Research activity
The research activity is aimed at expanding the knowledge on the physiological, molecular, biochemical, genetic and ecological mechanisms controlling plant-environment interactions at single plant, plant population, natural and cultivated plant community level, and on the role that these mechanisms exert on plant adaptation.
Particular attention is devoted to study plant growth responses, both at individual plant and species or ecosystem, to suboptimal growth conditions such those imposed by the increasing impact of environmental stress factors, mainly associated to global change and the enhancement of pollutants in the biosphere. Moreover, a research activity focused on the development and application of innovative technologies and methodologies is carried out with the aim to improve and integrate the knowledge on the responses of individual plant and ecosystem to the environmental stress.
Coordinator: dr Massimo Zacchini
Research Staff:
Isabel Nogues
Di Baccio Daniela
Angelo Massacci
Fabrizio Pietrini
Federico Brilli
Andrea Scartazza
Main scientific collaborations:
- Department de Biologia Vegetal, Facultat de Biologia, Università di Barcellona, Spagna;
- Timiryazev Institute of Plant Physiology (IPP-RAS) di Mosca, Russia;
- Institute for Bioengineering (IBEC) of Catalunya, Spagna;
- Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Svizzera;
- Department of Plant Physiology, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia;
- Research group of Plant and Vegetation Ecology (PLECO) - Department of Biology, Universiteit Antwerpen (Belgium);
- Department of Animal & Plant Science, University of Sheffield (UK);
- Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik, Universität Innsbruck (Austria);
- Universidad Miguel Hernández, Elche (Spagna);
- CEBAS (Centro de Edafología y Biología Aplicada del Segura), Murcia (Spagna);
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Virginian Commonwealth University, USA;
- Institute of Plant Physiology of the “Polish Academy of Sciences”. Krakow, Poland;
- Biological Research Center. Plant biology Institute. Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Szeged, Hungary;
- Environmental Sciences Department. Universitat di Girona (Spagna);
- Italian University such as Tuscia (VT), Parma, Molise, La Sapienza (Rome), Florence, Pisa;
- Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna di Studi Universitari e di Perfezionamento (SSSUP) Pisa;
- Italian Institute of Technology (IIT);
- EnteCRA (RPS e PLF);
- CNR Institutes (particularly IVALSA, IPP, IBIMET, IMC, IRSA).