Ravetto Enri S., Petrella F., Ungaro F., Zavattaro L., Mainetti A., Lombardi G., Lonati M. (2021). Relative importance of plant species composition and environmental factors in affecting soil carbon stocks of Alpine pastures (NW Italy). Agriculture, 01/11/2021, vol. 11, n. 11, p. 1-24.
https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11111047
https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11111047
Titre : | Relative importance of plant species composition and environmental factors in affecting soil carbon stocks of Alpine pastures (NW Italy) (2021) |
Auteurs : | S. Ravetto Enri ; F. Petrella ; F. Ungaro ; L. Zavattaro ; A. Mainetti ; G. Lombardi ; M. Lonati |
Type de document : | Article |
Dans : | Agriculture (vol. 11, n. 11, November 2021) |
Article en page(s) : | p. 1-24 |
Langues : | Anglais |
Langues du résumé : | Anglais |
Catégories : |
Catégories principales 06 - AGRICULTURE. FORÊTS. PÊCHES ; 6.4 - Production Agricole. Système de ProductionThésaurus IAMM PATURAGE ; ALPES ; VEGETATION ALPINE ; REGION D'ALTITUDE ; SERVICE ECOSYSTEMIQUE ; ATTENUATION DES EFFETS DU CHANGEMENT CLIMATIQUE ; SYSTEME DE CULTURE ; SEQUESTRATION DU CARBONE ; ITALIE |
Résumé : | Alpine pastures are agricultural systems with a high provision of ecosystem services, which include carbon (C) stocking. Particularly, the soil organic C (SOC) stocks of Alpine pastures may play a pivotal role in counteracting global climate change. Even if the importance of pasture SOC has been stated by several research studies, especially by comparing different land uses, little is known about the role of plant species composition. We studied a wide sample of 324 pastures in the north-western Italian Alps by performing coupled vegetation and soil surveys. Climatic (i.e., mean annual precipitation), topographic (i.e., elevation, slope, southness), vegetation (i.e., the first three dimensions of a non-metric multid imensional scalingNMDS), and soil (i.e., pH) parameters were considered as independent variables in a generalised linear model accounting for SOC stocks in the 030 cm depth. Pasture SOC was significantly affected by precipitation (positively) and by pH (negatively) but not by topography. However, the higher influence was exerted by vegetation through the first NMDS dimension, which depicted a change in plant species along a thermic-altitudinal gradient. Our research highlighted the remarkable importance of vegetation in regulating SOC stocks in Alpine pastures, confirming the pivotal role of these semi-natural agricultural systems in the global scenario of climate change. |
Cote : | En ligne |
URL / DOI : | https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11111047 |