Alessandro Matese | Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) (original) (raw)

Papers by Alessandro Matese

Acetone and CO2 fluxes have been measured over a high latitude phytoplankton bloom in the remote ... more Acetone and CO2 fluxes have been measured over a high latitude phytoplankton bloom in the remote South Atlantic by using shipborne micrometeorological methods for direct atmospheric flux measurement. Previous results suggest that high latitude oligotrophic ocean regions are sinks of acetone, whereas high productivity regions are sources. While the observed CO2 fluxes are into the ocean and of the order of 1 micromol m-2 s-1 at most, the acetone fluxes measured show a significant relationship with chlorophyll in the region of the phytoplankton bloom. Although the uncertainty is very high due to the very low signal to noise ratio, significant, positive acetone mean fluxes of the order of 0.01 nmol m-2 s-1 have been observed in bloom areas, whereas near zero, negative or highly variable low acetone fluxes have been measured elsewhere. These results support the idea that the global acetone source from bloom affected areas is small in comparison to the uptake from the much larger oligotr...

Vine and cluster microclimate, in particular different levels of light exposure and temperature i... more Vine and cluster microclimate, in particular different levels of light exposure and temperature influenced by canopy management practices, may modify berry composition (Dokoozlian and Kliewer, 1995; Lee et al., 2007; Chorti et al. 2010). Even carotenoid levels in berries seem to be light dependent both from a quantitative and qualitative point of view (Bureau . This study illustrates the first results about the effect of vine vigour on into-the-canopy PAR and temperature and on carotenoid and norisoprenoid evolution in Nebbiolo grapes during ripening.

The aim of this study is to identify the relationships between vine vigour, canopy microclimate a... more The aim of this study is to identify the relationships between vine vigour, canopy microclimate and secondary metabolite accumulation in cv Nebbiolo berries. The aromatic profile was thoroughly studied during ripening period, paying attention to the carotenoids and their break down products, the C13 norisoprenoid compounds. Both synthesis and degradation of carotenoids may depend on cluster modifications related to/influenced by microclimate but an influence of the cultivar is also probable. Specific reaction of cv Nebbiolo is of high interest for wine industry. Data presented in this paper concern the 2012 growing season and were collected in a commercial vineyard, located in Sinio (CN, Piedmont, North-West Italy), characterized by high vigour heterogeneity. Vineyard parcels were sorted in vine vigour classes, at first, on the base of spring visual aspect; at veraison time, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) of the vineyard was mapped using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) system equipped with a high-resolution multispectral camera. In the vineyard parcels characterized by different vigour level, Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) and air temperature inside the bunch zone were measured in continuous from pea size stage to harvest time. From 15 days after flowering until harvest, berry samples were collected and berry size and main analytical parameters of the must were assessed; the amount of carotenoids and C13 nor-isoprenoid compounds in the berries were also measured. Finally "Total PAR index (TP)" and "thermal index (TI)" were calculated over each period between two berry samplings. UAV remote survey was a fast and reliable tool to estimate the NDVI: thanks to high image resolution, the pixels corresponding to singular plants were identified allowing to subdivide the vineyard in numerous parcels of different vigour. Differences in into-the-foliage microclimate indexes (TP and TI) were found as determined by the plot vigour; nonetheless, only few differences were appraised concerning berry chemical composition. It seems that the variation in cumulative temperature, both below 15 °C during pre harvest weeks and exceeding 35 °C around veraison, may influenced berry composition at harvest but the exact interaction between this two aspects needs further investigation.

