Strategies for increasing the water use efficiency of semi-arid mediterranean agrosilvopastoral systems under climate change

The overarching goal is to develop and apply innovative methodologies to increase the social-ecological water use efficiency of managed ecosystems along the Mediterranean biome and climate types also under climate change scenario. The research activities will be part of the FLUXMED European research project funded by Eranet WaterWorks2017, and will include: 1) ecohydrological monitoring of the evapotraspiration, CO2 flux and soil water balance at the experimental Sardinian sites, also using a micrometeorological eddy-covariance based tower and sap flux sensors; 2) development and application of ecohydrologic model for the two experimental sites, 3) development of land cover change strategies that optimize the water uses and increase system resilience also under future climate change scenarios. Experime