Search results for "Anthropogenic soils"

Diversity and complexity of microbial communities from a chlor-alkali tailings dump

2015

Abstract Revegetation of the tailings dumps produced by various industrial activities is necessary to prevent dust storms and erosion and represents a great challenge for ecological restoration. Little is known about the microbial colonisation and community structure of revegetated tailings following site exploitation. Here, we report the sequencing of 16S rRNA and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) fungal RNA gene amplicons from chlor-alkali residue and from an adjacent undisturbed soil to define the composition and assembly of the rhizosphere microbial communities. After quality filtering, a total of 72,373 and 89,929 bacterial sequences and 122,618 and 111,209 fungal sequences remained fo…

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

2011

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…

Dynamics of organic carbon pools and microbial diversity over time in anthropogenic terraced soils of Southern Peru

2014

DRIFTS Sensor: Soil Carbon Validation at Large Scale (Pantelleria, Italy)

2013

A fast and accurate measurement of soil carbon is needed in current scientific issues. Today there are many sensors suitable for these purposes, but choosing the appropriate sensor depends on the spatial scale at which the studies are conducted. There are few detailed studies that validate these types of measures allowing their immediate use. Here it is validated the quick use of a sensor in execution at Pantelleria, chosen for size, use and variability of the parameter measured, to give an operational tool for carbon stocks studies. The DRIFT sensor used here has been validated in the first 60 cm of the soil of the whole island, and it has shown predictivity higher than 90%.

The “Soil Genetic Erosion”: a new threat for soils?

2015

During the 1990’s the concept of pedodiversity started to be diffused in the scientific literature and the decrement of the soil diversity in space and time - particularly due to human activity - has been seen as a sort of underhand problem affecting soil ecosystems, considering that different soil types face gradual or drastic reduction or complete loss of their unique “genetic features”. Pedodiversity has received considerable recent interest, especially as peculiar aspect of biodiversity and has been assessed by several authors by applying diversity indices used in ecology. This paper takes into consideration the influence of human activities on the loss of pedodiversity in a Mediterrane…

Economic aspects of pedotechnique applications in large scale farming: a case study

2016

Conference of the World Association of Soil and Water Conservation

Anthropogenic Soils and Soil Security: environmetal and economic consideration.

2017

Since ancient times Man and Soil have experienced interwoven links. Nowadays soil scientists continue to stress such links highlighting the importance of soil to provide man’s growing demand for food, water and energy, and also the soil’s importance in providing ecosystem services that affect climate change, human health and biodiversity. In soil management for agricultural purposes, pedotechniques to tailor soils suitable for table grapes cultivation in large-scale farming are used to get substantial financial returns. However farmers, in tailoring soils for high income crops, frequently do not take into account the fundamental objective of the pedotechnique, i. e. to meet the needs of man…

Soil interpretation in the context of anthropedogenic transformations and pedotechniques application

2018

Abstract Following a long and vigorous study carried out by the International Committee on Anthropogenic Soils (ICOMANTH), the Soil Taxonomy (ST) classification system recently incorporated a number of changes to include Human-Altered and Human-Transported soils, generally called anthropogenic soils. These changes underwent careful scrutiny as they affect the current classification of existing soil series, and as the proposals and logics are as yet untested against existing data and descriptions. Particular attention was given to the diagnostic characteristics of the anthropogenic soils and to the Subgroups for Human-Altered and Human-Transported soils. In this study, we consider a frequent…