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Land
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Influence on Soil Quality of Agriculture and Forest Management: Assessment,...
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Influence on Soil Quality of Agriculture and Forest Management: Assessment, Mitigation and Best Management Practices II

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Land, Soil and Water".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2024) | Viewed by 7016

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Walter Stefanoni

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’Analisi dell’Economia Agraria, Centro di Ricerca Ingegneria e Trasformazioni Agroalimentari, Via della Pascolare 16, 00015 Monterotondo, Italy
Interests: agriculture mechanization; sustainable agriculture; energy crops; agriculture residues exploitation; horticulture; fruit and vegetable quality
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Francesco Latterini

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Dendrology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Parkowa 5, 62-035 Kórnik, Poland
Interests: sustainable forest operations; reduced-impact logging; precision forest harvesting
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Rachele Venanzi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences (DAFNE), Tuscia University, Viterbo, Italy
Interests: cable skidder; diameter growth; residual tree; selective harvesting; wound recovery; work performance; harvesting costs; winching; ghg emissions; thinning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The management of forestry, agriculture, and agroforestry systems affects physicochemical and biological parameters of soils worldwide. Particularly, the overexploitation of those resources can lead to a loss of fertility, soil quality, and soil resilience, which can jeopardize biodiversity, create hydrological concerns, and increase desertification. Hence, the current Special Issue aims to collect new insights into the influence that management of forestry, agriculture, and agroforestry systems can have on soil, and to gather best practices or new strategies to adopt in order to improve the sustainability of those sectors.

Authors from multiple disciplines are invited to contribute to this Special Issue by submitting scientific original studies and review works related to the following topics (the list below is presented as an example):

  • Assessing and mitigating soil disturbance due to forestry, agriculture, and agroforestry systems management;
  • Innovative approaches for a proper planning of forest harvesting, considering the paradigm of sustainable forest operations;
  • Reduced impact logging;
  • Machinery traffic;
  • Prevention of soil erosion in agriculture and forestry;
  • Post-harvesting restoration techniques;
  • Best management practices to maintain and/or improve soil features;
  • Environmental and economic assessment of agriculture and forest management systems, with particular reference to soil quality;
  • Conservation agriculture, minimum tillage, and no-tillage;
  • Cultivation techniques that allow for cropping in difficult environments, i.e., marginal lands;
  • Approaches for assuring soil fertility and curbing desertification.

