Search results for "aridity"
showing 4 items of 14 documents
Climate and Pedoclimate of Italy
2013
In Chap. 2 , the role played by the factors of soil formation in Italy is examined by different authors. Edoardo Costantini, Maria Fantappie´ , and Giovanni L’Abate explore the potential strong influence of climate on soil nature and distribution. In spite of being placed in the middle of the temperate zone of the boreal hemisphere, the elongated shape of the Italian peninsula, stretching along 11 parallels in the middle of the Mediterranean sea, and the presence of two morphological barriers, the Alps and the Apennines, cause great local climatic variations, to an extent that they are much more important than means. In fact, long-term mean annual air temperature for the whole country is 12…
Aridity index, soil erosion and climate drive no-till ecosystem services trade-off in Mediterranean arable land
2021
Abstract Despite the relevant literature on the advantages of no-till (NT) management, the world area under NT is only 10% of the arable land, probably due to several limiting factors as climate, soil types, farming systems and yield. Soil conservation practices and particularly NT soil management are able to provide many ecosystem services (ESs). This paper suggests a framework to determine the area distribution of soil erosion control and food security ESs trade-offs furnished by NT, starting from the potential soil erosion and aridity index maps. The interaction between the potential soil erosion and the aridity index showed that different trade-offs and synergies of multiple ESs may occ…
Distribution of graminoids in open habitats in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan
2022
Aims: Landscapes of Middle Asia are exposed to human influence due to long-lasting pastoral tradition, and now are largely dominated by non-forest vegetation. Graminoids perform key ecosystem functions, and constitute an important feed source for livestock. We studied the distribution patterns of graminoids cover under climatic and grazing pressure gradients in different open vegetation types. Study area: Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan. Methods: 1,525 vegetation plots representing five open vegetation types (mires, salt marshes, tall-forb communities, pseudosteppes and steppes) were extracted from the Vegetation of Middle Asia Database. We assessed the relative cover of graminoid species in each ve…