“Faidherbia-Flux”, a new highly instrumented collaborative Observatory in a semi-arid agro-silvo-pastoral system of Western Africa (Niakhar-Senegal).

A new long-term flux Observatory was launched (2017) in a semi-arid agro-silvo-pastoral parkland of Senegal. Agroforestry trees are mostly Faidherbia albida, a multi-purpose legume tree, phreatophytic and displaying a reverse phenology, emblematic for agroforestry in dry lands (Roupsard et al., 1999; Sida et al., 2018). Crops are pearl millet, groundnut and cowpea mainly. The soil is sandy and yield is highly limited in water, N and P mainly. The aim of “Faidherbia-Flux” is to assess energy and GHG balances (CO2, H2O, N2O, CH4), together with some major Ecosystem Services (NPP, yield, erosion) at the plant, plot, watershed and landscape scales and separating strata (trees, crops, surface soil, deep soil, aquifer). Observation, experimentation, modelling and remote-sensing are combined, collecting data and calibrating models locally, then upscaling to larger regions. The project will run on the long term through projects, in order to encompass seasonal and inter-annual fluctuations. Faidherbia-flux is a platform where collaborative research is promoted: data are being shared between collaborators and positive interactions are enhanced. The philosophy is to concentrate several investigations on one specific site and for several years, to share a useful common experimental database, to develop modelling, to publish results in highly-ranked scientific journals and share databases internationally (FLUXNET, ICOS, ANAEE, etc.) for meta-analyses purposes. Applied research is also highly encouraged (agronomy, agro-ecological intensification, breeding, etc.). Faidherbia-flux benefits from infrastructure (People-Health-Environment Observatory of Niakhar, 50 years of research), and very good security, ready to welcome complementary scientific investigations and collaborations. The project is wide open to complementary projects, scientists and of course to students.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Roupsard, Olivier, Jourdan, Christophe, Cournac, Laurent, Ndour, Y.B., Tall, Laure, Chapuis-Lardy, Lydie, Clermont-Dauphin, Cathy, Orange, Didier, Do, Frédéric C., Kergoat, Laurent, Le Maire, Guerric, Van Den Meersche, Karel, Timouk, F., Grippa, Manuela, Rocheteau, Alain, Duthoit, Maxime, Chotte, Jean-Luc, Laclau, Jean-Paul
Format:	conference_item biblioteca
Language:	eng
Published:	INRA
Online Access:	http://agritrop.cirad.fr/590638/ http://agritrop.cirad.fr/590638/1/ID590638.pdf
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