Soil degradation processes in the Italian agricultural and forest ecosystems

Costantini, E.; Lorenzetti, Romina

doi:10.4081/ija.2013.e28

Cited by 35 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…The results reported by Costantini and Lorenzetti (2013) revealed that amongst the biophysical criteria used to single out municipalities with predominantly less-favoured agricultural lands, soil constraints actually play the most important role. The most important driving force of soil degradation in Lithuania is unfavourable soils that have low productive value (Aleknavičius, 2007) and hilly areas at the risk of soil erosion (Jankauskas, 2012;Kinderienė et al, 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Delineation Lithuanian agricultural land for agro-ecological suitability for farming using soil and terrain criteria

Jarašiūnas

Kinderienė

Bašić

2017

Ekológia (Bratislava)

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Jarasiunas G., Kinderiene I., Bašić F.: Delineation Lithuanian agricultural land for agro-ecological suitability for farming using soil and terrain criteria. Ekológia (Bratislava), Vol. 36, No. 1, p. 88-100, 2017.The aim of investigation is to analyse and classify the state of agricultural land affected by naturalbiophysical, that is, soil and terrain-slope, handicaps on its overall agro-ecological suitability for agricultural use. For the classification of land for suitability with respect to sustainable use and efficient protection, the following actual criteria were selected: soil texture, soil drainage and terrainslope. For identifying the relatively homogeneous areas, the Ward hierarchical cluster method was used. According to our estimates, Lithuanian agricultural land with unfavourable soil texture, poorly soil drainage and steep slopes covers an area of 33.59, 4.76 and 1.03% of total agricultural area, respectively. On the basis of functional classification of state of agro-ecological conditions of Lithuania, two orders of suitability (S-suitable, N-not suitable) and five land suitability classes were identified and delineated: S1 (highly suitable) included 10 district municipalities, S2 (moderately suitable) included 12 district municipalities, S3 (marginally suitable) included 15 district municipalities, N1 (currently not suitable) included 10 district municipalities and N2 (permanently not suitable) included 4 district municipalities. S3 occupies the largest (29.80%) share of the Lithuanian territory and N2 the least (5.66%). The land suitable for agriculture means with suitability classes S1, S2 and S3 was found on an area of 2,960,562 ha, which is 81.6% of the total land. In addition, soil texture was the most important factor causing differences in the classes of suitability. On the basis of natural limiting factors from an agronomic and eco-environmental perspective, the optimal sustainable development in agrosphere and a balanced-practical concept of land management and proper land use policy is presented. It is a reasonable base for agroecological regionalisation of Lithuania.Key words: land suitability for agriculture, natural limiting factors, cluster analysis, suitability classes of agricultural land, land use policy.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Delineation Lithuanian agricultural land for agro-ecological suitability for farming using soil and terrain criteria

Jarašiūnas

Kinderienė

Bašić

2017

Ekológia (Bratislava)

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“…These soils, subjected to intensive agricultural practices, such as excessive use of agro-chemicals, deep tillage, and luxury irrigation, are depleted in organic matter and are exposed to progressive degradation processes that seriously impair their fertility (Lal 2008). The decline in organic matter content of many agricultural soils of the Mediterranean region is becoming a major cause of soil degradation and, in many cases, of desertification, owing to the strong link between the two processes (Diacono and Montemurro 2010;Costantini and Lorenzetti 2013). Soil desertification and desertization (Laity 2008) can also be enhanced by many other anthropogenic activities (urban and industrial pollution, waste accumulation, and so on).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Agricultural soils from many areas of the Mediterranean region, characterized by a semiarid climate and by an extensive exploitation, are heavily degraded (López-Piñeiro et al 2007;Costantini and Lorenzetti 2013). These soils, subjected to intensive agricultural practices, such as excessive use of agro-chemicals, deep tillage, and luxury irrigation, are depleted in organic matter and are exposed to progressive degradation processes that seriously impair their fertility (Lal 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compost Amendment Enhances Natural Revegetation of a Mediterranean Degraded Agricultural Soil

Baldantoni

Bellino

Morra

et al. 2015

Environmental Management

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A vegetation analysis was carried out on a degraded agricultural soil of the Mediterranean area (Campania region, southern Italy) in order to study the effects of different fertilization practices (quality compost, mineral fertilizers, mixed fertilization, and no fertilization) on the whole spontaneous vegetation community. The study was performed for two consecutive years at three different scales (species level, community structure, and community properties), using three different units of abundance (number of individuals, biomass, and cover of each species). The observations were carried out in spring, after 5 and 6 years of soil treatments, on a total area of 4 m(2) for each soil treatment and in each year. The different fertilization practices did not determine changes in species composition; however, the relative abundance of dominant species increased in compost and mixed fertilized soils, particularly in the second year of observation. Although the dominance and diversity were unaffected by the different fertilization practices, the total biomass and total number of individuals increased in compost-amended soils. These results indicate the effectiveness of soil quality compost amendments to enhance natural revegetation, a key step in the recovery of degraded areas.

