DE ANGELIS Paolo

Orari di ricevimento

From Monday to Friday: 10:00 - 13:00 & 15:00 - 16:00

Curriculum

Prof. Paolo De Angelis, PhD, is Full Professor at the University of Tuscia. Received his “Laurea” (MSc) degree in Forestry in 1989, with a thesis on the environmental and ecological impacts of an experimental thinning, in a Pinus pinaster stand. He obtained his PhD degree on 1994, with a thesis on the effects of elevated [CO2] on a Mediterranean forest ecosystem. The research activities are conducted in the Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-food and Forest systems (DIBAF) – Lab. of Forest Ecophysiology. The main scientific area is on Plant & Tree Ecophysiology and Ecology, with particular emphasis on the study of the impacts of climate changes (temperature, drought, elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration) on trees, forests and shrubland. Another sector of application of the ecophysiological studies is on the evaluation of the functional responses of trees and forest to the microclimatic and structural changes induced by the silvicultural treatments. The research activities are conducted mainly in-situ, by the realization of large-scale manipulation facilities. The scientific methodologies used to conduct the researches, spans from the analysis of leaf and community gas-exchanges, to the analysis of soil-plant-atmosphere water relations; from the analysis of ecosystem productivity and carbon cycle, to the plant-pollution transfers and phytoremediation technologies. He designed and managed large Open Top Chambers, to study the direct effects of a doubled atmospheric CO2 concentration on a natural Mediterranean forest, for more than seven years. He collaborates on the design and management of a Free Air Carbon dioxide Enrichment (FACE) facility, used to expose to an atmospheric [CO2] of 550 ppm a poplar plantation, from the beginning to the end of the second rotation cycle (six years). He was the scientific responsible of the Porto Conte installation, where the long-term impacts of an increased daily minimum temperature (night time warming) and a prolonged summer drought, were studied for more than ten years. In the sector of plant-pollution interactions, he develops designs, tests and pilots for the application of phytoremediation to specific polluted sites and for different matrix: soil, water, sediment. He is also one of the promoters of the National Workshops on Phytoremediation: REMIDA & RECONNET initiatives, RemTech annual exhibition and event. The applications of phytotechnologies are not limited to the remediation of polluted sites, but also to avoid new contamination integrating plant processes to the industrial activities or to civil infrastructures (green infrastructure) in urban areas. The development of phytoremediation using trees and other plants, to combine site remediation with the recovery of ecosystem services is a more recent field of his activity, realised at the national level in the context of the REMIDA initiative. His work is also devoted to applied projects, focused on the design and realization of sustainable solutions to reuse the wastewater for wood production and for environmental protection. In this context, he coordinated: the design and realization of a pilot area in the frame of the international cooperation between Italy and Algeria (MAE-MIUR; MISE-ICE-CRUI); the design of a series of constructed wetlands to protect the seasonal river supporting the palm production in the Saharan region and the design of a constructed wetland to treat the wastewater of a small village in Tunisia, in the frame of a multilateral FAO project. He participated to several European Research Projects, mainly focused on the impact of environmental stresses and climatic changes on different forest ecosystem processes (STEP, CIPA, EPOCH, ECOCRAFT, POPFACE, VULCAN, EUROFACE). He also was involved in other European Projects focused on Forest Ecology as CANIF, FORCAST and LTEEF. In that context his scientific contribution was on the study of acclimation of trees and community using the ecophysiological methods and techniques at level of leaves, trees, community and ecosystems. At the national level his work was also focused on the response of forest communities and trees plantations to the silvicultural management, applying new techniques and methods for that specific sector. In the context of the European FP7 his scientific activity was: on water use efficiency of poplar clones as staff member of the project NOVELTREE (Novel tree breeding strategies); on impact of climate changes on Mediterranean shrublands, as scientific responsible of one partner group of the project INCREASE (An Integrated Network on Climate Change REsearch Activities on Shrubland Ecosystems); on impact of land management on the regional scale GHG balance of selected data rich regions in Europe, in the context of the project GHG-Europe (Greenhouse gas management in European land use systems). Until now he published 142 papers on international and national scientific journal and books, and 121 abstracts on international and national congress proceedings. The cumulative number of citations of the 81 publications included in the database “Scopus” is 4969 and the h-index based on the same database is 35 (December 2018). He teaches “Forest Ecophysiology” and “Phytotechnologies to protect water and soil in urban areas” at the University of Tuscia for the students of the MSc course “Forestry and Environmental Sciences”. He was the coordinator of the Doctorate (PhD) School on Forest Ecology, from 2002 to 2016 and President of the Steering committee managing the BSc & MSc courses on “Forestry and Environmental Sciences” from 2011 to 2017. He is associated to the Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology (SISEF) and Italian Academy of Forest Sciences (AISF). Publication list available on: ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8310-8831 PUBLONS: https://publons.com/researcher/2759244/paolo-de-angelis/ Keywords: Forest ecophysiology, Phytoremediation, Plant-soil interactions, Forest & Climate changes