Search results for " forest soils"
showing 4 items of 4 documents
The drivers of soil microbial communities structure on forest stands along the altitudinal gradient in western carpathians
2020
Abstract This study examines the effect of the soil physicochemical properties and the vegetation diversity and composition on the soil microorganism community structure on the temperate forest stands along the altitudinal gradient. The studied stands were located at three altitudes (600, 900, and 1200 m a.s.l.) on five separate mountain slopes (treated as independent replicates) in the Western Carpathians Mountains (Poland). The soil physicochemical characteristics varied widely between the stands on these same altitude, and only the organic matter content, water-holding capacity and dissolved organic nitrogen differed significantly between the different altitudes, exhibited highest values…
Impacts of thinning of a Mediterranean oak forest on soil properties influencing water infiltration
2017
[EN] In Mediterranean ecosystems, special attention needs to be paid to forest¿water relationships due to water scarcity. In this context, Adaptive Forest Management (AFM) has the objective to establish how forest resources have to be managed with regards to the efficient use of water, which needs maintaining healthy soil properties even after disturbance. The main objective of this investigation was to understand the effect of one of the AFM methods, namely forest thinning, on soil hydraulic properties. At this aim, soil hydraulic characterization was performed on two contiguous Mediterranean oak forest plots, one of them thinned to reduce the forest density from 861 to 414 tree per ha. Th…
Source of calcium for pedogenic CaCO3 formation in benchmark soils of a Mediterranean semiarid environment
2004
Calcic and petrocalcic horizons (Bk and Bkm, respectively) commonly occur in soils of arid and semiarid regions. Studies carried out to investigate the source of calcium in CaCO3 formation have shown that dust and parent materials represent the main sources. The aim of this study was to investigate if gypsum may be a source of calcium for calcium carbonate formation and, eventually, to quantify it. Five soil pedons, developing on “Serie Gessoso- Solfifera”, were selected in a very representative forest Mediterranean ecosystem in Sicily (I). Pedons were opened, described in field and sampled according to the sequence of genetic horizons. Soil samples were analyzed to investigate 87/86Sr rati…
Soil and pedomesofauna relationships under different forests on a western slope of Etna Volcano
2015
Although the pedofauna influences the processes of pedogenesis and has an important role in the main functional properties of the soil, it has rarely been used as a key-element in defining soil quality. As has been stressed, this is due to the fact that the utility of pedofauna as a soil quality indicator is a function of the definition of soil quality which, in turn, depends on different functions, both biotic and abiotic, performed by the soil. If we consider the biological functions of vegetal, animal and microbiotic activity, the usefulness of the pedofauna, as a diagnostic element of soil quality, reaches its maximum since it is one of the indicators of the biodiversity. Previous work …