Special Session 5

The management of agro-ecosystems can no longer be limited to aspects purely related to food production. Aspects such as carbon sequestration, food security-safety, clean water and biodiversity have become equally important. It has therefore become essential to have measurement tools that allow us to understand the complex impact of today's multiple, interacting global change drivers on agro-ecosystems. These can be represented by platforms that can measure/simulate environmental drivers from land-use change, pollution, biological invasions, rising atmospheric greenhouse gases concentrations, and to increasing extreme events such as droughts and heatwaves thanks to the integrative and coordinated usage of experimental, analytical and modeling facilities.
This special session aims to present the main research and implementation activities that are being developed internationally in terms of open (for studying manipulated and non-manipulated in situ ecosystems) and closed (e.g. ecotrons) integrated experimental, analytical and modeling platforms.

Marco Bindi, obtained his PhD in 1993 and since 2002 he is Full Professor at the University of Florence. He has carried out research activities, since the late 1980s, on the study of the impact of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems and on CC adaptation and mitigation strategies. He has been Lead Author of the 4 and 5 AR and SR 1.5 Warming of the IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. For this contribution to the IPCC activities that led to the Nobel Peace Prize IPCC-2007 he received official recognition from the IPCC and the Italian Government. He has held positions of responsibility in national and international scientific societies (chairman of Div. 2 of the European Society of Agronomy, member of the board of the Italian Society of Agronomy) and since 2009 he has been a member of the Accademia dei Georgofili. He is the author of more than 170 articles in international journals (Scopus H-index = 50, WOS H-index = 47, Google Scholar H = 62). He is in the list of the 100 Top Italian Scientists (Natural & Environmental Sciences category) and in the Global Highly Cited Researchers 2020 Clarivate ranking. Since 2021 he is an ordinary member of the 2003 Group.

Elena Paoletti, obtained her PhD in Agricultural Biology 1989-92 and since 2010 she is Research Director at the National Research Council. She has carried out research activities, since the late 1980s, on experimental assessment of ozone impacts on crop and forest species, single and in combination with other stress factors (water deficit, nitrogen deposition, phosphorus imbalance, pathogens), with focus on growth, carbon sequestration, water loss control, gas exchange, nutrient cycling, roots and mycorrhizas, secondary metabolism including BVOC. She was Visiting professorship at the Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing (PIFI) (2016-2017, 2019-2020); Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Forest Institute (EFI) (2015-2021); Vice-President and former Secretary of SISEF (Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology) (2008-2019). She received IUFRO Scientific Achievement Award 2019 and IUFRO Forest Health Award 2010 for Achievement in Forest Health Research. She is author of 247 publications issued in Scopus with 51 as h-index.