FO3X (Ozone FACE – free air controlled exposure): un’infrastruttura innovativa per una valutazione realistica dell’impatto dell’ozono troposferico sulla vegetazione

Tropospheric ozone (O3) is an oxidative air pollutant causing a significant negative effect on forest species. Therefore, it is essential to develop exposure systems that can provide realistic estimates of plant responses to O3 under real world conditions. This article focuses on an O3 Free-Air Controlled Exposure (FACE) system developed in Italy (FO3X facility). Since 2015, the FO3X has been running as a last generation O3 FACE facility at the CNR experimental garden in central Italy, which is a unique facility in Mediterranean Europe within the AnaEE (Analysis and Experimentation on Ecosystems) European research infrastructure. This facility allows the exposure of plants to three levels of O3 concentrations (ambient, 1.5- and 2.0-times ambient concentration), with main environmental variables continuously monitored. This paper also introduces the five modern O3 FACE facilities for plant species currently running in the world and a further technological development with perspective for climate change studies.