Participant ID: 9 - Seconda Università di Napoli (DSA-SUN)
	http://www.unina2.it/

Expertise and experience The Department of Environmental Sciences (DSA) of the Second University of Naples (SUN) is a research and didactic organization covering a broad range of disciplines, within the field of environmental sciences. Research areas of the department are: Biology, Biochemistry, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Ecology, Environmental Technology, Microbiology and Physics. The department was funded in 1997, and at present, a part from the administration staff, members are: nine full professors, thirteen associated professors, eleven researchers, five technicians and several research students. Among them there are experts in: biology and chemistry of soils, soil organic matter and litter decomposition, soil biogeochemical cycles greenhouse gas fluxes, accelerator and conventional mass spectrometry, fitogeography, pedology, soil reclamation, management of protected areas, industrial pollution control, radioactivity, NMR, electronic microscopy, gene regulation. The department research activity currently consists of over 40 research programmes, founded by the European Community, the MIUR (Ministry of University and Research), the CNR (National research Council) and other funding agency. The Dept. of Environmental Sciences of the SUN supports these research activities by many experimental facilities, which also include many advanced instrumentations such as isotope ratio mass spectrometers, gas cromatographs coupled with a quadrupole mass spectrometer, ICP mass spectrometer, an Accelerator Mass Spectrometer for measurements of stable C and N isotopes, and 14C in gas and solid samples, gas chromatograps, IR analyser and lasers for gas analyses, NMR analyser, Electronic microscopy. The Dept. of Environmental Sciences of the SUN has participated to many EU research projects and COST actions and currently it is involved in the EUROFACE RTD, the CARBOEUROPE IP, the ALICE ToK MC projects, the COST Action 627 and NITROEUROPE IP. Role in this project WP2: Designing and building of closed chambers for the GHG measurements at the african sites. Calibration and optimization of a novel photoacustic infrared methodology versus an established gas chromatographic technique for the analysis of GHG fluxes from soil. Use of gas chromatographic and photoacustic infrared methodology, coupled with closed chamber technique, at all sites specified in Table 2.1 of WP2, for monitoring GHG gas exchanges between soil and atmosphere. Data analysis for parametrization in the modelisation, and writing publications. WP3: A synthesis of existing and ongoing observations on N2O and CH4 fluxes in relation to climate and vegetation type. Review of currently available models for N2O and CH4 production and CH4 consumption and available. Parameterization of models for N2O and CH4 production and CH4 consumption at studied sites. Models runs and validation at regional scale. Regional georeferenced maps of N2O and CH4 fluxes. Principal Investigator and collaborators Simona Castaldi, Principal Investigator and Scientific Responsible, first degree in Biology, won a Human Capital and Mobility EU fellowship (2 years) in 1994, to work on trace gas exchanges between soil and the atmosphere, at the University of Edinburgh, UK. On the same topic, she received her Ph.D in 1997 at the University of Edimburgh, UK. Since 1998, she is Researcher in Ecology, at the Faculty of Environmental Sciences of the SUN, where she also lectures Ecotoxicology, Biomonitoring, Ecological Risk Assessment. Her main research field is soil ecology, with a particular focus on trace gas soil-atmosphere exchanges, in particular nitrous oxide and methane. She is also specialized in soil biogeochemical cycles with particular focus on the nitrogen cycle in seasonally-dry ecosystems. She is currently responsible for the trace gas work on N2O and CH4 at SUN. She is also a member of The Regional Centre for Analysis and Monitoring of Environmental Risk (AMRA, EU funded), where she is in charge of monitoring of trace gas fluxes from natural and antrophic environments. She is currently a member of the Management Committee of COST Action 729. She has worked on several projects on trace gas fluxes, including one with a special focus on savanna environments (INCO-DC). At the present she is involved in different national and international project having special focus on greenhouse gases quantification and modelization (CARBO-IUS; INGV-; CARBO-ITALY; NITROEUROPE IP, MIUR-) and collaborates within the MIND (EU) project for the quantification of GHG and the study of the nitrogen cycle in Mediterranean environments under drought stress. M. Francesca Cotrufo, Prof., is expert in litter and SOM decomposition studies and in the use of isotopic methodologies to trace C flows in soils. She is the cordinator of an international PhD program on "Novel physics methodologies for ecological research". She is currently a member of the Management Committee of COST Action 627 "Carbon Storage in European Grasslands" in which she is the leader of the Working Group 1 "Plant, Soil and Soil organisms". She has partecipated to many national and international projects. She coordinates the ALICE ToK MC project and is PI in the EUROFACE and CARBOEUROPE research projects. Antonella Ermice, Dr., is a pedologist, with a special interest in soil genesis, classification and distribution. . She is currently responsible for soil classification of human-influenced soils at SUN. Ilaria Del Galdo, Dr., is a soil ecologist and has specialised in studying SOM turnover by means of SOM fractionation and stable C isotopes. She is currently responsible for the SOM work at SUN. Ilaria Inglima, is a soil ecologist and has specialised in studying CO2 efflux from soil of Mediterranean environments (MIND project, EU funded). Anna Carfora, is an environmental scientist who is currently collaborating at the modellization of N2O emissions from natural and agricultural soils, in GIS environment (CARBO-IUS project). Example publications