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“…Depletion of soil fertility in general, along with the concomitant problems of weeds, pests and diseases, is the fundamental root cause of low agricultural production on a global level (Tan et al, 2005). Even if grapevines are not demanding with regard to nutrients, they nevertheless require an adequate supply, which may no longer exist in terroirs where the soils are undergoing degradation processes, especially soil losses (Le Bissonnais et al, 2007;Martínez-Casasnovas et al, 2009Paroissien et al, 2010;Novara et al, 2011;Quiquerez et al, 2014;Chevigny et al, 2014;Lieskovsky and Kenderessy, 2014), nutrient depletion (Ramos and Martínez-Casanovas, 2006), compaction (Lagacherie et al, 2006), salinization and sodization (Clark et al, 2002;Crescimanno and Garofalo, 2006; al., 2007; Costantini and Lorenzetti, 2013), pesticide runoff and deposition (Landry et al, 2005;Louchart and Voltz, 2007;Lacas et al, 2012;Daouk et al, 2013;Lefrancq et al, 2013) and copper contamination (Pieztrak and McPhail, 2004;Chopin et al, 2008;Komárek et al, 2008;Wightwick et al, 2008;Mirlean et al, 2007Mirlean et al, , 2009Rusjan et al, 2007;El Hadri et al, 2012;Fernández-Calviño et al, 2013;El Azzi et al, 2013;Lai et al, 2013). In Burgundy, using vine-stock unearthing-burying measurements (Brenot et al, 2008), Chevigny et al (2014) estimated that the erosion rate had increased significantly over the last decade and also that the spatial distribution of erosion had changed and was now basically controlled by ...…”

Section: Outlook: Terroir Sustainability Assessment and The Design Ofmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the long process of terroir identification over time questions those practices that enhance or diminish terroir sustainability, particularly in recent times with the advent of modern viticulture. For example, viticultural soils appear to be exposed to degradation processes, perhaps more than ever, because of unsuitable practices in land management (Blavet et al, 2009;Follain et al, 2012;Costantini and Lorenzetti, 2013). In addition, soil contamination by copper resulting from the cumulated use of Bordeaux mixture and other copper fungicides is increasingly an issue (Pieztrak and McPhail, 2004;Fernández-Calviño et al, 2013;Chopin et al, 2008;Mirlean et al, 2007Mirlean et al, , 2009El Hadri et al, 2012;El Azzi et al, 2013) and appears to result in modifying the spatial distribution and composition of soil microbial communities (Jacobson et al, 2007;Mackie et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An overview of the recent approaches to terroir functional modelling, footprinting and zoning

Vaudour

Costantini²,

Jones

et al. 2015

SOIL

101

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Abstract. Notions of terroir and their conceptualization through agro-environmental sciences have become popular in many parts of world. Originally developed for wine, terroir now encompasses many other crops including fruits, vegetables, cheese, olive oil, coffee, cacao and other crops, linking the uniqueness and quality of both beverages and foods to the environment where they are produced, giving the consumer a sense of place. Climate, geology, geomorphology and soil are the main environmental factors which make up the terroir effect on different scales. Often considered immutable culturally, the natural components of terroir are actually a set of processes, which together create a delicate equilibrium and regulation of its effect on products in both space and time. Due to both a greater need to better understand regional-to-site variations in crop production and the growth in spatial analytic technologies, the study of terroir has shifted from a largely descriptive regional science to a more applied, technical research field. Furthermore, the explosion of spatial data availability and sensing technologies has made the within-field scale of study more valuable to the individual grower. The result has been greater adoption of these technologies but also issues associated with both the spatial and temporal scales required for practical applications, as well as the relevant approaches for data synthesis. Moreover, as soil microbial communities are known to be of vital importance for terrestrial processes by driving the major soil geochemical cycles and supporting healthy plant growth, an intensive investigation of the microbial organization and their function is also required. Our objective is to present an overview of existing data and modelling approaches for terroir functional modelling, footprinting and zoning on local and regional scales. This review will focus on two main areas of recent terroir research: (1) using new tools to unravel the biogeochemical cycles of both macro-and micronutrients, the biological and chemical signatures of terroirs (i.e. the metagenomic approach and regional fingerprinting); (2) terroir zoning on different scales: mapping terroirs and using remoteand proxy-sensing technologies to monitor soil quality and manage the crop system for better food quality.

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Soil degradation processes in the Italian agricultural and forest ecosystems

Cited by 35 publications

References 39 publications

Delineation Lithuanian agricultural land for agro-ecological suitability for farming using soil and terrain criteria

Delineation Lithuanian agricultural land for agro-ecological suitability for farming using soil and terrain criteria

Compost Amendment Enhances Natural Revegetation of a Mediterranean Degraded Agricultural Soil

An overview of the recent approaches to terroir functional modelling, footprinting and zoning

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