Marco Contin

Marco Contin
University of Udine | UNIUD · Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

About

81
Publications
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2,180
Citations
Additional affiliations
September 2011 - present
University of Udine
Position
  • Professor (Associate)

Publications

Publications (81)
Article
Full-text available
The escalating use of plastic materials in viticulture causes release of microplastics (MPs) into vineyard soils. This study examines the impact on soil health of polypropylene (PP) raffia and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) tube strings, commonly mulched into the topsoil after use. A 120-d incubation experiment was conducted with soils exposed to high do...
Article
Full-text available
Excess potentially toxic metals (PTMs) in soils require ad hoc approaches to salvage. Hence, this study explored the shoot accumulation of cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn) by herbaceous plants growing under previously established Salix and Populus clones Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) with compost and sewage sludge applications in an abandoned...
Article
Full-text available
Sea level rise and extreme weather conditions caused by climatic changes enhance the frequency and length of submersion events in coastal soils, causing deposited airborne dusts to get in contact with marine salts. The behaviour of Cd, Zn and Pb from pedogenetic minerals and from dusts from mining and smelting activities, added to two soils under...
Chapter
This chapter describes the long-standing tradition of soil science in Friuli Venezia Giulia, starting from the pioneers: Domenico Pecile, Domenico, Giuseppe and Egidio Feruglio. Their work laid the foundation for following activities, mainly due to the presence of Alvise Comel, most prominent figure in soil studies in the region. A broad descriptio...
Article
Full-text available
The removal of copper (Cu) in soils by green technology is less treated with urgency, as it is a plant micronutrient. We examined the efficiency of Cu shoot accumulation by herbaceous plants in Cu-contaminated and non-contaminated soils in Trhové Dusniky and Podles, respectively, in the Czech Republic. The total soil Cu content of 81 mg kg⁻¹ in Trh...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose The environmental impacts of the coffee industry are enormous, with large quantities of solid and liquid wastes generated globally. In the last years, measures have been implemented to valorize spent coffee grounds (SCGs) biowaste as a resource. The present study assessed the unexplored potential use of SCGs as a source of valuable humic su...
Article
Full-text available
Mercury (Hg) contamination of soils is a concerning issue worldwide due to its high toxicity and risk to human health. Source of contamination, chemical form and environmental conditions affect its mobility and hence bioavailability. Contaminated coastal soils, could potentially become hotspots of Hg re-mobilisation, because of simultaneous floodin...
Article
Full-text available
The aim of this study was to compare the effects of two vineyard management practices on the soil and its associated microbiota. The experiments were conducted in two adjacent plots, one completely organically managed and the other conventionally managed in terms of phytosanitary treatments but fertilized with organic amendments. The chemical soil...
Article
Full-text available
The continuous use of Cu-based fungicides in viticulture has caused Cu accumulation in soils, which represents a major environmental and toxicological concern. The purpose of this study was to verify whether the organic management would be more resilient to temperature and moisture stresses in comparison to conventional practices. Two organic and t...
Article
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Soil salinization caused by sea level rise threatens coastal agricultural soils and geochemically important wetlands worldwide. The aim of this review is to outline expected changes in soil biological activity by discussing the combined effects of salt stress and flooding on plants productivity and soil microbial communities, which determine conseq...
Article
In saltmarsh soils, humic acids (HA) are involved in geochemically important redox processes. The electron donating capacity (EDC) of HA depends on their molecular structure, but also reflects the intensity of biological reduction in tidal environments. We examined twelve soils in three saltmarshes located along a geographical gradient and applied...
Article
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The stress gradient hypothesis (SGH) states that plant-plant interactions shift from competition to facilitation in increasing stress conditions. In salt marshes, edaphic properties can weaken the application of the SGH by amplifying the intensity of flooding and controlling plant zonation. We identified facilitative and competitive interactions al...
