Environmental Technologies and Eco-innovation in the Czech ...

5.4 | Experience with the operation of an experimental
centre of the Institute of Systems Biology and
Ecology of the Academy of Sciences in Bílý Kříž
Complex ecophysiological research on the impact of climatic changes on ecosystems
is being conducted at the experimental centre of the Institute of Biology
and Ecology Systems of the AS CR, v. v. i. Bílý Kříž in Moravskoslezské Beskydy. As part
of this research, the latest measuring technologies have been applied and specific new
technologies have been developed. These include two lamellar cultivation areas with
an area of 1 are for long-term growing of mountain eco-systems in environments
with enhanced concentrations of CO 2 . Plants are grown under common concentrations
of CO 2 in the first cultivation area and under approximately double CO 2 concentrations
in the second area. Another facility is a cultivation facility for growing plants under
enhanced intensities of ultraviolet radiation (UV-B). Typical positive characteristics
of plants grown in the atmosphere with increased concentrations of CO 2 compared
to plants grown in atmospheres with natural CO 2 concentrations are accelerated
photosynthesis (CO 2 consumption), increase in root system biomasses and increases in
water utilisation efficiency.
Since the mid90s, the application of eddy covariance technology has also been
developed at ISBE. It is a technology that enables the measuring of material flows
(CO 2 , H 2 O and other greenhouse gases) and energies (apparent and latent heat)
between the adjacent atmospheric layer and a given eco-system. Currently, this
technology is being used in the Czech Republic for studying pine and beech woods,
meadows, wetlands and agro-eco-systems. A technological improvement is the
simultaneous direct measuring of the flows of CO 2 from soil and xyloid parts of plants
through automatic chamber systems. This enables the very precise determination of
the amount of carbon that a given eco-system is able to absorb from the atmosphere.
Over the last years, monitoring the flow of materials in forest eco-systems has
expanded to include continuous measuring of ozone and calculating of stomatal
conductivity 13 .
Another innovation in ecophysiological research is the interconnection of
integral gasometric methods 14 with visual methods for leaves. For this purpose,
fluorescence display cameras have been developed that map spatial heterogeneity of
13 stomatal conductivity – the rate of pore opening on the surface of leaves where exchange of CO 2 and H 2 O (water vapours)
takes place between the leaves and the atmosphere
14 gasometric methods – methods enabling the determination of exchange of gases (CO 2 , H 2 O, etc.) between a leaf or the
entire eco-system and the surrounding atmosphere; on grounds of these measuring the rate of photosynthesis and stomatal
conductivity is specified
72 | 73