The Summer Event 2019, took place in Pieve Tesino from July 22th to July 27th, 2019.

The Summer Event is the last event the students attend during the MEDfOR Programme. It is also the last time in which they have the opportunity to be all together.

22.07 Monday:

The students arrived to the village. The journey takes a long time from some, since they are coming from Portugal or Spain, and Pieve Tesino is a small village on the middle of the Italian Alps. Everyone was reunited at the welcome dinner at the Restaurant Cima d’Asta

23.07: Tuesday

09:00 Short introduction of the 6^th edition of MEDFOR Summer event

09h20 – 16h. Students presentations:

Students’ presented their thesis or their ongoing thesis work. The students who defended the thesis on Valladolid were already prepared for the challenged!!

• Eric Cudjoe. Tree biomass allocation in temperate mixed forests
• Gianluca Segalina. Thinning operations focusing on biodiversity conservation in protected forest of northern Vietnam. Effects on habitat value and economic yield
• Habib Yusif. Model Selection and Fitting for Basal Area Increment in Vietnamese Tropical Forest
• Jim yates. The role of formal institutions in forests decline: analysis of mechanisms, effects and their evaluation
• Julia Ramsauer. Modelling the role of seed dispersers in determining forest species distribution patterns
• Komla Julien Akpalu. Susceptibility of Pinus pinaster’s families to Pine Pitch Canker  caused by Fusarium circinatum
• Leonardo Antunes. Quercus suber L. and Quercus ilex L. in Spain. Updating the Provenance Regions Maps and Calculating Conservation Indicators for their genetic resources
• Mulugeta Sisay Abebe. Land Cover changes in Eastern Mediterranean Ecosystem: The case of Haifa and Jerusalem Metropolitan areas
• Shebeshe Haile. How does precipitation pattern affect annual tree growth? a multi-year data analysis case study of semi-arid yatir forest, Israel
• Ali Askarieh. A Stand Density Management Diagram for mixed stands of Pinus sylvestris and Pinus pinaster in the Sierra de la Demanda (Spain)

After the presentations the students had a brief introduction to the Alpine forest vegetation (medium altitude) by prof. Maurizio Sabatti  from University of Tuscia.  Students were  invited to the plant recognition activity; a group work to create a common archive of photos on these plants.

After this, there was still time to a Visit the Arboretum on Pieve Tesino. The arboretum has a huge variety of plants and a walk through the woods.

24.07 Wednesday:

The remaining students did their presentations during the morning:

• Anand Babu. Populus spp. dormant bud production and chemical characterization of bioactive phenolic compounds from bud extracts and sprout educates. 
• Elvin Carol Kohen. Forest Restoration, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
• Fahmida Sultana. In vitro characterization of veteran micropropagated Platanus orientalis under heavy metal (Cd) exposure and bio-inoculation
• Michael Boateng Ottie. Comparative analysis of salinity tolerance in Tamarix africana and Tamarix gallica originating from two Italian provenance populations
• Muhammad Ishfaq. Does the National and Provincial Forest Policies in Coherence with UNSPF goals? A Case Study of Pakistan
• SM Lovely Akhter. Effects of water and temperature stress on Alnus glutinosa populations across the species distribution range

And during the afternoon the students went to Trento to visit the Science Museum.

25.07 Thursday:

Field visit 1: Impacts of the windstorm “Vaia” on Alpine mid altitude forests

On the 3^rd day the group had a field trip through the mountains, to learn more about the impact of the windstorm “Vaia”. The walk was long, and it was quite hard – it was an extremely hot day, but the view was magnificent.

During the afternoon the students attended the following sessions, offered by some of Padua’s researchers:

•         Tommaso Sitzia / Thomas Campagnaro: Ecology of natural disturbances, forest management and planning

•         Mauro Masiero: Impacts of windstorm “Vaia” on wood production chain and the wood market

•         Alex Pra: Governance of critical events and restoring policies in the forest sector: the case of windstorm “Vaia”

26.07 Friday

Field visit 2: Silviculture of Picea forest & visit to  “Arte Sella”

On Friday, the students had two visits in one. During the morning they visited a Picea forest and had the opportunity to learn how the management of this forest is done.

During the afternoon the students visited “Arte Sella”, a Land Art Museum full of beautiful sculptures imbibed into to the forest site.

After their return, students shared the pictures of the plants they gathered during these days.

27.07 Saturday

The Goodbyes were said in the morning. A nice  trip to everyone and a great journey for what lays ahead.  

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