Italian Journal of Agronomy, 2007

Biogeosciences, 2009

The CarboEurope Regional Experiment Strategy (CERES) was designed to develop and test a range of ... more The CarboEurope Regional Experiment Strategy (CERES) was designed to develop and test a range of methodologies to assess regional surface energy and mass exchange of a large study area in the south-western part of France. This paper describes a methodology to estimate sensible and latent heat fluxes on the basis of net radi-5 ation, surface radiometric temperature measurements and information obtained from available products derived from the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) geostationary meteorological satellite, weather stations and ground-based eddy covariance towers. It is based on a simplified bulk formulation of sensible heat flux that considers the degree of coupling between the vegetation and the atmosphere and estimates latent heat 10 as the residual term of net radiation. Estimates of regional energy fluxes obtained in this way are validated at the regional scale by means of a comparison with direct flux measurements made by airborne eddy-covariance. The results show an overall good matching between airborne fluxes and estimates of sensible and latent heat flux obtained from radiometric surface temperatures that holds for different weather conditions 15 and different land use types. The overall applicability of the proposed methodology to regional studies is discussed.

Remote Sensing, 2015

Precision Viticulture is experiencing substantial growth thanks to the availability of improved a... more Precision Viticulture is experiencing substantial growth thanks to the availability of improved and cost-effective instruments and methodologies for data acquisition and analysis, such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), that demonstrated to compete with traditional acquisition platforms, such as satellite and aircraft, due to low operational costs, high operational flexibility and high spatial resolution of imagery. In order to optimize the use of these technologies for precision viticulture, their technical, scientific and economic performances need to be assessed. The aim of this work is to compare NDVI surveys performed with UAV, aircraft and satellite, to assess the capability of each platform to represent the intra-vineyard vegetation spatial variability. NDVI images of two Italian vineyards were acquired simultaneously from different multi-spectral sensors onboard the OPEN ACCESS Remote Sens. 2015, 7 2972 three platforms, and a spatial statistical framework was used to assess their degree of similarity. Moreover, the pros and cons of each technique were also assessed performing a cost analysis as a function of the scale of application. Results indicate that the different platforms provide comparable results in vineyards characterized by coarse vegetation gradients and large vegetation clusters. On the contrary, in more heterogeneous vineyards, low-resolution images fail in representing part of the intra-vineyard variability. The cost analysis showed that the adoption of UAV platform is advantageous for small areas and that a break-even point exists above five hectares; above such threshold, airborne and then satellite have lower imagery cost.

The main objectives of the project were to collect soil and crop data in order to: 1) calibrate a... more The main objectives of the project were to collect soil and crop data in order to: 1) calibrate a simulation model of crop growth and production and 2) implement a data fusion method aimed at integration of remote sensing data with ground-based data. The lack of granted projects obliged us to restrict the surveyed area to a field of 3 ha. Figure 1: Google photo of the experimental farm of the Research Unit for Cropping Systems in Dry Environments (CRA-SCA) Site Description The interest of our study is focused on "Capitanata area", a plain of about 4000 km 2 located in the northern part of Apulia Region (south-eastern Italy). This area is characterized by farms with average size up to 20 ha, highly productive soils cultivated under intensive and irrigated regime. Winter durum

Technological progress has created a fertile substrate for a new phase of agricultural modernizat... more Technological progress has created a fertile substrate for a new phase of agricultural modernization in terms of costeffectiveness, adaptability and flexibility, providing innovative tools for the decision-making process. With the initiative "Officina Ibimet", a group of researchers and technicians of the Institute of Biometeorology of the National Research Council of Florence is dedicated to the design and development of these new monitoring techniques. The first prototypes, consisting of Arduino based open source systems equipped with agrometeorological sensors, are being tested. Preliminary results show good performance in terms of range, transmission and data quality, demonstrating characteristics that are perfectly suited for micrometeorological monitoring with minimal size, low power consumption and low cost.

