Search results for "soil"

Assessment of climate impacts on hydrology and geomorphology of semiarid headwater basins using a physically-based model.

2013

The response of watershed erosion rates to changes in climate is expected to be highly non-linear and thus demands for mechanistic approaches to improve our understanding of the underlying causes. In this study, the integrated geomorphic component tRIBS-Erosion of the physically-based, spatially distributed hydrological model, tRIBS, the TIN-based Real-time Integrated Basin Simulator, is used to analyze the sensitivity of small semi-arid headwater basins to projected climate conditions. Observed historic climate and downscaled realizations of general circulation models from CMIP3 inform the stochastic weather generator AWE-GEN (Advanced WEather GENerator), which is used to produce two clima…

Living in future cities: from overbuilding to ecological transition

2022

In contemporary cities the levels of livability and urban quality are less and less optimal. There are various causes: climate and demographic changes, reduction of natural resources, health risks, excessive consumption of soil, increased pollution, impoverishment of populations, lack of employment, transformation of urban space, etc. Evolving cities, increasingly vulnerable, characterized by insecurity, uncertainty and unpredictability, the result of mistakes made in the past. In this context, in planning future scenarios it is necessary to re-examine the governance, the strategies of urban expansion and transformation through new approaches capable of declining innovative concepts such as…

Early Effects of No-Till Use on Durum Wheat (Triticum durum Desf.): Productivity and Soil Functioning Vary between Two Contrasting Mediterranean Soils

2022

The diffusion of no-tillage (NT) is to be encouraged because of the benefits it can provide in terms of improving soil fertility and counteracting global warming and climate change as part of climate-smart agriculture practices. However, the introduction of this management can be difficult, especially in the first years of application, and can lead to unpredictable yield results depending on the soil type. Therefore, the aim of this experiment was to evaluate the early effect of NT use, compared to the conventional mouldboard ploughing (CT), on two different soils, a clay-loam (GAL) and a sandy-clay-loam soil (SMA), by monitoring a set of 43 different soil and plant variables that were expe…

Subsoil Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi for Sustainability and Climate-Smart Agriculture: A Solution Right Under Our Feet?

2019

With growing populations and climate change, assuring food and nutrition security is an increasingly challenging task. Climate-smart and sustainable agriculture, that is, conceiving agriculture to be resistant and resilient to a changing climate while keeping it viable in the long term, is probably the best solution. The role of soil biota and particularly arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in this new agriculture is believed to be of paramount importance. However, the large nutrient pools and the microbiota of subsoils are rarely considered in the equation. Here we explore the potential contributions of subsoil AM fungi to a reduced and more efficient fertilization, carbon sequestration, an…

Impact of various factors on the diversity of soil microorganisms in agricultural and forest soils

2014

Elektroniskā versija nesatur pielikumus

Interazione tra processi geomorfologici che coinvolgono il suolo e condizioni di rischio geoambientale

2010

Lo studio dei fenomeni di instabilità superficiale risulta di particolare interesse in quanto molto spesso tale tipologia di dissesto produce gravi danni alle strutture antropiche e, talvolta, anche perdite di vite umane. Nonostante la modesta massa di terreno mobilizzata, queste frane possiedono una elevata pericolosità dovuta principalmente alla loro forza d’urto; i danni più frequenti riguardano le strade ed i relativi muri in calcestruzzo o in pietra che subiscono forti spinte laterali che ne provocano il ribaltamento. In alcuni casi possono causare anche gravi lesioni agli edifici, sfondando i muri posti sulla traiettoria della massa in movimento, provocando anche delle vittime; esempi…

When the growth of the town produces gardens

2019

The metropolis is a mother of gardens (Migge, 1919): in the beginning of the twenty 113 century, Leberecht Migge understood that the housing reform of the Modern Movement was also the reform of the urban orchards that could expand in wide common spaces between the buildings. The parks, in which the towns finally could stay in, included a humanized nature, organized in productive and leisure areas. Migge’s envisagement of “Stadtland” had many affinities with the “Extending town” by Giuseppe Samonà based on the shape as single matrix of built and cultivated spaces (Samonà, 1976). Both architects, forty years from each other and in different places of work - Germany and Italy - considered ur…

APPLICAZIONE DI UN PROTOTIPO DI MOTOVANGATRICE PER PRESERVARE LA FERTILITÀ DEL SUOLO

Negli ambienti caratterizzati da forti pendenze o sistemati a terrazze, nell’ambito delle lavorazioni superficiali, viene impiegato diffusamente il motocoltivatore provvisto di zappatrice rotativa. Tuttavia, l’effetto dell’uso ripetuto della zappatrice per lavorazione del terreno ha una notevole influenza sulle caratteristiche del terreno, che si presenta finemente polverizzato, soffice e astrutturato. Al fine di limitare tali inconvenienti, è stata progettata dalla sezione Meccanica del Dipartimento Scienze Agrarie e Forestali dell’Università di Palermo, in collaborazione con la ditta costruttrice Agrotec di Padova, una macchina innovativa semovente provvista di organi di lavoro del tipo a…

MEASURING FIELD RILL ERODIBILITY BY A SIMPLIFIED METHOD

2016

Many process-oriented erosion prediction models reproduce rill erosion as affected by site-specific parameters, as for example, rill erodibility, and thus, their practical application requires the measurement of these parameters or their estimate. The aim of this paper was establishing a method for indirectly measuring field rill erodibility. A simple mathematical approach based on a known soil detachment equation and accounting for the rill erosion dynamic process is applied. Field measurements carried out for seven natural rainfall events occurring at the plots of the Sparacia experimental station, southern Italy, are used for indirectly measuring the rill erodibility of the investigated …

Have tractor manufacturers bore in mind soil compaction over the last 40 years?

2019

Soil compaction is the compression of soil particles in a lower volume as a consequence of the reduction of the spaces existing among the particles themselves. This phenomenon is caused by natural forces and, above all, human ones. In order to estimate the field damages that can be caused by the traffic of agricultural machines, the load and the mean pressure applied by the tyres onto the soil can be measured. The research aim is to determine the pressure applied by each considered tractor onto the soil, in order to evaluate the effect of the traffic of tractors onto the soil itself. A total of 783 wheeled tractors manufactured and marketed in the last 35 years (1979-2014) was investigated.…