Refining physical aspects of soil quality and soil health when exploring the effects of soil degradation and climate change on biomass production: an Italian case study

This study focuses on soil physical aspects of soil quality and health with the objective to define procedures with worldwide rather than only regional applicability, reflecting modern developments in soil physical and agronomic research and addressing important questions regarding possible effects of soil degradation and climate change. In contrast to water and air, soils cannot, even after much research, be characterized by a universally accepted quality definition and this hampers the internal and external communication process. Soil quality expresses the capacity of the soil to function. Biomass production is a primary function, next to filtering and organic matter accumulation, and can be modeled with soil–water–atmosphere–plant (SWAP) simulation models, as used in the agronomic yield-gap program that defines potential yields (Yp) for any location on earth determined by radiation, temperature and standardized crop characteristics, assuming adequate water and nutrient supply and lack of pests and diseases. The water-limited yield (Yw) reflects, in addition, the often limited water availability at a particular location. Actual yields (Ya) can be considered in relation to Yw to indicate yield gaps, to be expressed in terms of the indicator (Ya/Yw)×100. Soil data to calculate Yw for a given soil type (the genoform) should consist of a range of soil properties as a function of past management (various phenoforms) rather than as a single representative dataset. This way a Yw-based characteristic soil quality range for every soil type is defined, based on semipermanent soil properties. In this study effects of subsoil compaction, overland flow following surface compaction and erosion were simulated for six soil series in the Destra Sele area in Italy, including effects of climate change. Recent proposals consider soil health, which appeals more to people than soil quality and is now defined by separate soil physical, chemical and biological indicators. Focusing on the soil function biomass production, physical soil health at a given time of a given type of soil can be expressed as a point (defined by a measured Ya) on the defined soil quality range for that particular type of soil, thereby defining the seriousness of the problem and the scope for improvement. The six soils showed different behavior following the three types of land degradation and projected climate change up to the year 2100. Effects are expected to be major as reductions of biomass production of up to 50&thinsp;% appear likely under the scenarios. Rather than consider soil physical, chemical and biological indicators separately, as proposed now elsewhere for soil health, a sequential procedure is discussed, logically linking the separate procedures.</p

Volcanic soils and landslides: a case study of the island of Ischia (southern Italy) and its relationship with other Campania events

Abstract. An integrated investigation was carried out on the volcanic soils involved in the landslide phenomena that occurred in 2006 at Mt. Vezzi on the island of Ischia (southern Italy). Chemical (soil pH, organic carbon content, exchangeable cations and cation exchange capacity, electrical conductivity, Na adsorption ratio and Al, Fe and Si forms), physical (particle and pore size distribution, pore structure), hydrological (soil water retention, saturated and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity), mineralogical and micromorphological analyses were carried out for three soil profiles selected in two of the main head scarps. The studied soils showed a substantial abrupt discontinuity in all the studied properties at the interface with a buried fine ash layer (namely, the 2C horizon), that was only marginally involved in the sliding surface of the landslide phenomena. When compared to the overlying horizons, 2C showed (i) fine grey ash that is almost pumice free, with the silt content increasing by 20 %; (ii) ks values 1 order of magnitude lower; (iii) a pore distribution concentrated into small (15–30 μm modal class) pores characterised by a very low percolation threshold (approximately 15–25 μm); (iv) the presence of expandable clay minerals; and (v) increasing Na content in the exchange complex. Most of these properties indicated that 2C was a lower permeability horizon compared to the overlying ones. Nevertheless, it was possible to assume this interface to be an impeding layer to vertical water fluxes only by the identification of a thin (6.5 mm) finely stratified ash layer, on top of 2C, and of the hydromorphic features (e.g. Fe / Mn concretions) within and on top of the layer. Although Mt. Vezzi's soil environment has many properties in common with those of other Campania debris-mudflows (e.g. high gradient, north-facing slope, similar forestry, and volcanic origin of the parent material), the results of this study suggest a more complex relationship between soil properties and landslides and emphasise the role of vertical discontinuities as noteworthy predisposing factors

Valutazione metabolica e gestione medica della nefrolitiasi: Quale futuro?

