Day 1 :
Keynote Forum
Ernesto Lopez-Baeza
University of Valencia, Spain
Keynote: Earth observation in support of sustainability soil, plant and water science. Innovative role of Copernicus Global Land Service products
Time : 10:00-10:30
Biography:
Ernesto Lopez-Baeza received his Ph.D. degree in Physics from the University of Valencia, Spain, in 1986. He is an Associate Professor of Applied Physics with the University of Valencia since 1987, and Director of the Climatology from Satellites Group since the year 2000. He is in charge of the Valencia Anchor Station surface validation site in Spain. His research interests included the ground validation activities in the framework of the Earth Observation missions EUMETSAT Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget (GERB), NASA Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES), and ESA/EUMETSAT EPS/MetOp. He is currently involved in similar scientific activities of the Earth Observation missions: Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP) from NASA, Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) from ESA, Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI) onboard Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellite, and preparing for ESA/JAXA Earth Clouds, Aerosols and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE).
Abstract:
Water in the soil is probably the most significant factor affecting plant growth. Productivity depends on water and both, drought and excess water, cause significant crop damages. People depend upon plants for food, being population limited by the productivity of land and more significantly in less developed regions. Production will have to far outpace population growth as the developing world grows prosperous and healthy. Environmental sustainability implies the securement of food, efficient resources management and equitable use of water.
Earth Observation technology can collect data to monitor land and support land management, agronomic planning and forest management, crop productivity and vegetation phenology, as well as water resources management. This paper shows that Earth Observation constitutes a new significant tool for sustainable growth in soil, plant and natural resources on Earth as the Conference motto states.
The Climatology from Satellites Group of the University of Valencia has a long experience using Earth Observation remote sensing techniques to deal with different land surface and atmospheric parameters in the context of the definition of a Water Cycle Observatory in the Valencia Anchor Station validation site. Currently, the major involvement now is precisely the establishment of protocols for the validation of Copernicus land surface products such as soil moisture, fraction of absorbed photosynthetic active radiation -fAPAR, leaf area index -LAI, terrestrial chlorophyll, etc.
This presentation will clearly show the strategy followed by the Climatology from Satellites Group to validate the above-mentioned parameters over the Valencia Anchor Station and the use of some of those parameters to assist optimising water management decisions in the framework of the RESEWAM-O (REmote SEnsing for WAter Management Optimisation) European Innovation Partnership on Water (EIP Water)
Keynote Forum
Simone Pascucci
CNR IMAA, Italy
Keynote: Integration of high-resolution airborne thermal data, satellite data and field measurements for soil moisture retrieval at the field scale
Biography:
Simone Pascucci has his expertise in airborne and satellite remote sensing. He works for the Italian National research Council - CNR from 2002; he has taught lessons on the hyperspectral remote sensing data analysis and classification algorithms development. He was involved in many international field and airborne campaigns for target and anomaly detection and data fusion and correction; he wrote many technical reports. He has published several articles in refereed international journals concerning the applications of hyperspectral airborne remote sensing and satellite within the soil science, geology, the urban context, the detection of target materials and pollutants, the monitoring of water quality and precision agriculture. His research projects are funded by Italian and Israel Space Agencies; Italian Ministry of Infrastructure, Defense and Agriculture; Internal University funds and several private companies; and international foundation such as the EU under the FP7 program frame (EUFAR, EO-MINERS, GEO-CRADEL).
Abstract:
An accurate estimate of surface soil moisture (SSM) using the actual remote sensing technology is still a demanding and expensive task due to surface moisture spatial-temporal variability and to the scale problems characteristic of this application. Many authors has highlighted the importance of measuring and monitoring SSM at various spatial scales. Soil moisture is a variable that affects a wide range of processes that occur in the land-atmosphere interface, including water infiltration, water outflow, evaporation, heat and gas exchange, infiltration of solutes, erosion. The thermal properties that control the soil daily range of temperature are the soil thermal conductivity and the soil heat capacity, and, therefore, variations in SSM have a strong impact on soil thermal properties being an intrinsic factor of soil surface temperature changes. Within this context, we explored the potential of integrating high spatial resolution TASI-600 airborne thermal and WorldView 2 optical satellite remote sensing data for SSM mapping, based on literature thermal inertia models. Two airborne campaigns were carried out on April 2018 with the TASI-600 multispectral thermal sensor on the Petacciato (Molise, Italy) area. Concurrently, soil samples were collected in different fields of the study area to determine their moisture content and granulometric composition. Results highlight that SSM changes in the different analyzed fields influence the diurnal thermal behavior of soil surface temperature. Moreover, the applied methodology has allowed to produce a SSM map with a good accuracy for a wide area interested by periodic recurrence of extensive landslides, which also involves highway and railway infrastructures. Furthermore, within the study area a correspondence between the areas affected by landslides and the areas with high SSM was established.
