Growing global warming is closely linked to the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) caused by human activity. About 60% of the CO2 released into the atmosphere by humans is reabsorbed by the oceans and terrestrial ecosystems. CO2 enters ecosystems through the photosynthesis process; a part of it is re-emitted into the atmosphere through the breathing of the ecosystem. The balance between photosynthesis and respiration determines the net CO2 exchange of the ecosystem and allows to quantify the role of an ecosystem's absorber or carbon source.

Monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions is important for the implementation of climate change models. To this end, the eddy covariance method is considered the most effective and accurate in the evaluation of the exchange of greenhouse gases from natural environments and areas responsible for the production of greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and methane.

Within the activities of the LIFE VITISOM project, the monitoring of greenhouse gas flows is an important activity conducted by the University of Padua and by West Systems.

In these weeks monitoring activities are taking place in the vineyards of Guido Berlucchi and Bosco del Merlo, where two Eddy Covariance stations and monitoring rooms have been installed for greenhouse gas emissions (CO2, CH4, N2O) from the ground.

In the latter case, the 8 rooms available, parts of a prototype developed thanks to the LIFE + IPNOA project (LIFE11 ENV / IT / 000302), were placed in correspondence with 4 different treatments (compost, built-in compost, witness and witness) worked). These data are useful for increasing the knowledge on these issues that are still little investigated for the wine context.