2019 in Theoretical and Applied Climatology
Reads 0
Downloads 0

In this study, a model for estimating actual transpiration (T) is developed and tested for three tree species (Olea europaea, Citrus sinensis, Pinus pinea), growing in rainfed conditions in urban environment under Mediterranean semi-arid climate. The model, previously tested on many field crops, is based on the “big leaf” Penman-Monteith (PM) formulation of T in which canopy resistance (rc) is modeled with respect to local climatological conditions in different plant water status. Here rc is expressed as a function of available energy, vapor pressure deficit and aerodynamic resistance, and the trees’ water status was evaluated by means of crop water stress index. On an hourly scale, the comparison with T measured by sap flow thermal dissipation technique shows good performances of the model for all investigated species under contrasting water stress conditions. At daily scale, T modeled is less accurate for all species, because of the lack of stationarity conditions in the PM approach. At seasonal scale, however, the model gives good estimation of T, with an underestimation of − 1% for Olea and Pinus and overestimation of + 8% for Citrus with respect to the measured T values. The proposed model needs species-specific experimental calibration, but it may have good perspective of applicability in supporting water irrigation planning in urban forestry.

ACS Style

Gianfranco Rana; Rossana M. Ferrara; Gianluigi Mazza. A model for estimating transpiration of rainfed urban trees in Mediterranean environment. Theoretical and Applied Climatology 2019, 138, 683 -699.

AMA Style

Gianfranco Rana, Rossana M. Ferrara, Gianluigi Mazza. A model for estimating transpiration of rainfed urban trees in Mediterranean environment. Theoretical and Applied Climatology. 2019; 138 (1-2):683-699.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Gianfranco Rana; Rossana M. Ferrara; Gianluigi Mazza. 2019. "A model for estimating transpiration of rainfed urban trees in Mediterranean environment." Theoretical and Applied Climatology 138, no. 1-2: 683-699.

Journal article
Published: 16 February 2019 in Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The measurement of transpiration at plant level is a challenging topic in crop water requirements research, e.g. for irrigation scheduling and for the partitioning of plant transpiration and soil evaporation in modelling crop evapotranspiration process. The thermal dissipation method (TD) is widely applied for transpiration estimates of tree species, however some studies reported underestimations of transpiration measurements performed with the TD method when using the equation proposed by Granier. In particular, large underestimation of transpiration flux was reported in vineyards. The underestimation is ascribed to the equation, and its parameters, used to calculate the sapwood flux density from the heat transfer equations in the original Granier’s model and site-specific calibration is required. In this study, using measurements performed in a 2-year field experiment, the TD method was recalibrated at field scale in a vineyard cultivated in a Mediterranean region (Sicily, southern Italy), comparing transpiration flux determined by the TD method with transpiration calculated by the partitioning flux-variance similarity (FVS) method. FVS is a relatively new and innovative method for partitioning water fluxes in transpiration and evaporation through EC data. In this study, transpiration calculated through the equation proposed by Granier was, on average, 26% lower than transpiration determined by FVS. The results show that a new exponential function to calculate the sapwood flux density performed better than the power function in the original equation proposed by Granier. The results also showed that species and site-specific relationships are needed to accurately determine transpiration through the TD method. The ratio T/ET when T is calculated by the recalibrated TD function was equal to 0.77.

ACS Style

Gianfranco Rana; Francesca De Lorenzi; Luigi Palatella; Nicola Martinelli; Rossana M. Ferrara. Field scale recalibration of the sap flow thermal dissipation method in a Mediterranean vineyard. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 2019, 269-270, 169 -179.

AMA Style

Gianfranco Rana, Francesca De Lorenzi, Luigi Palatella, Nicola Martinelli, Rossana M. Ferrara. Field scale recalibration of the sap flow thermal dissipation method in a Mediterranean vineyard. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. 2019; 269-270 ():169-179.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Gianfranco Rana; Francesca De Lorenzi; Luigi Palatella; Nicola Martinelli; Rossana M. Ferrara. 2019. "Field scale recalibration of the sap flow thermal dissipation method in a Mediterranean vineyard." Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 269-270, no. : 169-179.