- Soil Metabolism | Soil Biota: Ecosystem Stability | Soil and Plant Ecology | Soil Regeneration | Soil Erosion | Soil Physics and Soil Mechanics | Soil Fertility | Soil Pollution | Water Pollution | Watershed Sustainability and Nutrient Pollution
Session Introduction
Asit Mazumder
University of Victoria, Canada
Title: Climate variability induced shifts in nitrogen loading from terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems
Biography:
Dr. Asit Mazumder, Professor of Biology at the University of Victoria, is considered a world leader for his pioneering research on aquatic ecosystems in terms of water quality, nutrient dynamics, foodweb structure, contaminant transport and public health risks. His research showed how land-use and climate variability affect chemical and microbial quality of water, and developed several new technologies to track sources of chemical and microbial contaminant. He had been awarded the Chandler-Misener Award by the International Association for Great Lakes Research, and the Miller Institute Professorship for Basic Science at the University of California Berkeley 2011, and Ruth Patrick Award by American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) in 2013 for his contributions to solving water quality problems with sound aquatic sciences concepts and a 1000 talent award from the Government of China. He has published over 140 international peer reviewed journal publications.
Abstract:
Nitrogen is a critical nutrient linked to degradation of freshwater and marine ecosystems. The nitrogen inputs to terrestrial ecosystems and subsequent loadings to aquatic ecosystems have been doubled and changed the nitrogen cycle as population and human activities increased over the past century (Filoso et al., 2006; Howarth and Marino, 2006; Smil, 1999; Vitousek et al., 1997; Larsson et al., 1985). One of the consequences of human alternation of the nitrogen cycle is the eutrophication of marine and freshwater ecosystems (Rabalais, 2002; McIsaac et al., 2001).
We tested if climate variability can change nitrogen loading from terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems. We used stream nitrogen concentrations from 2,125 sites and climate data from 301 stations from 30 eco-regions across British Columbia, Canada, to test our objective and to compare it with anthropogenic loading of nitrogen in the same regions. We show that elevated air temperature and associated precipitation resulted in increase in nitrogen loading from terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems. Furthermore, inorganic nitrogen (IN) loading increased more rapidly than organic nitrogen (ON) with increasing air temperature. Each oC increment annual air temperature caused a 24% increase in nitrogen loading to aquatic ecosystems and a 22% increase in ratio of IN: ON concentrations in stream water. We also show that the coastal mountains ecosystems seem to be more vulnerable to temperature induced nitrogen loss than the interior ecosystems. We suggest that climate warming and elevated loading of nitrogen from terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems will have major implications for the quality of water in freshwater and coastal marine ecosystems.
Emily Lloret
Université de Lille, France
Title: Impact of tailings on environments: example of elemental transfers from spoil tips in the North of the France
Biography:
Emily Lloret is associate professor at the LGCgE (Laboratoire de Génie Civil et géo-Environnement, Univ. Lille, France). She is an expert analyst of soils, biogeochemical cycles of nutrients and transfers in environment. After a PhD on the impact of natural disturbances (meteorological events) on dissolved nutrient (dissolved organic carbon) transfers in tropical environment, she specialized in the study of the impact of natural and anthropic disturbances on soil and biogeochemical cycles of nutrients in mining context. She is particularly implicated in the organization of her laboratory, especially as a member of the laboratory council (since 2016) and of the Earth sciences research/teaching committee of the University of Lille. She is involved in several research projects with industrial (ADEME, GESIPOL 2015, Mis’Char project), national and international partners (INTERREG France and Belgium, RISSC project). She is co-porter of an interlab project (IRePSE program, with F. Bourdelle and A. Hofmann) and of several synchrotron-based programs (analysis campaigns).
Abstract:
The North of the France was the scene of an active past coal mining activity, whose wastes form about 300 spoil tips. Although these materials are considered as sterile, spoil tips are colonized by pioneer species, which contribute to the weathering of parent geological material and the formation of a neo-soil. Due to their composition and weathering processes, spoil tips – and neo-soils on its - can be at the origin of elemental transfers in the environment (pollutants as trace elements, sulfur, organic compounds?). These transfers must be strongly understood and quantified to manage spoil tips and minimize their impacts.
To qualify the spoil tip/environment interactions, we have characterized the parent geological material and alteration processes, we have studied the neo-soil and its role in elemental transfers, and we have determined transfers, through field measurements and laboratory leaching tests.
We selected one spoil tip made of black schists (quartz, clays, pyrites, oxides, coal residues), partially covered by a forest at the origin of a neo-soil, and surrounded by ponds.
The spoil tip shows an unexpected neo-soil including three distinct horizons, corresponding to different degrees of parent material weathering (variation of mineralogy and oxidation state) and of organic matter incorporation.
The mineralogical characterization (XRD, SEM, TEM) shows a S-rich alteration front at the schist surface, coupled to mineralogical transformations, and the formation of jarosite and Fe-oxides.
Ponds at the bottom of this spoil tip present various chemical and biological characteristics. Especially, the heavy metal concentrations measured in pond water are very variable from one pond to another. These analyses coupled to lixiviation test from each neo-soil horizon allow to quantify elemental transfers from black schist spoil tip (Figure 1) and inform about the extent of the area of spoil tip influence.