Marco Tempesta

from January 2015 – Ph.D. Student at the Free University of Bolzano-Bozan Mountain Environment and Agriculture Program XXX cycle

Bachelor of Science: Tecnologie Fitosanitarie. Faculty of Agriculture – University of Bari (Tomato powdery mildew caused by Oidium neolycopersici. Supervisor Franco Ciccarese)
Master of Science: IMaHS, International Master in Horticultural Sciences. Faculty of Agriculture – ALMA MATER STUDIORUM – University of Bologna Double degree program in collaboration with Humboldt University of Berlin. (Remote sensing of nitrogen and water status on Boston lettuce transplants in a greenhouse environment. Supervisor: Giorgio Prosdocimi Gianquinto. Co-Supervisor: Nicholas Tremblay)

My PhD research is focused on nitrogen use efficiency in cauliflower intercropped and in succession with other vegetable species in a mountain environment. The study aims to understand how the cauliflower affects the yield of the other species, and how sustainable the intercropping system is in terms of nitrogen-fertilizer use. For the latter scope, different sources of fertilizer both mineral and organic will be tested and an analysis of the optimal fertilizer rate needed to reach high yields will be made. Different remote sensing tools will be compared to assess the relationship between vegetation indices and the crop nutritional status. In addition, the study will include the application of the isotopic technique through the use of 15-N enriched fertilizer. The purpose is to investigate the fate of nitrogen incorporated in crop residues of both cauliflower and other intercropped species.