Abstract non disponibil

Cocaina E Insufficienza Renale Acuta

Il consumo di cocaina ha raggiunto proporzioni epidemiche. le complicanze renali correlate al suo abuso sono sempre più frequentemente evidenziate. descriviamo 4 casi clinici di insufficienza renale acuta da overdose di cocaina da noi riscontrati negli ultimi 18 mesi. la insufficienza renale era in tutti i casi correlata a rabdomiolisi, che è il meccanismo patogenetico più comune. a causa del "late referral" alla nostra struttura, non è stata effettuata una pronta ed efficace terapia medica ed è stato necessario in tutti i casi istituire trattamento emodialitico prima della riprese funzionale dell'organo

Mastectomy with immediate breast reconstruction during "phase 1" COVID-19 emergency: An Italian experience.

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EcoClimate: a database of climate data from multiple models for past, present, and future for macroecologists and biogeographers

Studies in biogeography and macroecology have been increasing massively since climate and biodiversity databases became easily accessible. Climate simulations for past, present, and future have enabled macroecologists and biogeographers to combine data on species’ occurrences with detailed information on climatic conditions through time to predict biological responses across large spatial and temporal scales. Here we present and describe ecoClimate, a free and open data repository developed to serve useful climate data to macroecologists and biogeographers. ecoClimate arose from the need for climate layers with which to build ecological niche models and test macroecological and biogeographic hypotheses in the past, present, and future. ecoClimate offers a suite of processed, multi-temporal climate data sets from the most recent multi-model ensembles developed by the Coupled Modeling Intercomparison Projects (CMIP5) and Paleoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Projects (PMIP3) across past, present, and future time frames, at global extents and 0.5° spatial resolution, in convenient formats for analysis and manipulation. A priority of ecoClimate is consistency across these diverse data, but retaining information on uncertainties among model predictions. The ecoClimate research group intends to maintain the web repository updated continuously as new model outputs become available, as well as software that makes our workflows broadly accessible

How likely are adaptive responses to mitigate the threats of climate change for amphibians globally?

Whether species are capable of adapting to rapid shifts in climate raises considerable interest. Analyses based on niche models often assume niche conservatism and equilibrium with climate, implying that species will persist only in regions where future climatic conditions match their current conditions and that they will colonize these regions promptly. However, species may adapt to changing climate and persist where future climates differ from their current optimum. Here, we provide a first macroecological generalization to the approach of evolutionary rescue, by comparing the expected shift in mean temperature within the geographic range of 7193 species of amphibians worldwide, under alternative warming scenarios. Expected evolutionary change is expressed in units of standard deviations of mean temperature, per generation (Haldanes) and compared with theoretical models defining the maximum sustainable evolutionary rates (MSER) for each species. For the pessimistic emission scenario RCP8.5, shifts in mean temperature vary between near-zero and 6°C within the geographic ranges for most species, with a median equal to 3.75°C. The probability of evolutionary rescue in temperature peaks is higher than 0.05 for about 55% of the species and higher than 0.95 for only 12% of the species. Therefore, the predicted shift in mean temperature would be too extreme to deal with for almost half of the species. When evolutionary plasticity is incorporated, this scenario becomes more optimistic, with about 44% of the species being likely to shift their thermal peaks tracking future warming. These figures are not random in geographical space: evolutionary rescue would be unlikely in the tropics, especially in South America (Amazonia), parts of Africa, Indonesia, and in the Mediterranean region. Given the uncertainty in demographic and genetic parameters for species’ responses to climate change, we caution that it remains difficult to assess the realism of the macroecological generalization. In any case, it may be precautionary to assume that our results are not liberal, showing low probability of adaptation for most of the species and thus that the persistence of populations by evolutionary rescue may, in general, be unlikely in the long term

Functional homogeneous zones (fHZs) in viticultural zoning procedure: an Italian case study on Aglianico vine

