Soil conditions under a Fagus sylvatica CONECOFOR stand in Central Italy: an integrated assessment through combined solid phase and solution studies.

As soil solution represents the major phase of soil chemical reactions, its study is a powerful tool for ecological investigations. Soil solution chemical composition gives a realistic idea about the soil chemical components immediately available in the environment, mainly in relation to the soil ecosystem reaction to the disturbance due to acidifying loads. Within the CONECOFOR Program, the monitoring of forest soil conditions was performed in a level II plot (ABR I), under a Fagus sylvatica (European beech) stand, through the study of throughfall and soil solutions collected from depths ranging between the base of the litter layers and 90 cm. To be able to investigate solution contents of nutrients, acidifying agents and DOC throughout the profile, both zero tension and tension lysimeters were used. The first ones were inserted below the organic horizons, while tension lysimeters were placed within the mineral horizons at 15, 25, 55 and 90 cm depth. Sampled solutions were analyzed for Na, K, Ca, Mg, NH4, Cl, F, NO3, SO4, and DOC. The results evidence a clear seasonal pattern, mainly for macronutrients and inorganic N components. Acidic pulses were mostly evident below the organic horizons, in relation to strong nitric N releases from litter; these last were not always immediately neutralized by basic cations. Acid solutions leaving the organic horizons were invariably neutralized in the surface mineral horizons, within 15 cm depth. Temporal patterns of sulphate retention and release suggest that the soil has low retention capability for this anion. Such behaviour can be explained by the composition of the solid phase, where potential anion adsorbants appear strongly linked with organic matter in long residence time complexes. Sulphate and nitrate loading of this soil appear, anyway, to be mostly non-anthropogenic, but rather linked to natural mineralization pulses and, for sulphate, to aeolian solid transport from the south

Soil solution chemistry at one mountain beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) CONECOFOR plot, 1999 to 2005

Soil solution monitoring aims to understand various temporal scales of soil processes. The first eight years of observation in ABR1 Level II site have brought significant elements of understanding about the shorter temporal scales. It is suggested that certain solutes, regularly produced by forest floor microbial processes, are transferred to the highly mobile portion of the soil solution by a non linear process, producing irregular pulses and creating a strong high frequency component. Seasonal processes remain nonetheless detectable after simple and rough filtering. A multi-year trend of diminished nitrate mineralization and increased pH of forest floor solutions is possible. It is estimated that much more accurate analysis will be possible in a relatively short time span of further monitoring

Alla ricerca del mercato dell'arte perduto

Il contributo analizza le distorsioni del mercato dell'arte italiano causate dagli stringenti limiti alla circolazione delle opere d'arte all'estero, da una disciplina fiscale spesso punitiva e da talune incertezze applicative nell'implementazione della normativa europea sul diritto di seguit