MOSYSS Project - Monitoring SYstem of Soils at multiScale. Monitoring system of physical, chemical and biological soil parameters in relation to forest and agricultural land management.

MOSYSS is a project launched in June 2010 by the Agriculture, Forestation and Fisheries Department of the Marche Region in Italy. It has been coordinated by the Regional Soil Observatory as part of the assessment activities of the Rural Development Plan (RDP) Marche 2007-2013 as laid down in the Common Monitoring and Assessment Framework. Among the objectives there is the creation of a permanent soil monitoring system for the whole Marche territory, combining technical and scientific requirements (e.g. rigor and representativeness) whilst optimizing financial and organizational resources. The information obtainable from the monitoring system could potentially be upscale, on a functional basis, in other existing soil and biodiversity monitoring networks at national and European level. The main function of the project is to investigate soils starting from their intrinsic properties ( e.g. chemical, physical or biological) to obtain a detailed evaluation of their current "quality" status, and to monitor, over time, changes in these parameters by repeating the monitoring campaign at pre-established time intervals.JRC.H.5-Land Resources Managemen

Case Study - Italy, Sustainable Agriculture and Soil Conservation (SoCo Project)

This Technical Note 'Case Study ¿ Italy' is part of a series of case studies within the ¿Sustainable Agriculture and Soil Conservation¿ (SoCo) project. Ten case studies were carried out in Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom between spring and summer 2008. The selection of case study areas was designed to capture differences in soil degradation processes, soil types, climatic conditions, farm structures and farming practices, institutional settings and policy priorities. A harmonised methodological approach was pursued in order to gather insights from a range of contrasting conditions over a geographically diverse area. The case studies were carried out by local experts to reflect the specificities of the selected case studies.JRC.DDG.J.5-Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Econom

Implementazione a Livello Regionale della Proposta di Direttiva Quadro sui Suoli in Europa

This report provides an example of the implementation of the proposal of the Soil Framework Directive at regional scale. The authors analysed the complex process as defined in the proposal for the Soil Framework Directive (COM (2006) 232) from the European Commission to the Council and European Parliament. Furthermore the implementation scheme of the proposed Directive has been followed from the definition of the soil erosion risk assessment to the reporting activity to the European Commission. In addition, an overview of the actual policy framework for the soil protection measures is given. The authors underline some crucial steps in the implementation of the Directive with particular attention to the common criteria and the need for soil monitoring data for the reporting activity to European Commission.JRC.H.7-Land management and natural hazard

CILIATE COMMUNITIES AS A TOOL TO ASSESS SOIL QUALITY IN AGROECOSYSTEM: INVESTIGATION ON AGRICULTURAL SOILS UNDER ORGANIC FARMING

Ciliated protozoa are ubiquitous eukaryotic microorganisms, which constitutes an essential component of aquatic and soil ecosystems. Ciliates are very sensitive to any change in their habitat and fluctuations in their communities can affect the food web and energy transfer within the ecosystem. Thus, the monitoring of the structure of ciliate communities can represent a valuable tool to assess ecosystem quality and functioning. Currently, few studies have been addressed to the analysis of soil ciliate communities and in particular, in agricultural soils under organic management. In our study, the first one to be performed in Italy, the ciliate communities in three fields under organic management located in a hill area (300-550 m asl) of the province of Macerata (Marche), were investigated by means of qualitative and quantitative methods. Soil samples were taken twice in autumn and spring. Furthermore, six more sites representative of natural and seminatural soils were sampled for comparison. Our surveys showed a total of 79 species belonging to 3 classes, 19 orders, 42 genera from all sites under study with the dominance of the ciliates genus: Colpoda, Gonostomum, Oxytricha, and Halteria. The species richness ranged from 37 to 15 and it is higher in agricultural fields as compared with the natural habitats. These results highlight the high bio-indicative potential of ciliate species number. This research aims to develop molecular profiling assay of ciliate communities and finally to merge taxonomic and molecular data to evaluate, more rigorously, soil ciliate biodiversity

Ciliate community structures correlates with environmental variables: investigation on agricultural and natural soils.

Ciliated protozoa are ubiquitous eukaryotic microorganisms, which constitutes an essential component of aquatic and soil ecosystems. Ciliates are very sensitive to any change in their habitat, fluctuations in their communities can affect the food web and energy transfer within the ecosystem. Thus, monitoring the structure of ciliate communities can represent a valuable tool to assess ecosystem quality and functioning. Currently, few studies have been addressed to the analysis of soil ciliate communities and in particular, from agricultural soils under organic and conventional management. In our study, the first one to be performed in Italy, the ciliate communities in three fields under organic and one field under conventional management located in a hill area (300-550 m asl) of the provinces of Macerata and Ancona (Marche), were investigated by means of qualitative method. Furthermore, six more sites representative of natural and semi-natural soils were sampled for comparison. Soil samples were taken twice in autumn and spring. Chemical-physical parameters were analysed for all sampled sites. Our surveys showed a total of 68 species belonging to 9 classes, 19 orders, 45 genera from all sites under study with the dominance of the ciliates genus: Colpoda, Gonostomum, Oxytricha, and Halteria. The species richness ranged from 37 to 14 and it is higher in agricultural sites as compared with the natural habitats. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was able to discriminate between agricultural (organic and conventional) and natural sites. Furthermore, Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) and Generalized Procrustes Analysis (GPA) showed strict correlations between environmental variables and distribution of ciliate species. Altogether, these results highlight the importance of environmental variables in shaping the ciliate communities in the investigated soil types