The availability of new tools to detect and monitor vines health status is under evaluation in a ... more The availability of new tools to detect and monitor vines health status is under evaluation in a vineyard heavily affected by grapevine leaf stripe disease (GLSD). The vineyard, located in Tuscany, has been surveyed for foliar symptoms each year since 2003, and each vine was mapped and classified for foliar symptoms appearance and diseases severity. At the beginning of September 2011 an UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) system was used to investigate the correlation between Normalised Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) and GLSD foliar symptoms. The acquired high resolution multi-spectral images (0.056 m/pixel) were also analyzed for the detection of vines that had shown symptoms in the previous years, but were asymptomatic in 2011. All sample vines locations were accurately measured with a differential GPS to extract single plant reflectance from the georeferenced multispectral images. Moreover during the following winter the vigor of the surveyed vines was measured by cane lengths, number of canes produced and total dry mass weight. The preliminary results obtained in the pilot experiment, showed a high level of correlation between NDVI and GLSD symptoms. The method has demonstrated both the ability to discriminate symptomatic from asymptomatic plants, but also to detect within the asymptomatic plants sampled, those which were asymptomatic but had shown GLSD symptoms in the previous years, suggesting the possible developments as an innovative early detection tool for GLSD. The work offers a significant potential both in terms of research perspectives and practical applications to improve the mapping of spatial distribution and development of GLSD. RÉSUMÉ L'efficacité de nouveaux outils pour détecter et surveiller l'état de santé des vignes est évalué dans un vignoble fortement affecté par la maladie de l'esca. Le vignoble, situé en Toscane, a été touché par des symptômes foliaires chaque année à partir de l'année 2003; chaque pied de vigne a été cartographiés et classifié en termes des symptômes foliaires et du niveau de gravité de la maladie. Au début de Septembre 2011, un UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) a été utilisée pour étudier la corrélation entre l'indice différentiel de végétation normalisé (NDVI) et les symptômes foliaires de l'esca. Les images multi-spectrales à très haute résolution (0.056 m / pixel) ont été employées pour analyser également les plantes qui avait montrées des symptômes dans les années précédentes mais étaient asymptomatiques en 2011. Pour la géoréférentiation des images multispectrales ainsi que pour la localisation exacte des plantes échantillonnées on a utilisé un GPS différentiel. Des mesures destructives ont été effectuées pendent l'hiver afin de évaluer la vigueur des plantes, la longueur des chien, le nombre de cannes produites et le poids total du bois en matière sèche. Les résultats préliminaires obtenus dans l'expérience pilote, montrent un niveau élevé de corrélation entre l'NDVI et les symptômes de l'esca. La méthode a la capacité de discriminer les plantes symptomatique et asymptomatiques, mais aussi de détecter, entre les plantes asymptomatiques, ceux qui avaient montré les symptômes dans le passé. Cela suggère la possibilité d'avoir un outil apte à la détection précoce de l'esca. Le travail offre un potentiel important tant en termes de recherche que du point de vue des applications opérationnels pour améliorer la cartographie de la distribution spatiale et le développement de l'esca.

Sensors, 2013

A new wireless sensor network (WSN), called CrossVit, and based on MEMSIC products, has been test... more A new wireless sensor network (WSN), called CrossVit, and based on MEMSIC products, has been tested for two growing seasons in two vineyards in Italy. The aims are to evaluate the monitoring performances of the new WSN directly in the vineyard and collect air temperature, air humidity and solar radiation data to support vineyard management practices. The WSN consists of various levels: the Master/Gateway level coordinates the WSN and performs data aggregation; the Farm/Server level takes care of storing data on a server, data processing and graphic rendering; Nodes level is based on a network of peripheral nodes consisting of a MDA300 sensor board and Iris module and equipped with thermistors for air temperature, photodiodes for global and diffuse solar radiation, and an HTM2500LF sensor for relative humidity. The communication levels are: WSN links between gateways and sensor nodes by ZigBee, and long-range GSM/GPRS links between gateways and the server farm level. The system was able to monitor the agrometeorological parameters in the vineyard: solar radiation, air temperature and air humidity, detecting the differences between the canopy treatments applied. The performance of CrossVit, in terms of monitoring and reliability of the system, have been evaluated considering: its handiness, cost-effective, non-invasive dimensions and low power consumption.