Abstract. This paper aims to test a new physically oriented approach to viticulture zoning at farm scale that is strongly rooted in hydropedology and aims to achieve a better use of environmental features with respect to plant requirements and wine production. The physics of our approach are defined by the use of soil–plant–atmosphere simulation models, applying physically based equations to describe the soil hydrological processes and solve soil–plant water status. This study (part of the ZOVISA project) was conducted on a farm devoted to production of high-quality wines (Aglianico DOC), located in southern Italy (Campania region, Mirabella Eclano, AV). The soil spatial distribution was obtained after standard soil survey informed by geophysical survey. Two homogeneous zones (HZs) were identified; in each one a physically based model was applied to solve the soil water balance and estimate the soil functional behaviour (crop water stress index, CWSI) defining the functional homogeneous zones (fHZs). For the second process, experimental plots were established and monitored for investigating soil–plant water status, crop development (biometric and physiological parameters) and daily climate variables (temperature, solar radiation, rainfall, wind). The effects of crop water status on crop response over must and wine quality were then evaluated in the fHZs. This was performed by comparing crop water stress with (i) crop physiological measurement (leaf gas exchange, chlorophyll a fluorescence, leaf water potential, chlorophyll content, leaf area index (LAI) measurement), (ii) grape bunches measurements (berry weight, sugar content, titratable acidity, etc.) and (iii) wine quality (aromatic response). This experiment proved the usefulness of the physically based approach, also in the case of mapping viticulture microzoning

A Web-based spatial decision supporting system for land management and soil conservation

Abstract. Today it is evident that there are many contrasting demands on our landscape (e.g. food security, more sustainable agriculture, higher income in rural areas, etc.) as well as many land degradation problems. It has been proved that providing operational answers to these demands and problems is extremely difficult. Here we aim to demonstrate that a spatial decision support system based on geospatial cyberinfrastructure (GCI) can address all of the above, so producing a smart system for supporting decision making for agriculture, forestry, and urban planning with respect to the landscape. In this paper, we discuss methods and results of a special kind of GCI architecture, one that is highly focused on land management and soil conservation. The system allows us to obtain dynamic, multidisciplinary, multiscale, and multifunctional answers to agriculture, forestry, and urban planning issues through the Web. The system has been applied to and tested in an area of about 20 000 ha in the south of Italy, within the framework of a European LIFE+ project (SOILCONSWEB). The paper reports – as a case study – results from two different applications dealing with agriculture (olive growth tool) and environmental protection (soil capability to protect groundwater). Developed with the help of end users, the system is starting to be adopted by local communities. The system indirectly explores a change of paradigm for soil and landscape scientists. Indeed, the potential benefit is shown of overcoming current disciplinary fragmentation over landscape issues by offering – through a smart Web-based system – truly integrated geospatial knowledge that may be directly and freely used by any end user (www.landconsultingweb.eu). This may help bridge the last very important divide between scientists working on the landscape and end users

Magnetic seed versus skin tattoo localization of non-palpable breast lesions: a single institution cohort study

Objective: The objective of this retrospective study was to investigate the accuracy and feasibility of magnetic seed compared to skin tattoo in preoperative localization of impalpable breast lesions in terms of accuracy of placement, re-excision and positive margins rates, and breast/surgical specimen volume ratio. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 77 patients who underwent breast conservative surgery in our center from November 2020 to November 2021, with previous localization with skin tattoo or magnetic seed. Results: Thirty-seven magnetic seeds were placed in 36 patients (48.6%) and 40 skin tattoos were performed in the remaining cases (51.4%). The seeds were placed correctly at the two-view mammogram acquired after the insertion in 97.6% (36/37) of cases. With both methods, 100% of the index lesions were completely removed and found in the surgical specimen. The reported re-excision rate was 0% for both groups. A significant difference was observed in the volume of breast parenchyma removed between the two groups, inferior in the seed group (p = 0.046), especially in case of voluminous breasts (p = 0.003) and small lesions (dimension &lt; 8&nbsp;mm, p = 0.019). Conclusions: Magnetic seed is a non-radioactive localization technique, feasible to place, recommended in case of non-palpable breast lesions, saving the breast parenchyma removed compared with skin tattoo, without reducing the accuracy. Clinical relevance statement: Our findings contribute to the current evidence on preoperative localization techniques for non-palpable breast lesions, highlighting the efficacy of magnetic seed localization for deep and small lesions. Key points: • Magnetic seed is a non-radioactive technique for the preoperative localization of non-palpable breast lesions studied in comparison with skin tattoo. • Magnetic seed is feasible to place in terms of post-placement migration and distance from the target lesion. • Magnetic seed is recommended in case of non-palpable breast lesions, saving the breast parenchyma removed without reducing the accuracy