In this study, the evaluation of soil characteristics was coupled with a pyrosequencing analysis of the V2-V3 16S rRNA gene region in order to investigate the bacterial community structure and ...diversity in the A horizon of a natural saline soil located in Sicily (Italy). The main aim of the research was to assess the organisation and diversity of microbial taxa using a spatial scale that revealed physical and chemical heterogeneity of the habitat under investigation. The results provided information on the type of distribution of different bacterial groups as a function of spatial gradients of soil salinity and pH. The analysis of bacterial 16S rRNA showed differences in bacterial composition and diversity due to a variable salt concentration in the soil. The bacterial community showed a statistically significant spatial variability. Some bacterial phyla appeared spread in the whole area, whatever the salinity gradient. It emerged therefore that a patchy saline soil can not contain just a single microbial community selected to withstand extreme osmotic phenomena, but many communities that can be variously correlated to one or more environmental parameters. Sequences have been deposited to the SRA database and can be accessed on ID Project PRJNA241061.
In these last decades, the awareness that soil is a very important resource for humans has noticeably increased. Many actions and initiatives to promote soil governance, aiming at sustainable soil ...management and soil security have been undertaken by several national and international institutions and in many countries. Analysis of the changes of soil perception over the centuries allows highlighting a perfect harmony between the evolution of soil awareness and the level of knowledge and technology achieved by humans during their history and evolution. Notwithstanding these many achievements, soils continue to be scarcely considered in politics and society. We suggest some thoughts and reflections that could lead to an up-to-date and effective definition of soil that directly focuses the public attention on its economic value. In our opinion, soil economic value could be the only aspect that truly attracts the attention of politicians and administrators, which could increase soil awareness and encourage soil sustainability, security and Sustainable Development Goals and finally promote soil governance.
In the last decades, in some Mediterranean areas, pedodiversity decreased mainly due to pedotechnique application in large-scale farming that transformed original soils into Anthrosols. Supporting ...the consideration that soils can be considered as living systems, the original concept of ‘soil genetic erosion’ is re-proposed. Data, extrapolated and modeled from a Soil Information System in a study case representative of a Mediterranean landscape, predicted that most of the soil types would disappear in few years leading to a decrease of the soil diversity and originating soil genetic erosion. This circumstance is intentionally here told in form of a story where the fairy tale characters are some soils facing extinction in the landscape. Soil genetic erosion could result in a negative impact on the environment because it reduces the soil's security through a drastic reduction of the soil ecosystem services with a decrease of the immaterial benefit for the environment. The conviction that soils, as well as animals and plants, are living bodies, and pedodiversity is equally important as biodiversity in maintaining sustainability and ecosystem services, might truly attract the attention of the public opinion. Besides, focussing more on the soil economic dimension and strengthening the assignation of ‘economic value‘ to the soil ecosystem services, also politicians and administrators could increase their interest in soil security.
This work aimed to characterize the microbial communities of an anthropogenic soil originating from application of pedotechniques to Vertisols in a Mediterranean environment. Bare soil profiles were ...sampled at three depths (0–10 cm, 10–30 cm, and 30–50 cm) and compared with the original soil not transformed at the same depths. The anthropogenic soils were characterized by a higher CaCO3 concentration (360–640 g/kg) than control soil (190–200 g/kg), while an opposite trend was registered for clay, where control soil showed a higher concentration (465 g/kg on average) than anthropogenic soil (355 g/kg on average). Organic carbon content was much higher in the untransformed soil. All samples were microbiologically investigated using a combined culture-dependent and -independent approach. Each pedon displayed a generally decreasing level with soil depth for the several microbial groups investigated; in particular, filamentous fungi were below the detection limit at 30–50 cm. To isolate bacteria actively involved in soil particle aggregation, colonies with mucoid appearance were differentiated at the strain level and genetically identified: the major groups were represented by Bacillus and Pseudomonas. MiSeq Illumina analysis identified Actinobacteria and Firmicutes as the main groups. A high microbial variability was found in all the three anthropogenic pedons and the microorganisms constitute a mature community.
Bacteria producers of plant growth-promoting (PGP) substances are responsible for the enhancement of plant development through several mechanisms. The purpose of the present work was to evaluate the ...PGP traits of 63 bacterial strains that were isolated from an anthropogenic soil, and obtained by modification of vertisols in the Sicily region (Italy) seven years after creation. The microorganisms were tested for the following PGP characteristics: indole acetic acid (IAA), NH3, HCN and siderophore production, 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase activity (ACC) and phosphate solubilization. The results of principal component analysis (PCA) showed that Bacillus tequilensis SI 319, Brevibacterium frigoritolerans SI 433, Pseudomonas lini SI 287 and Pseudomonas frederiksbergensis SI 307 expressed high levels of IAA and production of ACC deaminase enzyme, while for the rest of traits analyzed the best performances were registered with Pseudomonas genus, in particular for the strains Pseudomonas atacamensis SI 443, Pseudomonas reinekei SI 441 and Pseudomonas granadensis SI 422 and SI 450. The in vitro screening provided enough evidence for future in vivo growth promotion tests of these eight strains.
Human activities that involve deep modifications of the soils and a substantial deterioration of their features are numerous and very diverse. Such activities are considered as pedotechniques and, in ...large-scale farming, are used only under the boost of significant economic returns. In these last decades, the pedotechniques used to tailor soils suitable for table vine cultivation in the Acate valley (Sicily, Italy), not only led to objective difficulties in the classification of these deeply transformed soils but also, to several environmental hazards. In this work after considering the pedotechniques used in tailoring suitable soil for table vine cultivation, we propose to introduce Anthrosols as a new taxonomic soil Order in Soil Taxonomy stressing that a correct soil classification of these deeply modified soils allow for a correct understanding of their features and of the environmental hazards that their management could originate.
