Search results for " ecological restoration"
showing 3 items of 3 documents
Sustainable management systems to prevent and adaptat to desertification: Case Studies from the LIFE Desert Adapt project
2021
Around 40% of the ice-free terrestrial surface is under desertification risk, and the Mediterranean is one of the most sensible regions. Concomitantly, most areas occupied by agriculture suffer from lack of organic matter in the soil, as well as very low tree cover, making them more vulnerable to climate change. The LIFE (Desert Adapt) project aims to develop a desert adaptation model to enhance resistence and resilience of farms, both public and private, to desertification by appliyng an integrative sustainable land management in Italy, Spain and Portugal. In Italy three sites in Sicily are involved, two private areas in Caltanissetta and Catagirone and the municiaplity of Lampedusa.The mo…
Increasing tree survival to facilitate the conversion of conventional systems to agroforestry systems using plant growing aids and plant-plant facili…
2022
Several global commitments have established a compromise to greatly increase the presence of trees in agricultural lands, fostering therefore the adoption of agroforestry systems and the destination of some areas for reforestation. Such tasks are challenging, particularly under the current climate change scenarios, and several studies have demonstrated a high risk of seedling mortality under harsh and extremely variable environmental conditions, calling for solutions that must increase the success and reduce the costs of growing a tree. In this study, inside the project LIFE Desert Adapt, we tested the effects of different types of growing aids such as shelters, mulching and innovative meth…
The ecological role of Pyrus Spinosa Forssk. in the ecosystem recovery and land restoration of Mediterranean woodlands
2021
In the Mediterranean basin, large areas still call for active reforestation, having a very low woody cover, thus resulting less resistant and resilient to climate change and suffering from a higher risk of soil degradation processes. Knowing the effects on soil fertility and carbon sequestration of single woody species can be of great practical importance, although being rarely tested. We aimed to assess the effect of Pyrus spinosa on soil fertility (soil carbon and nitrogen), microbial biomass and carbon sequestration (in aboveground stems) of Mediterranean pasturelands. The research was carried out in Ficuzza Nature Reserve (NW Sicily), where large areas are composed of extensive pasturel…