Профиль участника
Проф. Adele Muscolo
Организация:
Mediterranea University, Reggio Calabria
Страна:
Италия
Область (области) знаний:
I am working on:
Effect of different management and abiotic stress on soil ecosystem functioning, productivity and crop
Проф. Adele Muscolo
We evaluated as different forest management practices influenced the quality of soil in terms of ecosystem functioning, individuating the sustainable practice for the improvement or the conservation of soil quality. investigated, in a Pinus laricio forest of south Italy, how systematic thinning of different intensities (intense thinning, T45; moderate thinning, T25; clear cut, CC; and no thinning, T0) affected soil biological properties, organic matter trend and carbon (C) storage in soil and plants.
The results showed that soil carbon content and carbon/nitrogen (C/N) ratio were significantly higher in the T45 than in control, T25 and CC. Under T45, the soils had also the highest enzymatic activities, microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and colonies of fungi and bacteria. The humification parameters (humification ratio, HR; the degree of humification, DH; humification index, HI) indicated T45 as the best silvicultural practice-approach method to manage Pinus laricio forest for increasing soil carbon storage ( Settineri et al., EJFR 2018). We are also working on the effects of different thinning on soil biodiversity evaluating EMI index, species richness Shannon Wiener index and species Evenness index, to identify what is the best practice that increase the soil biodiversity. We evaluated also the influence of selective and traditional thinning on soil biodiversity in fagus sylvatica plantation in protected area. The results individuated the traditional thinning as the best forest practice able to maintain soil ecosystem functioning and at the same time able to increase forest natural regeneration and growth.
The results are submitted to Forestry and Applied Soil Ecology. We are also working on the effects of different compost addition on biodiversity of agricultural soil to individuate a compost able to maintain soil biodiversity in respect to specific soil properties, with the aim of finding a specificity between the chemical-physical properties of compost, soil properties and biodiversity.