Antonello Provenzale, CNR-ISAC, CNR-IGG, CIMA Research Foundation

13/05/2026 ore 11:00

CNR-ISAC, Bologna meeting room and online

Abstract

The “Critical Zone” is the thin layer from the bottom of the surface aquifer to the top of vegetation canopy, where all chemical, physical, biological and geological processes sustaining terrestrial ecosystems take place. It is the layer where “rock meets life,” and the interactions between living organisms and the inorganic world are particularly strong. Water, soil, rocks, vegetation, and microbiota are some of the components of this layer, called “critical” both because it is essential for our survival and well-being, and because it is seriously threatened by anthropogenic environmental changes. In addition, the critical zone controls the lower boundary conditions (fluxes of matter and energy) of atmospheric and climate dynamics. This seminar explores some of the processes of the Critical Zone, with particular attention to carbon and water exchanges between soil, vegetation and the atmosphere, and discusses some of the models used to describe its dynamics.

Bio

Research Director at the Italian National Research Council (CNR) until 2025. Director of the Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources of the CNR from 2015 to 2024. He is currently a member of the Scientific Council and Program Director of the CIMA Research Foundation. He is a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of Turin and of the Academy of Sciences and Letters of the Lombardy Institute. His research interests include climate dynamics, the impacts of climate and environmental change on the hydrological cycle and wildfires, geosphere-biosphere interactions, and ecosystem modelling. A Golden Badge Award recipient of the European Geophysical Society, he has been a visiting researcher at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, Ben-Gurion University, and the University of Colorado at Boulder. Coordinator of national and international research projects, he is the author of more than 200 scientific publications and popular articles and books. He is the author of the book “Coccodrilli al Polo Nord e Ghiacci all’Equatore” (Rizzoli, 2021).

Watch the recording