0000000000001006
AUTHOR
Juliane Ruhl
Soil carbon accumulation after agricultural abandonment. A Mediterranean case study.
In the last decades, in Europe large agricultural areas have been abandoned. In absence of disturbance factors, renaturation of these areas is rapid due to secondary succession of vegetation communities. In the Mediterranean region, in the last years have been conducted studies on soil carbon accumulation after agricultural abandonment. Soil has to be regarded as the most considerable carbon (C) sink on a global level. CO2 emission compensation is guaranteed also by C uptake by plants and by organic matter accumulation in soils. The present study analyzes organic carbon stock in some soils of Southern Italy, in the Madonie Mountains in Sicily, where large areas are subject to secondary succ…
Umanesimo della pietra/Humanism of the stone
Analisi dei processi di rinaturalizzazione nei vigneti e cappereti abbandonati del paesaggio terrazzato di Pantelleria (Canale di Sicilia)
This study analyses the vegetation dynamics in the terrace landscape of Pantelleria Island (Sicilian Channel). The main questions were to determine the sequence of plant communities in time and to find out which environmental factors influence the course and the speed of succession. In the thermomediterranean part of the island were made vegetation relevés in five different fallow age classes, investigating three different ecological subunits: the terrace surface, the wall base and the wall in North-facing as well as in South-facing vine and caper fallows. The results show that undisturbed abandoned terraces are subject to rapid renaturation: 50 to 80 years old fallows are covered by dense …
Land cover change in the Nature Reserve Sughereta di Niscemi (SE Sicily) in the 20th century
I cambiamenti nell’ecosistema della Riserva Naturale di Vendicari e gli effetti sull’avifauna
Variazione degli stock di carbonio in seguito ai processi di abbandono dei coltivi: il caso studio dell'isola di Pantelleria (Tp)
The recent abandonment of marginal agricultural areas in the Mediterranean has caused an increase of the surface occupied by pre-forest and forest formations. In order to study the carbon accumulation processes on Pantelleria Island was selected a North-facing area. This area includes 5 stages of succession (sds) that compose a chronosequence (from 0 to 30 years) to understand soil C accumulation processes after abandonment. These are abandoned vineyards or caperbushes, not disturbed (grazing, fire) since agricultural abandonment, and they are situated in thermomediterranean belt and on the same parent material and consequently considered in the same ecological conditions. Samples at 1 cm, …
Variazione degli stock di carbonio del suolo in seguito ai processi di abbandono dei coltivi: il caso studio dell’isola di Pantelleria (TP)
The recent abandonment of marginal agricultural areas in the Mediterranean has caused an increase of the surface occupied by pre-forest and forest formations. In order to study the carbon accumulation processes on Pantelleria Island was selected a North-facing area. This area includes 5 stages of succession (sds) that compose a chronosequence (from 0 to 30 years) to understand soil C accumulation processes after abandonment. These are abandoned vineyards or caperbushes, not disturbed (grazing, fire) since agricultural abandonment, and they are situated in thermomediterranean belt and on the same parent material and consequently considered in the same ecological conditions. Samples at 1 cm, …
Umanesimo della pietra. Le isole Eolie.
Umanesimo della pietra. Gli Iblei: terramenti e arboricoltura.
A chronosequence study of vegetation dynamics on vine and caper terraces of Pantelleria Island (Sicily)
The vegetation of fallow fields of different age in the terraced agricultural landscape of Pantelleria Island (Sicily) was analysed via vegetation relevés. Five age classes in N-facing as well as in S-facing slopes of both vine and caper fallows were differentiated. The main questions were to determine the sequence of plant communities in time and to test some environmental factors for their influence on the course and the speed of succession. The results show that undisturbed abandoned terraces are subject to rapid renaturation: 50 to 80 years old fallows are now covered by dense maquis communities. Both N- and S-facing slopes seem to converge to a Quercus ilex woodland as the climax commu…
I paesaggi a terrazze in Sicilia: metodologie per l’analisi, la tutela e la valorizzazione
Con questo volume, il settimo della collana “Studi e Ricerche”, ARPA Sicilia, nel continuare a promuovere la ricerca delle Università Siciliane, ha inteso favorire e stimolare la conoscenza di realtà territoriali che hanno via via assunto una significativa valenza sia in ambito nazionale che in un contesto mediterraneo più ampio: il continuo abbandono dei terreni agricoli ed agro-forestali terrazzati, fenomeno che ha determinato nel tempo mutazioni sociali e territoriali tutt’altro che trascurabili, imprimendo sensibili variazioni ai caratteri dei relativi paesaggi tradizionali interessati. Le preoccupazioni relative alla loro scomparsa e degrado sono fondate su ragioni insieme ambientali, …
Analisi del dinamismo della vegetazione in un'area di saggio permanente negli ex-pascoli dell'isola di Lampedusa (Canale di Sicilia
Grassland fire effect on soil organic carbon reservoirs in semiarid environment.
