Impact of Anthropic Activities on Soil Quality under Different Land Uses

Abstract

Anthropization often leads to land use transformation, causing deep changes to soil properties and its quality. Land use change could be an environmental and socioeconomic problem, as it impacts soil quality and ecosystem services. There is an urgent need to understand the pressures affecting soil quality. The aim of the work is to quantify the impact of different land uses on soil abiotic and biotic properties and on its quality. To achieve the aims, soils from different land uses (forest, urban and agricultural) were collected in the surroundings of Naples and analyzed for pH, water content, contents of C and N, C/N ratio and total and available concentrations of Cu, Ni and Pb, microbial and fungal biomasses, basal respiration and metabolic quotient. Then, a soil quality index (SQI) was calculated for each land use. The results showed that soil abiotic and biotic properties of the agricultural sites differed from those of forest and urban sites. At agricultural sites, microbial abundances decreased due to low amount of C and N and to high amount of Cu and Pb. This caused low use efficiency of energetic substrates and a reduced soil quality of agricultural sites as compared to forest and urban sites.

Metagenomic insights for antimicrobial resistance surveillance in soils with different land uses in Brazil

“…The clusterization of soils based on microbial composition on our analyses corroborated with the land use classification previously used, which might indicate that bacterial communities in soils are shaped and modified according to land use over the years, endorsing previous reports in the literature [37][38][39]. Vicinamibacter (Acidobacteriota) and Rhodoplanes (Pseudomonadota) genera were ubiquitous and abundant in all soils, likely due to their essential roles in carbon, nitrogen and sulfur cycling [40][41][42].…”

Quantifying the Immediate Response of Soil to Wild Boar (Sus scrofa L.) Grubbing in Mediterranean Olive Orchards

“…The immediate changes induced by wild boar grubbing on soils' chemical, physical, and biological traits reduce soil quality status. According to the SQI for the investigated olive groves from Cilento Park, the soil quality is not particularly high (the mean SQI values are below the threshold of 0.50), similar to the results of Marzaioli et al [59] and Santorufo et al [60] for agricultural soils. Anthropogenic activity and the prolonged and intense disturbances from wild boar, causing changes in the soil aggregation, structure stability, biological properties, and micro-habitat conditions, have affected the quality of the agricultural soils, especially in topsoil [61][62][63].…”

Assessment of the Effects of Soil Fertilization with Spent Mushroom Substrate in the Context of Microbial Nitrogen Transformations and the Potential Risk of Exacerbating the Greenhouse Effect

“…Currently, in the age of rapidly advancing civilization, soil degradation is one of the most serious socio-economic and environmental problems that threaten the survival and well-being of mankind. Due to the progressive climate change and the rapidly growing population of the Earth, maintaining the quality of the soil at a high level, especially in agricultural areas, is considered one of the most critical challenges for society in the 21st century [3].…”