Article
Full-text available
Two soils contaminated with potentially toxic metals (PTMs) contrasting in pH and mineralogy were remediated with CaEDTA, and changes in soil organic matter (SOM) composition were investigated. Previous studies showed no significant loss of SOM from CaEDTA-treated soils, but the results of our study reflected significant decreases (from 46 to 49%)...
Article
Full-text available
Exposure to oxygen and aerobic biological activity during drought periods alters the availability of terminal electron acceptors (TEA) in the peat catotelm layer. We investigated the changes in the electrochemical and chemical characteristics of humic acids (HA) induced by subjecting air-dried sphagnum peat to biological oxidation or reduction duri...
Article
The N2-fixing shrub Amorpha fruticosa L. is rapidly spreading in the dry riparian natural grasslands of Europe, altering ecosystem functions and depleting plant diversity. Alteration of the N cycle represents the key factor involved in invasions by N2-fixing plants with cascading effects on plant species richness. We hypothesized that A. fruticosa...
Article
Full-text available
The Cananéia-Iguape estuarine–lagoon complex (São Paulo state, Brazil) is a natural laboratory to study metal binding by humic substances (HS) in subtropical settings. This transitional environment is evolving into a freshwater environment due to water input from the Ribeira River, funneled through the Valo Grande Canal (Iguape). Past mining activi...
Article
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Sustainable industrial processes are essential for better economic growths and for the conservation of the environment. Steel scale waste (SSW) is a byproduct of steel production containing oxides in a large quantity; presently, it is mainly disposed off to landfill. However, being a rich iron source, it appears attractive for processes based on Fe...
Preprint
Full-text available
Two soils contaminated with potentially toxic metals (PTMs) contrasting in pH and mineralogy were remediated with CaEDTA, and changes in soil organic matter (SOM) composition were investigated. Previous studies showed no significant loss of SOM from CaEDTA-treated soils, but the results of our study reflected significant decreases (from 46 to 49%)...
Article
Full-text available
Land application of sewage sludge on agricultural soils can be sustainable only if pollutant contents and organic matter quality meet the requirements imposed by minimization of environmental risks. This study investigated the degradation of linear alkylbenzene sulfonates (LAS) and extractable organic halogens (EOX) and the formation of humic subst...
Article
Soil microbial biomass (SMB-C) is one of the most frequently used parameters for the assessment of soil quality, but no threshold values have ever been proposed. We challenged the problem of a reliable numerical estimation of the SMB-C based on the knowledge of physicochemical soil properties. The aim was to evaluate artificial neural network (ANN)...
Article
Full-text available
Subsequent to the increasing diffusion of wastewater treatment, particularly in high-and middle-income countries, the sewage sludge generated should be treated and valorised in an ecological and economic way, thus contributing to the circular economy. In this study, the monitoring of Heavy Metals (HM), Extractable Organic Halogens (EOX) and Linear...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose Humic acids (HA) have several environmental roles, but are particularly important in aquatic environments, being recognized as redox active natural organic matter (NOM) components. We examined NOM in recent sediments of a low-energy coastal environment which is free from inputs of dissolved terrestrial HA as their solubility is suppressed b...
Article
Full-text available
Conversion of conventional farming (CF) to organic farming (OF) is claimed to allow a sustainable management of soil resources, but information on changes induced on dissolved organic matter (DOM) are scarce. Among DOM components, dissolved humic substances (DHS) were shown to possess stimulatory effects on plant growth. DHS were isolated from CF a...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose The use of eco-friendly and cost-effective adsorbent materials in the remediation of soils contaminated by potentially toxic elements (PTE) is a sustainable way of reducing the transfer of these elements into the food chain. However, an evaluation of the potential of natural zeolites to immobilize toxic elements in contaminated soils was re...
Article
Full-text available
The aptness of the ∑SEM/AVS (Simultaneously Extracted Metals/Acid Volatile Sulfides) index to ascertain environmental risk from potentially toxic elements in calcareous saltmarsh soils was tested using Structural Equation Modelling. This technique allows to detect both direct and indirect relationships among AVS, SEM and other soil variables, repre...
Presentation