Precision Agriculture, 2012

An unmanned aerial vehicle (''VIPtero'') was assembled and tested with the aim of developing a fl... more An unmanned aerial vehicle (''VIPtero'') was assembled and tested with the aim of developing a flexible and powerful tool for site-specific vineyard management. The system comprised a six-rotor aerial platform capable of flying autonomously to a predetermined point in space, and of a pitch and roll compensated multi-spectral camera for vegetation canopy reflectance recording. Before the flight campaign, the camera accuracy was evaluated against high resolution ground-based measurements, made with a field spectrometer. Then, ''VIPtero'' performed the flight in an experimental vineyard in Central Italy, acquiring 63 multi-spectral images during 10 min of flight completed almost autonomously. Images were analysed and classified vigour maps were produced based on normalized difference vegetation index. The resulting vigour maps showed clearly crop heterogeneity conditions, in good agreement with ground-based observations. The system provided very promising results that encourage its development as a tool for precision agriculture application in small crops.

Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 2009

Abstract An eddy covariance station was installed in the city center of Firenze, Italy, to measur... more Abstract An eddy covariance station was installed in the city center of Firenze, Italy, to measure carbon fluxes at half-hourly intervals over a mostly homogeneous urban area. Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission observations made over an initial period of 3.5 months were compared with indirect estimates of CO2 emissions based on inventory data sources of vehicle circulation and natural gas consumption for domestic heating and cooking. Such a comparison provided proper evaluation of the measurements. Using seasonal dynamics ...

Geoderma, 2012

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European Journal of Agronomy, 2012

Crop models are frequently used in ecology, agronomy and environmental sciences for simulating cr... more Crop models are frequently used in ecology, agronomy and environmental sciences for simulating crop and environmental variables at a discrete time step. The aim of this work was to test the predictive capacity of the Delphi system, calibrated and determined for each pedoclimatic factor affecting durum wheat during phenological development, at regional scale. We present an innovative system capable of predicting spatial yield variation and temporal yield fluctuation in long-term analysis, that are the main purposes of regional ...

Environmental science & technology, Jan 15, 2009

Measurements of CO2 and acetone fluxes have been made over a large-scale, naturally occurring hig... more Measurements of CO2 and acetone fluxes have been made over a large-scale, naturally occurring high latitude phytoplankton bloom in the remote South Atlantic. Shipborne micrometeorological methods for direct atmospheric flux measurement have been applied to determine the direction and size of the CO2 and acetone fluxes. Previous results suggest that high latitude oligotrophic ocean regions are sinks of acetone, whereas high productivity regions are sources. The observed CO2 fluxes are into the ocean and on the order of 1 micromol m(-2) s(-1) at most. The acetone fluxes measured show a significant relationship with chlorophyll in the region of the phytoplankton bloom. Although the uncertainty is very high due to the very low signal-to-noise ratio, significant positive acetone mean fluxes of the order of 0.01 nmol m(-2) s(-1) have been observed in bloom areas, whereas near zero, negative, or highly variable low acetone fluxes have been measured elsewhere. Based on these results we esti...

Environmental Pollution, 2012

Long-term fluxes of CO 2 , and combined short-term fluxes of CH 4 and CO 2 were measured with the... more Long-term fluxes of CO 2 , and combined short-term fluxes of CH 4 and CO 2 were measured with the eddy covariance technique in the city centre of Florence. CO 2 long-term weekly fluxes exhibit a high seasonality, ranging from 39 to 172% of the mean annual value in summer and winter respectively, while CH 4 fluxes are relevant and don't exhibit temporal variability. Contribution of road traffic and domestic heating has been estimated through multi-regression models combined with inventorial traffic and CH 4 consumption data, revealing that heating accounts for more than 80% of observed CO 2 fluxes. Those two components are instead responsible for only 14% of observed CH 4 fluxes, while the major residual part is likely dominated by gas network leakages. CH 4 fluxes expressed as CO 2 equivalent represent about 8% of CO 2 emissions, ranging from 16% in summer to 4% in winter, and cannot therefore be neglected when assessing greenhouse impact of cities.

Environmental Pollution, 2011

An integrated strategy based on atmospheric aircraft observations and dispersion modelling was de... more An integrated strategy based on atmospheric aircraft observations and dispersion modelling was developed, aimed at estimating spatial location and strength of VOC point source emissions in industrial areas.