Dr. Walter Stefanoni
Dr. Francesco Latterini
Dr. Rachele Venanzi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 4490 KiB  
Article
Unveiling the Role of Climate and Environmental Dynamics in Shaping Forest Fire Patterns in Northern Zagros, Iran
by Hadi Beygi Heidarlou, Melina Gholamzadeh Bazarbash and Stelian Alexandru Borz
Land 2024, 13(9), 1453; https://doi.org/10.3390/land13091453 - 6 Sep 2024
Viewed by 782
Abstract
Wildfires present a major global environmental issue, exacerbated by climate change. The Iranian Northern Zagros Forests, characterized by a Mediterranean climate, are particularly vulnerable to fires during hot, dry summers. This study investigates the impact of climate change on forest fires in these [...] Read more.
Wildfires present a major global environmental issue, exacerbated by climate change. The Iranian Northern Zagros Forests, characterized by a Mediterranean climate, are particularly vulnerable to fires during hot, dry summers. This study investigates the impact of climate change on forest fires in these forests from 2006 to 2023. The analysis revealed significant year-to-year fluctuations, with notable fire occurrence in years 2007, 2010, 2021, and 2023. The largest burned area occurred in 2021, covering 2655.66 ha, while 2006 had the smallest burned area of 175.27 ha. Climate variables such as temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind speed, heat waves, and solar radiation were assessed for their effects on fire behavior. Strong correlations were found between higher average temperatures and larger burned areas, as well as between heat waves and increased fire frequency. Additionally, higher wind speeds were linked to larger burned areas, suggesting that increased wind speeds may enhance fire spread. Multiple linear regression models demonstrated high predictive accuracy, explaining 84% of the variance in burned areas and 69.6% in the variance in fire frequency. These findings document the growing wildfire risk in the Northern Zagros region due to climate change, highlighting the urgent need to integrate scientific research with policies to develop effective wildfire management strategies for sustainable forest management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Influence on Soil Quality of Agriculture and Forest Management: Assessment, Mitigation and Best Management Practices II)
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13 pages, 2083 KiB  
Article
The Role of Almond-Leaved Pear Pyrus spinosa Forssk. in Mediterranean Pasturelands Carbon Storage and Woodlands Restoration
by Rafael Silveira Bueno, Emilio Badalamenti, Luciano Gristina, Agata Novara and Tommaso La Mantia
Land 2023, 12(12), 2135; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12122135 - 5 Dec 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1186
Abstract
A large portion of the Mediterranean basin suffers from a lack of organic carbon in the soil and low woody cover percentages, resulting in a very high risk of desertification. In such conditions, knowing the effects on below and above ground carbon sequestration [...] Read more.
A large portion of the Mediterranean basin suffers from a lack of organic carbon in the soil and low woody cover percentages, resulting in a very high risk of desertification. In such conditions, knowing the effects on below and above ground carbon sequestration of pioneer woody species is of great importance, although barely assessed at the individual level. In this study, we first investigated whether almond-leaved pear (Pyrus spinosa) individuals influence soil organic carbon (SOC) concentration and stock in comparison with surrounding pasturelands inside a natural reserve in Sicily, Italy. Second, we evaluated inter individual variability on such storage, testing the effects of plant height, basal diameter, canopy cover and tree structure (single or multiple stems). Soils under pear presented, on average, a significantly higher SOC than pasturelands (3.86% and 3.16%, respectively) as well as a lower bulk density (1.09 and 1.28 g cm−3, respectively). Due to a lower soil compaction, SOC stocks (130.3 and 113.9 Mg ha−1, respectively) did not differ significantly. Below and aboveground biomass carbon accounted for a small fraction of carbon stock, while neither pear structure, age nor tree structure significantly influenced SOC concentration and SOC stock. Despite the need of further investigations, our results indicate that pear may represent an excellent tree species to improve carbon storage, both while triggering the restoration of Mediterranean woodlands or increasing biodiversity in pasturelands and agroforestry systems, that, indeed, can hold high SOC if well managed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Influence on Soil Quality of Agriculture and Forest Management: Assessment, Mitigation and Best Management Practices II)
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11 pages, 3265 KiB  
Article
The Effect of Heating on Properties of Sandy Soils
by Peter Šurda, Ľubomír Lichner, Massimo Iovino, Slavomír Hološ and Anton Zvala
Land 2023, 12(9), 1752; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12091752 - 8 Sep 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1508
Abstract
Although burning grass and crop residues is prohibited in many countries, farmers perceive it as a quick and inexpensive way to eliminate unwanted biomass. The aim of this study was to estimate the impact of heating temperature (simulation of biomass burning) on the [...] Read more.
Although burning grass and crop residues is prohibited in many countries, farmers perceive it as a quick and inexpensive way to eliminate unwanted biomass. The aim of this study was to estimate the impact of heating temperature (simulation of biomass burning) on the studied properties (soil organic carbon (SOC) content, pH(H2O), water drop penetration time, WDPT, and contact angle, CA) of acidic sandy soils. Soil samples were taken from the experimental sites S1, S2, and S3 at Studienka village in the Borská nížina lowland (southwestern Slovakia). Experimental site S1 was arable land, experimental site S2 was arable land abandoned for approximately 10 years, and experimental site S3 was arable land abandoned for approximately 30 years with scattered Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) trees. It was found that all the soil properties studied were strongly affected by heating. A drop in SOC was observed in all the soils for the heating temperature between 20 and 600 °C. Due to the incomplete combustion of SOC, a small (0.1–0.7%) SOC content was recorded even in soils heated to between 600 and 900 °C. An increase in pH(H2O) was observed in all the soils for the heating temperature higher than 300 °C. Soil from the experimental site S1 was wettable (WDPT < 5 s) for all of the heating temperatures. WDPT vs. heating temperature relationships for the soils from the experimental sites S2 and S3 were more complex. After a decrease in the heating temperature of 50 °C, an increase in WDPT for the heating temperature between 50 °C and 300 °C (for S3 soil) and 350 °C (for S2 soil) was registered. Finally, the WDPT dramatically dropped to 0 for the heating temperature of 350 °C (for S3 soil) and 400 °C (for S2 soil). CA started to decrease at 300 °C in all the soils and dropped to 0° for all the soils at 800 °C. CA > 0° measured in soils for the heating temperature between 400 and 800 °C, as a consequence of the small SOC contents due to the incomplete combustion of SOC, is a novelty of this study which demonstrates that CA is more sensitive to the changes in subcritical water repellency than WDPT. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Influence on Soil Quality of Agriculture and Forest Management: Assessment, Mitigation and Best Management Practices II)
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17 pages, 1727 KiB  
Article
Soil Characteristics and Fertility of the Unique Jarrah Forest of Southwestern Australia, with Particular Consideration of Plant Nutrition and Land Rehabilitation
by Amin Soltangheisi, Suman George and Mark Tibbett
Land 2023, 12(6), 1236; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12061236 - 16 Jun 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2870
Abstract
The jarrah forest is a natural ecosystem with significant endemism in the flora and fauna. The forest stands on the western edge of the ancient Great Plateau of Western Australia on the granitic shield of the Yilgarn craton (2.5 Gya). The long-term migration [...] Read more.
The jarrah forest is a natural ecosystem with significant endemism in the flora and fauna. The forest stands on the western edge of the ancient Great Plateau of Western Australia on the granitic shield of the Yilgarn craton (2.5 Gya). The long-term migration of soluble iron and aluminium led to the formation of bauxite ore. The regolith ore is bound by surficial topsoil and deep pallid zone kaolinite clays, primarily used in land rehabilitation. We investigated the chemical fertility of the substrates, along with key physical properties. We found the capacity of these soils to provide a stable growth medium differed considerably in their ability to retain and supply nutrients. These substrates are deficient in nitrogen, phosphorus, and micronutrients. In the topsoil, 15% of total P is plant-available, while in the pallid zone layer, only 1% of total P is available. 31P-NMR showed no organic P in the pallid zone, whereas the topsoil had significant organic P and, consequently, a supply of phosphate ions. This shows the importance of organic P in the topsoil for ecosystem nutrition when inorganic fertilisers are not applied in state-of-the-art restoration schemes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Influence on Soil Quality of Agriculture and Forest Management: Assessment, Mitigation and Best Management Practices II)
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