2015
2015 summer heat wave impacts
October - 2015 summer heat wave strongly impacted Aosta Valley glaciers: Timorion glacier mass balance of 2015 has been the worst since 2003; on average the glacier lost more than 1.5 m of water equivalent during summer.
Workshop sui Rockglacier
October - A Rock glacier workshop was held the second week of October in Aosta. The meeting was organized by the PermaItaly community i.e. the group of italian researcher on permafrost. We presented our activities on surface movement and temperature monitoring of Gran Sommetta rock glacier.
New paper
October - Together with INRA @Bordeaux, we published on Biogeoscience a paper presenting the opportunities to interpret canopy development and physiology using the European phenology camera network. Our grassland and larch forest sites belong to this network.
Dennis Baldocchi visited us!
June - Professor Dennis D. Baldocchi of the University of Berkeley, (CA, USA) visited our CO2 flux monitoring sites in Torgnon: we were very glad to discuss with him about our work!
The students of the “Land-Atmosphere Interactions” summer school visited our sites
June - With the students of the international alpine summer school on “Land-Atmosphere Interactions” held in Valsavarenche last June (http://www.to.isac.cnr.it/aosta/) we went to the Torgnon grassland site and showed them our activities on CO2 flux monitoring.
epheno results
June - Don't miss the cartoon we produced with Parc National des Ecrins, during epheno, on climate change and phenology in the Alps. Here more movies on climate change impacts on alpine plants, animals and insects. (french with english subtitles)
Glaciers in Aosta Valley
June - At the closing day of Les Mots festival, in the framework of EXPOVdA events, we had a talk on the impacts of climate change on glacier observed in the last 10 years and some insights on what we can expect for the near future. Here is the prezi.
New paper
May - We just published on International Journal of Biometeorology a new paper presenting the results of phenological observations made from 2009 to 2013 at Torgnon grassland: the paper describes the inter-annual patterns of phenology indicators and evaluates the sampling protocol used.
New NDVI sensors @ larch forest
May - Torgnon larch forest has been selected, with 9 other sites worldwide, to setup an Optical Sensor Network for Carbon Flux Analysis across Ecosystems in the framework of SpecNet. Last week we installed NDVI and PRI sensor on the top of the tower and on ground.
CO2 flux chambers @ grassland site
May - Just after snowmelt we installed @ grassland site some authomatic chambers to measure photosynthesis and ecosystem respiration: also this year, we will focus on the role of micromorphology,species composition and small scale variabilty on CO2 fluxes.
UAV and permafrost monitoring
April - UAV data can be used to measure rock glacier dynamic: in the last two years, Gran Sommetta rock glacier on the Italian side of the Matterhorn, moved downvalley of about 0.2 e 2.5m. This and more results just presented @EGU 2015
Effect of microtopography at Torgnon grassland
April - New results from Torgnon grassland: Photosynthesis, phenology and species distribution data, collected in summer 2014, explain how microtopography has a prominent role in mantaining high biodiversity levels in subalpine grasslands. This and more results presented @ EGU 2015
Snow Water Equivalent
April - The last SWE simulations at regional level are available. This is the period of the year when the maximum values of water stored as snow are reached. This year we are slighlty above the last 13 years average despite December and January were extremely snow poor months. More details available in the SWE section.
Climate Change for schools
April - Students from Aosta high schools participated to a 2 days shorth course on ARPA Valle d'Aosta activities. We had some lectures on climate change and global warming impacts. Here is the prezi.
New paper
April - We published a new paper on the results of 7 years of permafrost temperature measures at Cime Bianche site on the Italian side of Cervino (aka Matterhorn). One of the main conclusions is that permafrost is warming at a rate of about 0.1°C each year. The paper, published on "The Cryosphere", is available here.
Winecam
First results of the field campaign in a Pinot Gris vineyard close to Aosta: in a plot an example of using digital cameras to track grapevine maturity and an NDVI map obtained with UAV flights.
SWE workshop
Many institutes working on Snow Water Equivalent mesures and modelling in Italian alpine regions participated to the workshop held in March in Aosta Valley. The results of the SWE workshop are now available.
New publication
With Savoie and Zurich University, we just published a new paper on the permafrost monitoring activities at the Aiguille du Midi, on the french side of Mont Blanc, a unique site to study 3D effects on permafrost temperatures. The paper entitled "Thermal characteristics of permafrost in the steep alpine rock walls of the Aiguille du Midi" can be found here.
