0000000000022639

AUTHOR

Vanessa Palermo

Spatio-temporal Effects of Land Use Change on the Anthropogenic Soils Formation

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Anthropogenic and natural soils quality in an agrosystem of Sicily (Italy)

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Inhibition of denitrification and N2O emission by urine-derived benzoic and hippuric acid

Abstract Hippuric acid (HA) in cattle urine acts as a natural inhibitor of soil N2O emissions. As HA concentration varies with diet, we determined critical HA levels. We also tested the hypothesis that the inhibition occurs because the HA breakdown product benzoic acid (BA) inhibits denitrification rates. During a 64-day incubation, we quantified emissions from artificial urine varying in HA, BA and glycine (Gly) concentrations, added to a sandy pasture soil. Increasing HA concentration from 0.4 to 5.6 mmol kg−1 soil significantly decreased the average N2O flux by 54%. At 3.9 mmol kg−1 soil, denitrification levels were 50% reduced for BA as compared to Gly. We conclude that HA inhibits both…

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Le Climosequenze: strumenti per valutare gli effetti dei cambiamenti climatici su alcune proprietà e caratteri funzionali del suolo - un caso studio in Sicilia.

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Spatio-Temporal Effects of Land Use Change on the Anthropogenic Soils Diffusion: A Case Study in a Mediterranean Vineyard Area

Anthropogenic soils created ex novo by land-use change in large scale farming are, from a pedogenetic point of view, catastrophic events that bring the soils to time zero and change the natural pattern of the soilscape, remarkably, in some cases. The quantitative aspects of pedodiversity of a soilscape in South-East Sicily, where some types of soils, in recent decades, have suffered a consistent reduction due to the transformations by large scale farming, are considered. The evolution of pedodiversity over a 53-year period (1955 to 2008) is examined using a dedicated statistical method and a space–time model based on Markov analysis and cellular automata in order to predict the evolution of…

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Is land-use change a cause of loss of pedodiversity? The case of the Mazzarrone study area, Sicily

Anthropogenic soils created ex novo by land-us e change in large scale farming are, from a pedogenetic point of view, catastrophic events that bring the soils to time zero and change the natural pattern of the soilscape, remarkably, in some cases. The qu antitative aspects of pedodiversity of a soilsc ape in South-East Sicily, where some types of soils, in recent decades, have suffered a consistent reduction due to the transformations by large scale farming, are considered. The evolution of pedodiversity over a 53-year period (1955 to 2008 ) is examined using a dedicated statistical method and a space – time model based on Markov analysis and cellular autom ata in order to predict the evolu…

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Proposal for a new diagnostic horizon for WRB Anthrosols

Abstract To investigate man's role in the creation and evolution of soils in areas of large scale farming, and to investigate the main morpho-descriptive aspects of the related soils, a survey was carried out in south eastern Sicily, Italy, where, as common to other regions of the Mediterranean basin, there are wide areas with anthropogenic soils due to large scale farming activity. The complex genesis pattern of these anthropogenic soils, which shows a double sequence of man-made horizons, sideways oriented to the soil surface, does not allow their classification as Technosols, because their composition is not dominated or strongly influenced by artefacts or human-made materials as is the …

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Arthropods as biological soil quality indicators in a vineyard under different soil management

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Variability of Soil Organic Carbon and radiocarbon in a Mediterranean benchmark Vertisol

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The “genetic erosion” of the soil ecosystem

Abstract This paper takes into consideration the influence of human activities on the loss of pedodiversity in a Mediterranean area due to large scale farming. In particular it examines the quantitative and qualitative soil changes in a period of 53 years (from 1955 to 2008) evaluating the loss of soil diversity at soil subgroups level of the USDA Soil Taxonomy system. The following indices were used: richness; Shannon’s diversity index; Simpson diversity index; Shannon’s evenness index; Simpson’s evenness index. In this case study, considering what we observed in time, the human intervention in soil transformation could increase the diversity in the landscape in an initial phase, but forwa…

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De invloed van bodemverdichting op de emissie van broeikasgassen; Laboratorium metingen en Modelberekeningen

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Biological soil quality in a sustainable vineyard management in South-West of Sicily (Italy)

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La diversità dei suoli siciliani: quale futuro?

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Un processo di stima attraverso la contabilità agraria in Sicilia

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Distribuzione di descrittori di qualità fisico-chimica in “Miscic Geofragmexerants”

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Performance of the auxotrophic Saccharomyces cerevisiae BY4741 as host for the production of IL-1β in aerated fed-batch reactor: role of ACA supplementation, strain viability, and maintenance energy

Abstract Background Saccharomyces cerevisiae BY4741 is an auxotrophic commonly used strain. In this work it has been used as host for the expression and secretion of human interleukin-1β (IL1β), using the cell wall protein Pir4 as fusion partner. To achieve high cell density and, consequently, high product yield, BY4741 [PIR4-IL1β] was cultured in an aerated fed-batch reactor, using a defined mineral medium supplemented with casamino acids as ACA (auxotrophy-complementing amino acid) source. Also the S. cerevisiae mutant BY4741 Δyca1 [PIR4-IL1β], carrying the deletion of the YCA1 gene coding for a caspase-like protein involved in the apoptotic response, was cultured in aerated fed-batch rea…

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Effetti spazio-temporali dei cambiamenti dell'uso del suolo sulla diffusione dei suoli antropogenici: il caso studio di Mazzarrone

L’elevata pressione antropica, in molte aree del pianeta, può innescare processi che conducono alla formazione di suoli antropogenici. Questo fenomeno è particolarmente evidente in alcune aree del Mediterraneo, dove l’agricoltura specializzata su vasca scala ha comportato la trasformazione dell’uso del suolo e del pedopaesaggio. Viene esaminato il caso studio di Mazzarrone (nel sud est della Sicilia) dove i cambiamenti d’uso del suolo e l’adozione di particolari pedotecniche per la coltivazione dell’uva da tavola hanno originato ex-novo suoli antropogenici. In particolare, sono stati studiati i processi antropedogenetici, che hanno interessato quest’area nell’arco di più di quaranta anni, n…

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Le pressioni dell’attività agricola sulla risorsa suolo in un comune siciliano

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