Accurate inventory and mapping of olive (Olea europaea L.) tree attributes represents a central issue to support the olive production system. With reference to the cultivation, there is a high heterogeneity and complexity in the cultivation of olive trees, which is reflected in the large variability in olive grove surfaces. This poses some challenge in accurately estimating olive tree attributes via traditional inventory approaches, as commonly adopted in national forest inventory. From a methodological point of view, the complexity and heterogeneity of olive tree groves can be comparable to the problem of accurately estimating tree outside forests (TOF) attributes. In this study, we tested whether a plot sampling approach formerly developed for TOF is suitable for estimating olive tree attributes at large scale. We tested this approach in a case study where the census of the olive crop area and the number of olive groves was conducted from photo-interpretation of high resolution aerial orthoimagery, used as benchmark to test the effectiveness of the plot sampling approach. The main result of this study is that the plot sampling method can be applied for estimating olive tree attributes. Our obtained RSEs were below 20%, with a limited sampling effort of about 6% of the studied population; the obtained RSEs were below 6% when increasing sampling up to about 21% the studied population. Using robust statistical procedures among countries, should allow obtaining harmonized and comparable information, which can increase the knowledge of olive geographical distribution and structure at its relevant Mediterranean scale. © 2019, Italian Society of Remote Sensing. All rights reserved.

• Key message: A multi-criteria analysis can be an interesting tool to assess the effects of silvicultural treatments on ecosystem services supply. In the degraded forests, thinning has a positive effect on the provision of ecosystem services such as timber and bioenergy production, climate change mitigation, and recreational attractiveness. • Context: The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment highlights the importance of the ecosystem services for human well-being and for maintaining conditions for life on Earth. Silvicultural treatments can improve the provision of ecosystem services to increase local communities’ well-being. • Aims: The aim of this study is to understand the effects of two-forest restoration practices (selective thinning and thinning from below) on three ecosystem services (wood production, climate change mitigation, and recreational opportunities) in an Italian case study. • Methods: A multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) was performed to compare the effects of three forest restoration scenarios (baseline, selective thinning, thinning from below) on ecosystem services. Wood production was estimated considering the local market prices and the wood volumes harvested, while climate change mitigation was quantified through the C-stock and C-sequestration changes in carbon pools due to the silvicultural treatments. The recreational activities were assessed through a questionnaire survey. A sample of 200 visitors was interviewed face-to-face to estimate the impact of thinning on recreational activities. • Results: The results of the MCDA show that the selective thinning scenario is the optimal forest restoration practice to increase the recreational attractiveness and the wood production in the study area. • Conclusion: The results concerning the effects of the silvicultural treatments on ecosystem services supply are an important tool to support decision makers. © 2021, INRAE and Springer-Verlag France SAS, part of Springer Nature.

In Mediterranean ecosystems an increasing demand for in situ trace gas exchange data is emerging to enhance the adaptation and mitigation strategies under forest degradation. Field-chamber green-house gas fluxes and site characteristics were analysed in two Mediterranean peri-urban pine forests showing degradation symptoms. We examined the effect of different thinning interventions on soil CO<inf>2</inf>, CH<inf>4</inf> and N<inf>2</inf>O fluxes, addressing the relationships with the environmental variables and C and N contents along forest floor-soil layers. Soil temperature resulted as the main driving variable for CO<inf>2</inf> efflux and CH<inf>4</inf> uptake. Soil moisture content and organic matter availability affected CO<inf>2</inf> emission patterns in the two sites. N<inf>2</inf>O fluxes showed a positive correlation with soil moisture under wetter climatic conditions only. GHG fluxes showed significant correlations with C and N content of both forest floor and mineral soil, especially in the deepest layers, suggesting that it should be considered, together with environmental variables when accounting GHG fluxes in degraded forests. Short-term effects of thinning on CO<inf>2</inf> emissions were dependent on disturbance induced by logging operations and organic matter inputs. After thinning CH<inf>4</inf> uptake increased significantly under selective treatment, independently from specific site-induced effects. N<inf>2</inf>O fluxes were characterized by low emissions in both sites and were not affected by treatments. Soil CO<inf>2</inf> efflux was the largest component of global warming potential (GWP) from both sites (11,553 kg ha⁻¹ y⁻¹ on average). Although it has a large global warming potential, N<inf>2</inf>O contribution to GWP was about 131 kg CO<inf>2</inf>eq ha⁻¹ y⁻¹. The contribution of CH<inf>4</inf>-CO<inf>2</inf> equivalent to total GWP showed a clear and significant CH<inf>4</inf> sink behaviour under selective treatment (36 kg ha⁻¹ y⁻¹ on average). However, in the short-term both thinning approaches produced a weak effect on total GWP. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.

Water availability is a major limiting factor in plant productivity and plays a key role in plant species distribution over a given area. New technologies, such as terahertz quantum cascade lasers (THz‐QCLs) have proven to be non‐invasive, effective, and accurate tools for measuring and monitoring leaf water content. This study explores the feasibility of using an advanced THz-QCL device for measuring the absolute leaf water content in Corylus avellana L., Laurus nobilis L., Ostrya carpinifolia Scop., Quercus ilex L., Quercus suber L., and Vitis vinifera L. (cv. Sangiovese). A recently proposed, simple spectroscopic technique was used, consisting in determining the transmission of the THz light beam through the leaf combined with a photographic measurement of the leaf area. A significant correlation was found between the product of the leaf optical depth (τ) and the leaf surface area (LA) with the leaf water mass (Mw) for all the studied species (Pearson’s r test, p ≤ 0.05). In all cases, the best fit regression line, in the graphs of τLA as a function of Mw, displayed R2 values always greater than 0.85. The method proposed can be combined with water stress indices of plants in order to gain a better understanding of the leaf water management processes or to indirectly monitor the kinetics of leaf invasion by pathogenic bacteria, possibly leading to the development of specific models to study and fight them. © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.