Memoli, Valeria (2017) Effects of land use on soil quality. [Tesi di dottorato]

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Abstract

Soil is a prime component of terrestrial areas that provides many services that guarantee the functionality of the ecosystems, support organism life, sustain plant or crop productivity, regulate gas exchanges between atmosphere and biosphere, allow organism wellness and maintain the environmental quality. In the last century, human density rapidly increased, causing strong environmental variations to satisfy their needs and leading to an excessive land transformation. Land use changes determine deep alterations of ecosystem functionality that governs physical, chemical and microbiological processes. As soil formation is slower than its consumption,it is necessary to preserve soil quality in order to sustain environment health. Because soil functions are difficult to measure, soil properties that are sensitive to specific changes can be used as indicators of soil quality. The present research provides a contribution to the actual knowledge on the characteristics of soils affected by environmental degradation due to intensive or extensive use of lands by humans (quarries, agriculture,urbanization) and by management of a natural reserve. The overall aim of the research was to evaluate the quality of soils undergone to different kinds of anthropic impacts. Particularly, the research aimed: i) to exam the feasibility to recover quarries through the single addition of organic amendments; ii) to evaluate the chemical, biological characteristics of agricultural soils inside an urban fabric and of forest soils inside a National Park. Besides, the studies were also focused on the relationships between the chemical characteristics of the soils and the biota and a minimum data set of indicators was proposed in order to provide a useful tool to decision-makers to monitor, conserve or improve soil quality. The main results of the research focused on quarry recover through a single application of the investigated organic amendments (compost and a mixture of compost and poultry manure) highlighted an improvement of the substrate properties, as, over the time, the metal availabilities decrease and microbial community increase. The agricultural soils inside the urban fabric and the soils of the Vesuvius National Park appeared slightly contaminated by Cu e Pb, nevertheless, soil microbial biomass were scarcely affected by their concentrations. In addition, only four indicators, selected from twenty-five parameters, appeared enough to monitor the quality of soils inside the Vesuvius National Park.

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