Journal article
Published: 01 October 2018 in Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The flux-variance similarity (FVS) partitioning method to estimate transpiration/photosynthesis and evaporation/respiration, using only high frequency Eddy Covariance (EC) measurements, was studied. The FVS method was applied to two crops in successive growing seasons of a typical cropping system in Mediterranean region: fava bean followed by winter wheat. FVS applies the flux-variance arguments derived from Monin-Obukhov similarity theory separately to the stomatal (photosynthesis and transpiration) and non-stomatal (respiration and evaporation) processes. The leaf-level water use efficiency, an input of FVS method, is here calculated by using EC outputs and estimated humidity after the direct measurement of surface infrared temperature. The two experimental seasons were characterized by exceptionally rainy periods (262 mm in 85 days in 2014, 344 mm in 149 days in 2015). Nevertheless, the partitioning results are consistent with expected trends and absolute values of flux components throughout both seasons. In particular, heterotrophic soil respiration measured by chamber systems and modelled FVS respiration components are comparable at the beginning and at the end of the growing crop cycles, when crop biomass and leaf area are very low. Furthermore, the coupling of FVS method and root exclusion method for measuring soil respiration is able to give the heterotrophic and autotrophic components of respiration. Finally, the results showed that the succession fava bean to wheat permits a mitigation of the loss of carbon to the atmosphere and increases carbon sequestration.

ACS Style

Gianfranco Rana; Luigi Palatella; Todd M. Scanlon; Nicola Martinelli; Rossana M. Ferrara. CO2 and H2O flux partitioning in a Mediterranean cropping system. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 2018, 260-261, 118 -130.

AMA Style

Gianfranco Rana, Luigi Palatella, Todd M. Scanlon, Nicola Martinelli, Rossana M. Ferrara. CO2 and H2O flux partitioning in a Mediterranean cropping system. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. 2018; 260-261 ():118-130.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Gianfranco Rana; Luigi Palatella; Todd M. Scanlon; Nicola Martinelli; Rossana M. Ferrara. 2018. "CO2 and H2O flux partitioning in a Mediterranean cropping system." Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 260-261, no. : 118-130.

Journal article
Published: 26 February 2018 in Water
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Land use affects eco-hydrological processes with consequences for floods and droughts. Changes in land use affect ecosystems and hydrological services. The objective of this study is the analysis of hydrological services through the quantification of water resources, pollutant loads, land retention capacity and soil erosion. On the basis of a quantitative evaluation, the economic values of the ecosystem services are estimated. By assigning an economic value to the natural resources and to the hydraulic system, the hydrological services can be computed at the scale of catchment ecosystem. The proposed methodology was applied to the basin “Bonis” (Calabria Region, Italy). The study analyses four land use scenarios: (i) forest cover with good vegetative status (baseline scenario); (ii) modification of the forest canopy; (iii) variation in forest and cultivated surfaces; (iv) insertion of impermeable areas. The simulations prove that the variations of the state of forest areas has considerable influence on the water balance, and then on the provided economic value. Small economic changes derive from reducing the impermeable areas. Increasing the agricultural area to 50% of the total, and reducing the forest surface, affects soil erosion, reduces the storage capacity of the water, and consequently the water harvesting. The suggested methodology can be considered a suitable tool for land planning.

ACS Style

Marcello Mastrorilli; Gianfranco Rana; Giuseppe Verdiani; Giuseppe Tedeschi; Antonio Fumai; Giovanni Russo. Economic Evaluation of Hydrological Ecosystem Services in Mediterranean River Basins Applied to a Case Study in Southern Italy. Water 2018, 10, 241 .

AMA Style

Marcello Mastrorilli, Gianfranco Rana, Giuseppe Verdiani, Giuseppe Tedeschi, Antonio Fumai, Giovanni Russo. Economic Evaluation of Hydrological Ecosystem Services in Mediterranean River Basins Applied to a Case Study in Southern Italy. Water. 2018; 10 (3):241.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Marcello Mastrorilli; Gianfranco Rana; Giuseppe Verdiani; Giuseppe Tedeschi; Antonio Fumai; Giovanni Russo. 2018. "Economic Evaluation of Hydrological Ecosystem Services in Mediterranean River Basins Applied to a Case Study in Southern Italy." Water 10, no. 3: 241.

Journal article
Published: 12 May 2016 in Theoretical and Applied Climatology
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The study compares two formulas for calculating the daily evapotranspiration ET0 for a reference crop. The first formula was proposed by Allen et al. (AL), while the second one was proposed by Katerji and Perrier with the addition of the carbon dioxide (CO2) effect on evapotranspiration (KP). The study analyses the impact of the calculation by the two formulas on the irrigation requirement (IR). Both formulas are based on the Penman-Monteith equation but adopt different approaches for parameterising the canopy resistance r c . In the AL formula, r c is assumed constant and not sensitive to climate change, whereas in the KP formula, r c is first parameterised as a function of climatic variables, then ET0 is corrected for the air CO2 concentration. The two formulas were compared in two periods. The first period involves data from two sites in the Mediterranean region within a measured climate change period (1981–2006) when all the input climatic variables were measured. The second period (2070–2100) involves data from a future climate change period at one site when the input climatic variables were forecasted for two future climate scenarios (A2 and B2). The annual cumulated values of ET0 calculated by the AL formula are systematically lower than those determined by the KP formula. The differences between the ET0 estimation with the AL and KP formulas have a strong impact on the determination of the IR for the reference crop. In fact, for the two periods, the annual values of IR when ET0 is calculated by the AL formula are systematically lower than those calculated by the KP formula. For the actual measured climate change period, this reduction varied from 26 to 28 %, while for the future climate change period, it varied based on the scenario from 16 % (A2) to 20 % (B2)