Voluntary soil protection measures are not sufficient to achieve sustainable soil management at a global scale. Additionally, binding soil protection legislation at national and international levels ...has also proved to be insufficient for the effective protection of this almost non-renewable natural resource. The European Soil Partnership (ESP) and its sub-regional partnerships (Eurasian Sub-Regional Soil Partnership, Alpine Soil Partnership) were established in the context of FAO's Global Soil Partnership (GSP) with the mission to facilitate and contribute to the exchange of knowledge and technologies related to soils, to develop dialogue and to raise awareness for the need to establish a binding global agreement for sustainable soil management. The ESP has taken a role of an umbrella network covering countries in Europe and Central Asia. It aims to improve the dialogue in the whole region and has encouraged establishing goals that would promote sustainable soil management, taking into account various national and local approaches and priorities, as well as cultural specificities. The ESP first regional implementation plan for the 2017–2020 period was adopted and implemented along the five GSP pillars of action. Building on the experience of the last four years, this study demonstrates that establishing sub-regional and national partnerships is an additional step in a concrete sustainable soil management implementation process. It also suggests that a complementary approach between legal instruments and voluntary initiatives linked to the development of efficient communication and strong commitment is the key to success.
•Sustainable soil management can be best achieved through enhanced global and regional cooperation.•The ESP defines a regional strategy that contributes to the SDGs achievement in Europe and Central Asia.•The ESP promotes the cooperation and facilitates the exchange of data and knowledge between the countries.•Through their voluntary and wide-Europe actions, the ESP complement the effectiveness and efficiency of SSM in Europe.•Coordination, cooperation and communication skills will be required to accelerate the achievements of multiple soil-related SDGs.
Soil morphological, physical and chemical properties are described at four locations along an elevational transect in the northeastern part of the Moldavian Plateau (Romania). These data contribute ...to the knowledge of the soils of this area and to their classification according to the USDA-Soil Taxonomy, FAO-WRB and the SRTS-Romanian System. The soils were classified as Inceptisols, Alfisols and Mollisols, according to the USDA-Soil Taxonomy; Gleysol, Chernozem and Luvisol, according to the FAO-WRB and Gleiosol, Cernoziom, Preluvosol, Luvosol, according to the SRTS-Romanian System. The selected soils have a range of properties that represent the soilscape of the Moldavian subcarpathian plateau, characterised by a natural forest with oak as the dominant species. The selected soil parameters decreased with increasing elevation; calcium carbonate and clay leaching and accumulation are the main soil formation processes.
Land set-up systems in Italy were and, in a few cases, still are integral parts of agricultural landscapes. The soils of Italy mirror a wide variety of climates and morphologies and derive from a ...great diversity of parent materials influenced by different soil temperature and moisture regimes. Furthermore, their development was influenced by several anthropogenic activities over time including land settings. Land set-up systems have been widely used throughout the Italian soilscape to regulate surface and underground water and to improve the physical soil features in a way that ensures mixed herbaceous and tree-crops cultivation. In recent times, new technologies have been introduced in agroforestry exploitation of the land, while the ancient but tested hydraulic soil systems have been abandoned. As a result, a great part of Italian soilscapes is prone to water erosion and floods, an unforeseen impact, which can be counterbalanced by good soil management practices. Moreover, new pedotechniques have been recently adopted, transforming soils and landscapes, but generating sometimes soil degradation issues. After presenting the main features characterizing Italian soils and landscapes, we describe all the historical land set-up systems adopted over time, highlighting their positive functions in terms of both soil conservation and agricultural production. We also emphasise the importance of maintaining such land settings both as distinctive parts of cultural landscapes and strategies of soil conservation, and the need of developing new systems based on the principles of environmental sustainability.
Highlights - Italy shows different morphological regions that are characterized by different soilscapes. - Historical land set-up systems are distinctive constituents of the Italian cultural landscapes. - Land settings have been adopted over time to protect soil and increase agricultural production. - New pedotechniques have been recently adopted in large scale farming with no consideration of soil conservation. - Maintenance of historical land set-up systems and development of new systems is needed.
Saline waters and soil quality Dazzi, Carmelo
Italian journal of agronomy,
09/2010, Volume:
1, Issue:
3s
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The processes of secondary salinization due to anthropic actions are considered one of the most important environmental emergencies owing to their level of dangerousness. The soils of the dry areas ...of the Mediterranean basin are particularly prone to these processes. In such environments, it is imperative to resort to irrigation that allow for the reduction of risks due to soil moisture deficit and for the stabilization of yields. Frequently, saline waters are used that cause a lowering of the soil quality. If on one hand the presence of salts can benefit the soils mainly improving soil structure, on the other high levels of salts produce negative effects on soils and crops.When sodium prevails problems of soil quality can rise such as structure degradation, low hydraulic conductivity, soil sealing. The processes of secondary soil salinization due to the use of saline waters for irrigation are particularly evident in our Country among others. In Italy, saline soils are mainly distributed in long strips of the coastal belt of the Tyrrhenian sea and Adriatic sea, in the coastal belt of Apulia, Basilicata and Sardinia and in wide areas of Sicily. It is not possible to suggest general actions to combat soil salinization because we must take into consideration that in the relationship soil-water two different quality concept interact: one linked to the soils, the other to the waters.
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