The effect of fire on soil organic matter content is highly variable and depends on several factors including fire intensity, soil type and nature of burned material. Grassland in semiarid environment are often managed by shepherds with annual burning in order to enhance pasture recovery. The aim of this work was investigating the effect of fire as grassland management tool on soil organic carbon (SOC) reservoirs and on post-fire plant recovery. The study was conducted on Hyparrenia hirta grassland and Ampelodesma mauritanicus grassland, located in the Province of Palermo, in the north of Sicily. Soil samples were collected at two depth (0-5 and 5-20 cm) before and after experimental fire a…
Il paesaggio agrario della biodiversità/Agricultural landscape of biodiversity
Il paesaggio agrario della biodiversità. - Rinaturalizzazione a Pantelleria.
I cambiamenti d'uso del suolo nella Conca d'Oro dal “secolo degli agrumi” a oggi.
Metodologia per lo studio delle successioni secondarie in ex-coltivi terrazzati: il caso studio di Pantelleria (Canale di Sicilia)
Even if the abandonment of agricultural areas and the resulting processes of renaturation are a widespread phenomenon in the West-European countries, considerations about adeguate evaluation methods to study these processes are lacking. In detail, there is no standard method to study terraced areas, which are common in many parts of Europe and the Mediterranean region and which are frequently object to abandonment. In this study are presented the methodological aspects of a study on vegetation dynamics on abandoned terraces on Pantelleria Island. In order to answer the research questions, the first step was to choose area where many abandoned fields are present. Then, inside of these areas …
Metodologia per lo studio delle successioni secondarie in ex coltivi terrazzati: il caso di studio delle terrazze di Pantelleria (Canale di Sicilia
Inventario dei paesaggi a terrazze in Sicilia
La tutela del paesaggio si pone sempre più all’attenzione della pianificazione territoriale. I pae-saggi agrari tradizionali siciliani, soprattutto quelli caratterizzati dalla presenza di terrazzamenti sono in particolare da molti anni soggetti a processi di degrado, abbandono e modificazioni. In assenza di precise informazioni relative all’incidenza ed alle caratteristiche delle aree terraz-zate e nella prospettiva di iniziative volte alla loro tutela e valorizzazione, nel 2006 con il supporto di Arpa Sicilia è stato eseguito l’inventario delle aree terrazzate in Sicilia. Dall’inventario cartografico è emersa una superficie regionale terrazzata complessiva di 69.604 ha (il 2,71 % dell’inte…
PLANT SUCCESSION ON SICILIAN TERRACES
189 phytosociological relevés have been made in five areas of Sicily, three on volcanic substrates and two on limestones, to study plant community succession trends within abandoned terraced vineyards and cereal fields. Disturbance status and abandonment age was recorded for each sample plot. DCA of these relevés suggests that four are the most important factors driving succession, i.e. geological substrate, bioclimate, age of abandonment and disturbance. In most cases - if there are some dispersal centres near the old fields - undisturbed and less disturbed terraces evolve quite rapidly towards the local potential “climax” community. Different tren…
Vegetation dynamics on abandoned terraces of Sicily: the course and driving forces of succession
In Mediterranean Europe, terrace landscapes can be found where 1) the orography is characterized by hills or mountains, 2) there is a high amount of stone outcrops and 3) the human need for agricultural production was quite high till the recent past. During the last century, many of these landscapes have been abandoned, due to their unsuitability for mechanized, intensive agriculture and due to the general land abandonment trend which arised in large parts of Europe. Since with land abandonment start secondary succession processes, the plant and animal communities linked to agroecosystems are replaced by other species which find their habitat in the developing succession stages. This proces…