The 5th International Electronic Conference on Forests

Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies, the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications, Barcelona, Spain, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK;
Talk title: Inter- and intra-specific variability in plant hydraulic traits: Why does it matters and what are its drivers? Maurizio Mencuccini is a plant and ecosystem ecologist studying how woody plants regulate structure and physiology to withstand extreme events such as droughts and heat waves. His research spans Mediterranean ecosystems and the Neotropics, advancing understanding of how plants control water use across space and time, and how acclimation and phenotypic plasticity shape stress responses. He has also highlighted the roles of tree size and ageing in forest physiology. In climate-change research, he examined how nitrogen and sulphur deposition influences the carbon cycle in boreal and temperate forests. He has worked closely with the UK forestry sector on regional modelling of forest growth and carbon sequestration, combining process-based models with Bayesian data assimilation and LiDAR remote sensing. After a joint PhD at the Universities of Edinburgh and Florence and a postdoc at Cornell (USA), he spent many years at Edinburgh. He is now an ICREA Research Professor at CREAF (Barcelona) and remains Honorary Professor of Forest Science at Edinburgh. He has co-supervised 31 PhD students and 20 postdocs, published 300+ papers, and is a Highly Cited Researcher.

Department of Environmental, Biological and Pharmaceutical, Sciences and Technologies, University of Campania "L. Vanvitelli", Caserta, Italy;
Dr. Giovanna Battipaglia is a forest ecologist, with research specialization in ecophysiology, and dendroecology. She is currently Full Professor in Forest Ecology at the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli. In 2005 she got her PhD in « Implementation and application of isotopic methodologies in environmental science research ». She has been working in several International institutes during her carrier, such as Center of Bio-Archeology and Ecology (CBAE- F), the Swiss Federal Research Institute (WSL - CH), The University of Amsterdam (UVA, NL), the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (MPI, G) and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI, CH). She has long expertise in ecosystem carbon dynamics and in using stable isotopes (with conventional and laser technologies) as a tracer for physical and biological processes. Her activity has been mainly devoted to understanding the responses of terrestrial ecosystems i.e., forest, grassland and cropland, to climatic conditions and management regimes.

Forest Modelling Laboratory, Institute for Agriculture and Forestry Systems in the Mediterranean, National Research Council of Italy (CNR–ISAFOM), Perugia, Italy;
Alessio Collalti is a Senior Researcher at the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) and Head of the Forest Modelling Lab. His research focuses on the development and application of process-based models to investigate forest ecosystem functioning under changing environmental conditions. He works on integrating field observations, including eddy covariance data, with modelling approaches to improve the representation of forest dynamics, carbon cycling, and responses to climate change and management. Alessio has contributed to several international research projects and scientific assessments, with the aim of advancing predictive tools to support climate change mitigation and adaptation in forest ecosystems.

Sustainable Forest Management Research Institute, the University of Valladolid, Palencia, Spain;
Julio Javier Diez Casero is a Chair Professor of Forest Pathology at the University of Valladolid (Spain) since 2010. He obtained his degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Salamanca and completed his PhD at the School of Forest Engineers of the Polytechnic University of Madrid. His research focuses on the diagnosis, characterization, and control of forest pathogens. His scientific work has been developed not only in Spain but also in several international research centers, including the ARC–Long Ashton Research Station (UK), the Laurentian Forestry Centre (Canada), and the University of California, Davis (USA). He has an extensive scientific record, having edited 13 books and published 186 articles in peer-reviewed journals, including papers in high-impact journals such as Nature. He has also authored 17 book chapters and presented more than 200 contributions at scientific conferences. Professor Diez has supervised 20 completed PhD theses, with additional theses currently in progress, as well as more than 100 MSc theses. Many of these works have received awards from scientific societies. He has participated in 28 research projects, including eight international projects, coordinating several of them and securing more than €5 million in research funding. He has held numerous international leadership roles in scientific organizations and networks, particularly within IUFRO and several COST Actions. Currently, he directs the Global Change and Forest Diseases Research Group at the University of Valladolid, coordinates the Consolidated Research Unit on Forest Pathology of Castilla y León, and chairs the One Health UVa–IDForest Chair.