Is Soil Contributing to Climate Change Mitigation during Woody Encroachment? A Case Study on the Italian Alps
Background and Objectives: Over the last few decades, the European mountain environment has been characterized by the progressive abandonment of agro-pastoral activities and consequent forest expansion due to secondary succession. While woody encroachment is commonly considered as a climate change m...
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doaj-df14267bb43f483eb90caa03140bca302020-11-25T03:35:04ZengMDPI AGForests1999-49072020-08-011188788710.3390/f11080887Is Soil Contributing to Climate Change Mitigation during Woody Encroachment? A Case Study on the Italian AlpsErnesto Fino0Emanuele Blasi1Lucia Perugini2Guido Pellis3Riccardo Valentini4Tommaso Chiti5Sogesid s.p.a c/o Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea (MATTM) Via Cristoforo Colombo, n. 44, 00147 Rome, ItalyDepartment for Innovation in Biological, Agro-food and Forest systems (DIBAF), University of Tuscia, Via San C. De Lellis snc, 01100 Viterbo, ItalyFoundation Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC), Division on Impacts on Agriculture, Forests and Ecosystem Services (IAFES), Viale Trieste 127, 01100 Viterbo, ItalyFoundation Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC), Division on Impacts on Agriculture, Forests and Ecosystem Services (IAFES), Viale Trieste 127, 01100 Viterbo, ItalyDepartment for Innovation in Biological, Agro-food and Forest systems (DIBAF), University of Tuscia, Via San C. De Lellis snc, 01100 Viterbo, ItalyDepartment for Innovation in Biological, Agro-food and Forest systems (DIBAF), University of Tuscia, Via San C. De Lellis snc, 01100 Viterbo, ItalyBackground and Objectives: Over the last few decades, the European mountain environment has been characterized by the progressive abandonment of agro-pastoral activities and consequent forest expansion due to secondary succession. While woody encroachment is commonly considered as a climate change mitigation measure, studies suggest a still uncertain role of the soil organic carbon (SOC) pool in contributing to climate change mitigation during this process. Therefore, the objective of the study is to investigate the possible SOC variations occurring as a consequence of the secondary succession process at the provincial level in an Alpine area in Italy. Materials and Methods: A chronosequence approach was applied to identify, in five different study areas of the Belluno province, the land use/land cover change over four different stages of natural succession, from managed grazing land to secondary forest developed on abandoned grazing land. In each chronosequence stage, soil samples were collected down to the bedrock (0–60 cm depth) to determine the changes in the SOC stock due to the woody encroachment process. Results: In all areas, small or no significant (<i>p</i> < 0.05) SOC stock changes were observed during the secondary succession in the upper 30 cm of mineral soil, while significant changes were evident in the 30–60 cm compartment, with the SOC stock significantly decreasing from 30% to 60% in the final stage of the succession. This fact indicates the great importance of considering also the subsoil when dealing with land use/land cover change dynamics. Conclusions: The recorded trend in SOC has been proved to be the opposite in other Italian regions, so our results indicate the importance of local observation and data collection to correctly evaluate the soil contribution to climate change mitigation during woody encroachment.https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/11/8/887climate change mitigationcommon agricultural policyrural development programsoil organic carbonwoody encroachment |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Ernesto Fino Emanuele Blasi Lucia Perugini Guido Pellis Riccardo Valentini Tommaso Chiti |
spellingShingle |
Ernesto Fino Emanuele Blasi Lucia Perugini Guido Pellis Riccardo Valentini Tommaso Chiti Is Soil Contributing to Climate Change Mitigation during Woody Encroachment? A Case Study on the Italian Alps Forests climate change mitigation common agricultural policy rural development program soil organic carbon woody encroachment |
author_facet |
Ernesto Fino Emanuele Blasi Lucia Perugini Guido Pellis Riccardo Valentini Tommaso Chiti |
author_sort |
Ernesto Fino |
title |
Is Soil Contributing to Climate Change Mitigation during Woody Encroachment? A Case Study on the Italian Alps |
title_short |
Is Soil Contributing to Climate Change Mitigation during Woody Encroachment? A Case Study on the Italian Alps |
title_full |
Is Soil Contributing to Climate Change Mitigation during Woody Encroachment? A Case Study on the Italian Alps |
title_fullStr |
Is Soil Contributing to Climate Change Mitigation during Woody Encroachment? A Case Study on the Italian Alps |
title_full_unstemmed |
Is Soil Contributing to Climate Change Mitigation during Woody Encroachment? A Case Study on the Italian Alps |
title_sort |
is soil contributing to climate change mitigation during woody encroachment? a case study on the italian alps |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Forests |
issn |
1999-4907 |
publishDate |
2020-08-01 |
description |
Background and Objectives: Over the last few decades, the European mountain environment has been characterized by the progressive abandonment of agro-pastoral activities and consequent forest expansion due to secondary succession. While woody encroachment is commonly considered as a climate change mitigation measure, studies suggest a still uncertain role of the soil organic carbon (SOC) pool in contributing to climate change mitigation during this process. Therefore, the objective of the study is to investigate the possible SOC variations occurring as a consequence of the secondary succession process at the provincial level in an Alpine area in Italy. Materials and Methods: A chronosequence approach was applied to identify, in five different study areas of the Belluno province, the land use/land cover change over four different stages of natural succession, from managed grazing land to secondary forest developed on abandoned grazing land. In each chronosequence stage, soil samples were collected down to the bedrock (0–60 cm depth) to determine the changes in the SOC stock due to the woody encroachment process. Results: In all areas, small or no significant (<i>p</i> < 0.05) SOC stock changes were observed during the secondary succession in the upper 30 cm of mineral soil, while significant changes were evident in the 30–60 cm compartment, with the SOC stock significantly decreasing from 30% to 60% in the final stage of the succession. This fact indicates the great importance of considering also the subsoil when dealing with land use/land cover change dynamics. Conclusions: The recorded trend in SOC has been proved to be the opposite in other Italian regions, so our results indicate the importance of local observation and data collection to correctly evaluate the soil contribution to climate change mitigation during woody encroachment. |
topic |
climate change mitigation common agricultural policy rural development program soil organic carbon woody encroachment |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/11/8/887 |
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