The potential of γ-ray spectroscopy for soil proximal survey in clayey soils Le potentiel de la spectroscopie a rayons-γ lors de l’echantillonnage pedologique de sols argileux Le potenzialità della spettroscopia di raggi-γ nel rilevamento pedologico di suoli argillosi

La spettroscopia di raggi-γ misura la distribuzione e l’intensità della radiazione gamma emessa naturalmente dai suoli o dalle rocce. I radionuclidi più importanti nel suolo come fonte di raggi gamma sono: 40K, 232Th, 238U ed 137Cs, quest’ultimo di origine artificiale, principalmente legato all’esplosione di Chernobyl o ad inquinamenti radioattivi. La distribuzione e la quantità di questi radionuclidi è strettamente dipendente dalla mineralogia del parent material e dalla capacità di scambio cationico del suolo. Scopo di questo lavoro è quello di mostrare le potenzialità di un rilevamento prossimale con spettroscopia di raggi-γ in campi sperimentali con suoli argillosi della Sicilia occiden…

Security in mobile agent systems

Monitoring soil organic carbon variations in organic farming by proximal sensing

It has been widely It has been widely recognized the crucial role of soil monitoring in assessing the effectiveness of the soil measures and agro-environment schemes passed by Regional and local administration in complying the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy to soil protection. The costs of soil monitoring however are substantial and the reliability of the results often questionable. A reason is that the monitoring activity commonly consists of a network of sampling points which are then spatialized through different inference models. This methodology does not often enable a reliable estimation at the fi eld scale, that is the scale where the measures are foreseen and fi nanced. The organic…

How much can regional agri-environmental measures contribute to SOC stocking in the soils of Sicily?

Soils have a great potential in stocking soil organic carbon SOC, but how much can human activities, and particularly agricultural ones, contribute to increase (or decrease) the SOC content? Which kind of agricultural practices are the most effective? From the soil database of Sicily we have selected 52 profiles, whose first 40 cm from the soil surface were analyzed for the SOC, of which 15 analyzed also for nitrogen N content, localized in the clayey hills and limestone marine terraces of the western Sicily, cultivated with grain crops and orchards (mainly olive groves and vineyards), surveyed and analyzed in a period from 1995 to 2008. By interviews to the farmers owners of those parcels,…