Sub-Department of Quantitative Ecology

ABEL Training School on UAVs and Biogeochemical Cycling

The school was held in the “Las Majadas del Tiétar” place located in western Spain (province of Cáceres). The experimental site is a characteristic “dehesa” (savannah, oak) ecosystem with two vegetation layers: a layer of low tree density (20% coverage) and an average age of trees of 150-200 years; and the bottom layer consists of pastures. The site is a research station of ecological processes that take place in it and is equipped with flux towers operated by the Mediterranean Center for Environmental Studies (CEAM) and the Institute of Biogeochemistry of the Max Planck Institute (MPI-BGC). http://fluxnet.ornl.gov/site/440). In addition to the equipment for flux measurements and other micrometeorological variables, there are also measuring devices for continuous spectral reflectance measurements on site. The school was attended by a total of twelve students and eight coaches coming from 10 different European countries. During school, we acquired a number of theoretical knowledge during various lectures in the fields of spectroscopy, sampling, experimental design, spectral databases, modeling, sunlight-induced fluorescence, and data integration. We are acquainted in detail with the models of radiative transfer (so-called radiative transfer model) (http://ipl.uv.es/artmo/index.php/radiativetransfer-models/88-rtm-leaf-canopy/17-scope) and the spectral base SPECCHIO (http://www.specchio.ch/) which we covered in lectures and practicums.