ACS Style

Nader Katerji; Gianfranco Rana; Rossana Monica Ferrara. Actual evapotranspiration for a reference crop within measured and future changing climate periods in the Mediterranean region. Theoretical and Applied Climatology 2016, 129, 923 -938.

AMA Style

Nader Katerji, Gianfranco Rana, Rossana Monica Ferrara. Actual evapotranspiration for a reference crop within measured and future changing climate periods in the Mediterranean region. Theoretical and Applied Climatology. 2016; 129 (3-4):923-938.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nader Katerji; Gianfranco Rana; Rossana Monica Ferrara. 2016. "Actual evapotranspiration for a reference crop within measured and future changing climate periods in the Mediterranean region." Theoretical and Applied Climatology 129, no. 3-4: 923-938.

Journal article
Published: 06 July 2014 in Boundary-Layer Meteorology
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Scanlon and Sahu (Water Resour Res 44(10):W10418, 2008) proposed an interesting method to estimate assimilation, respiration, evaporation and transpiration directly using high-frequency eddy-covariance measurements. In this note we critically revise this method and, in particular, using the Descartes’ rule of sign, we show that one branch of solutions can be directly neglected reducing the analytical complexity of the procedure. We also discuss the stability of the results of the method with respect to the input parameters, especially to the water-use efficiency.

ACS Style

Luigi Nicola Palatella; Gianfranco Rana; Domenico Vitale. Towards a Flux-Partitioning Procedure Based on the Direct Use of High-Frequency Eddy-Covariance Data. Boundary-Layer Meteorology 2014, 153, 327 -337.

AMA Style

Luigi Nicola Palatella, Gianfranco Rana, Domenico Vitale. Towards a Flux-Partitioning Procedure Based on the Direct Use of High-Frequency Eddy-Covariance Data. Boundary-Layer Meteorology. 2014; 153 (2):327-337.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Luigi Nicola Palatella; Gianfranco Rana; Domenico Vitale. 2014. "Towards a Flux-Partitioning Procedure Based on the Direct Use of High-Frequency Eddy-Covariance Data." Boundary-Layer Meteorology 153, no. 2: 327-337.

Journal article
Published: 28 March 2012 in Italian Journal of Agronomy
Reads 0
Downloads 0

This work describes the results obtained by the statistical downscaling technique for the assessment of changes in precipitation (P), potential evaporation (PE). In turn P and PE are used for computing two indexes of water availability, namely the index of water deficit (WDI) and the aridity index (AI). The analysis is carried out for the Capitanata plain (South-East of Italy) and the A2 scenario of the IPCC Assessment Report 4 (AR4). The large-scale temperature at the 1000hPa level and sea level pressure fields are used as predictors. The local precipitation and potential evaporation time series are used as predictands. The statistical downscaling technique used is based on Canonical Correlation Analysis. A validation procedure of the model is performed and the same technique is used for climatic projections of P, PE and consequently WDI and AI. Climate analysis and projections at this localspace scale is an important issue not only for current water management and planning, but also for improving the irrigation efficiency considering future climate change scenarios.

ACS Style

Luigi Nicola Palatella; Domenico Vitale; Domenico Ventrella; Gianfranco Rana. The water deficit and aridity indexes in the Capitanata plain calculated by statistical downscaling. Italian Journal of Agronomy 2012, 7, 3 .

AMA Style

Luigi Nicola Palatella, Domenico Vitale, Domenico Ventrella, Gianfranco Rana. The water deficit and aridity indexes in the Capitanata plain calculated by statistical downscaling. Italian Journal of Agronomy. 2012; 7 (1):3.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Luigi Nicola Palatella; Domenico Vitale; Domenico Ventrella; Gianfranco Rana. 2012. "The water deficit and aridity indexes in the Capitanata plain calculated by statistical downscaling." Italian Journal of Agronomy 7, no. 1: 3.