Biospec has two study sites: a "dehesa" (Holm oak wooded grassland) and a rice paddy. They have different vegetation structures, different seasonal patterns for both carbon dioxide and water vapour fluxes, and very wide amplitude of carbon exchange rates.
The Biospec main study site is located in Las Majadas del Tietar, in the Province of Cáceres, where CEAM is operating a flux tower since May 2003. The natural vegetation type corresponds to the Pyro bourgeaneae – Querceto rotundifoliae quercetum mesomediterranean series (Rivas-Martínez, 1987), which has been transformed into a wooded (Holm oak) grassland (herbaceous species) containing some shrub species (Cistus ladanifer, Lavandula pedunculata and Ulex europaeus). Natural regrowth is good and land management is focused on grazing. Lixisols (non-limestone Miocene substrates) are predominant and soil depth is over 80 cm. Tree density is of about 20 per hectare, with an average height of 8m and an average DBH of 400mm.
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Meteorological daily data for Majadas area are available at AEMET (Agencia Estatal de Meteorología).
Near real time data is available through the IMECC Terrestrial Carbon Data Center , which provides highly standardized and quality controlled carbon, water and energy fluxes measurements from eddy covariance sites. Majadas area counts on daily images from a webcam located on the flux tower.
Additional measurements during specific periods will be taken in an agricultural area in Sueca in the Province of Valencia, where CEAM has another flux tower. The tower is within the boundary of Albufera de Valencia Natural Park, on the marshland used for rice paddy fields (Oryza sativa). Therefore, this is a monoculture type of agricultural ecosystem used for crop management. From January to April paddy fields, which remain dry, are ploughed. In May they are flooded and sown, and in August the fields are dried up again and then harvested around mid September, after which they are flooded again around November. The tower is on a "tancat" (or paddy enclosure around the Albufera lagoon) and its flood level is determined by the water level in the lagoon. Paddy fields are flooded by rising the lagoon’s water level alter closing the floodgates, whereas drainage is carried out using engines.
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Meteorological daily data for Sueca area are available at CEAMET (Fundación CEAM).
