Soils as a target of anthropogeographic landscape changes in alpine areas (Dolomites, northern Italy)

摘要

The paper deals with the study of soils as a target of human-induced landscape changes in a typical alpine area, in the Dolomites region (Italy). A general soil survey allowed identification of different landform units in terraced soil systems. Fortyrepresentative soil profiles developed from limestone and under different vegetation cover (meadows, pasture, forest and agricultural land) were opened and sampled for routine analyses. Selected soil properties, both physical (soil structure, porosity, texture, root penetration depth, skeleton, water retention) and bio-chemical (pH, nutrient status, carbonate content, solute translocation, organic matter content and transformation, soil fauna activity) allowed assessment of the consistent effects of land use change on soils and soilscapes. Different evolutionary stages were recorded in the changing terraced landscape:little degradation under permanent meadow (older than 50 years);moderate degradation under forest (30 - 50 years);high degradation under abandoned forest (<50 years).Dynamic soil properties, and the processes involved, proved greatly useful to understand transformation mechanisms and to assess possible consequences of land abandonment on soils and the whole environment.