Is the QBS-ar index a good tool to detect the soil quality in Mediterranean areas? A cork tree<i>Quercus suber</i>L. (Fagaceae) wood as a case of study

Galli, Loris; Capurro, Matteo; Menta, Cristina; Rellini, Ivano

doi:10.1080/11250003.2013.875601

Cited by 28 publications

(28 citation statements)

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“…Information regarding the ecology of Protura and their use as soil indicator is limited. Despite the many taxonomic papers published on this group [7], Protura still remain one of the less known hexapods, especially from a systematic, ecological and biogeographical viewpoint [12]. The density of Protura in soils can range from a few hundred to thousands of individuals per square meter, and their distribution is usually aggregated in relation to environmental characteristics (vegetation cover, soil pH and texture [15], and pheromones [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil Health and Arthropods: From Complex System to Worthwhile Investigation

Menta

Remelli

2020

Insects

147

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The dramatic increase in soil degradation in the last few decades has led to the need to identify methods to define not only soil quality but also, in a holistic approach, soil health. In the past twenty years, indices based on living communities have been proposed alongside the already proven physical-chemical methods. Among them, some soil invertebrates have been included in monitoring programs as bioindicators of soil quality. Being an important portion of soil fauna, soil arthropods are involved in many soil processes such as organic matter decomposition and translocation, nutrient cycling, microflora activity regulation and bioturbation. Many studies have reported the use of soil arthropods to define soil quality; among taxa, some have been explored more in depth, typically Acari and Collembola, while generally less abundant groups, such as Palpigradi or Embioptera, have not been investigated much. This paper aims to evaluate and compare the use of different soil microarthropod taxa in soil degradation/quality studies to highlight which groups are the most reported for soil monitoring and which are the most sensitive to soil degradation. We have decided not to include the two most present and abundant taxa, Acari and Collembola, in this paper in consideration of the vast amount of existing literature and focus the discussion on the other microarthropod groups. We reported some studies for each taxon highlighting the use of the group as soil quality indicator. A brief section reporting some indices based on soil microarthropods is proposed at the end of this specific discussion. This paper can be considered as a reference point in the use of soil arthropods to estimate soil quality and health.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil Health and Arthropods: From Complex System to Worthwhile Investigation

Menta

Remelli

2020

Insects

147

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“…The same authors were able to identify a positive relationship between temperatures and biological diversity. Studies carried out in other agricultural sectors have already highlighted the effect of seasonality on soil microarthropod communities [23][24][25][26]. Indications are generally given about the relationship between edaphic micro-arthropods and soil moisture conditions [19,27,28], but there are few studies that specifically identify the relationship between meteorological conditions and edaphic biodiversity [29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This method, proposed by Parisi et al [36], is based on the principle that the greater is the sensitivity of a soil arthropod taxon to variability and perturbation of soil conditions, the greater is the importance of the taxon as an indicator of soil quality. The QBS-ar Index has already been applied by various researchers to different contexts, such as urban and degraded ecosystems [37][38][39][40], forests [23,41,42] and agricultural environments [25,32,43]. QBS-ar applies the criterion of "biological forms" [44] to edaphic microarthropods: different species are grouped according to their morphological characteristics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil Biological Quality Assessment to Improve Decision Support in the Wine Sector

et al. 2019

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Biodiversity is an increasingly important aspect of wine production. The assessment of agro-ecosystem biodiversity is highly complex due to the heterogeneity of the elements involved in the evaluation. For this reason, wine companies have expressed a need for a decision support system (DSS) capable of dealing with this complexity, integrating assessments referring to the whole production system within a single tool. In this study a DSS developed for wine sector biodiversity management assessment is introduced. The DSS, called BIOPASS®, is made up of different sections relating to three compartments in the winemaking process (the soil, the vine and wine). Assessment of the physical, chemical and biological components of soil is a key element of the DSS. We investigate the relationship between biological soil quality (represented by the QBS-ar index), environmental conditions and the type of farming (organic or conventional). 70 soil samples were analysed in different Italian viticultural contexts. The model highlighted the relationships between QBS-ar and meteorological variables (air temperature and precipitation) as well as a positive relationship with organic farming systems. These results provide useful information for understanding agroecosystem biodiversity and will be integrated within the DSS for assessment of soil quality.

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“…According to these studies, it resulted sensitive to seasonal climatic variations (Aspetti et al, 2010), and agriculture management intensity . QBS resulted significantly correlated to the Shannon-Weiner (H') diversity index (Blasi et al, 2013;Galli et al, 2014) and taking into account the whole soil microarthropod community, can be considered a proxy for soil biodiversity (Aspetti et al, 2010). Due to its versatility and relative simplicity (Turbé et al, 2010), QBS ar index is becoming popular in Italy (Aspetti et al, 2010) and widely adopted by national and regional Environmental Protection Agencies (e.g.…”

Section: Habitat For Soil Organismsmentioning

confidence: 99%