In natural wetlands and submerged soils, humic acids (HA) are involved in numerous redox processes (Keller et al., 2009). HA can be used by facultative anaerobic bacteria as terminal electron acceptors during anaerobic respiration (Lovley et al., 1996) and upon re-aeration, they can donate electrons to oxygen (Klupfel et al., 2014). In addition to...
Presentation
The reliability of the extraction of humic substances by alkaline extractants has been frequently questioned in the past decades and was once again challenged in a recent paper (Lehmann and Kleber, 2015). Because of the importance of humic C and its widespread use as a parameter for the characterization of NOM and of a wide range of organic amendme...
Article
Boron (B) deficiency is widespread in viticultural areas especially in sandy and alkaline soils that are poor in organic matter. Two types of B deficiency have been identified in vineyards: the “early spring temporary deficiency” and the “late summer deficiency”. Symptoms reported include leaves that are distorted, cupped, chlorotic, with prominent...
Article
Full-text available
Monitoring of biogenic sulfide is important as AVS represent a reactive pool responsible for immobilization of toxic metals. We propose a new sulfide paper sensor method (SPS) for semi‐quantitative determination of AVS in which developed color is compared to a reference chart. The method was validated against the ion‐selective microelectrode and th...
Article
Metabolism and carbon, oxygen, and nutrient fluxes (DIC, DOC, DO2, NO2−, NO3−, NH4+, PO43− and SiO44−) were studied during three surveys at two sites (VN1 and VN3) located at a fish farm at theMarano and Grado Lagoon (northern Adriatic Sea), using an in situ benthic chamber. Field experimentswere conducted in July and October 2015 and March 2016 at...
Conference Paper
Under anaerobic conditions, humic acids (HA) may act as terminal electron acceptors, allowing facultative anaerobic bacteria to obtain energy from anaerobic respiration. Structural and electrochemical changes due to biological oxidation and reduction were investigated on HA extracted from a peat sample, incubated under controlled aerobic and anaero...
Presentation
This work examines the possibility to use spectroscopic characteristics of humic substances as tracers of the degree of biological transformation occurred during storage of sewage sludge in thickening beds. Chlorinated compounds, linear alkylbenzensulphonates (LAS) and emerging contaminants may undergo significant degradation during sludge storage...
Poster
Under anaerobic conditions, humic acids (HA) may act as terminal electron acceptors, allowing facultative anaerobic bacteria to obtain energy from anaerobic respiration. Structural and electrochemical changes due to biological oxidation and reduction were investigated on HA extracted from a peat sample, incubated under controlled aerobic and anaero...
Poster
Two soils of contrasting pH and mineralogy (acid and calcareous) strongly polluted by Pb and Zn were remediated by soil washing with EDTA and cultivated after the treatment together with their respective non treated control soils. Humic and fulvic acids were extracted sequentially by NaOH (free fraction) and NaOH+Na2P2O7 (bound fraction), before qu...
Article
The Marano and Grado Lagoon is well known for being contaminated by mercury (Hg) from the Idrija mine (Slovenia) and the decommissioned chlor-alkali plant of Torviscosa (Italy). Experimental activities were conducted in a local fish farm to understand Hg cycling at the sediment–water interface. Both diffusive and benthic fluxes were estimated in te...
Article
Full-text available
Swine livestock farms represent potential sources of emissions of gaseous compounds and odors in relation to slurry management, manure treatment, and particularly, storage. Electrolytic treatments of slurries were proposed to solve this pressing problem. Electrolytic treatment consists of the passage of a low electric current through the liquid pha...
Article
Full-text available
Additions of organic amendments to soil not only compensate for decreased soil C, but also contribute to energy requirements for conserving biological activity levels. The soil microbial biomass displays some highly conserved, and possibly unique, characteristics that do not permit a classic interpretation of microbial metabolic parameter data. The...
Article
Full-text available
Biochar has a charcoal polycyclic aromatic structure which allows its long half-life in soil, making it an ideal tool for C sequestration and for adsorption of organic pollutants, but at the same time raises concerns about possible adverse impacts on soil biota. Two biochars were tested under laboratory-controlled conditions on Eisenia andrei earth...
Conference Paper
Natural organic matter and humic acids fractions from sediments sampled along a transect from the mainland (river) to the center of a Northern Adriatic lagoon (open lagoon and a fish farm) were analysed for their elemental composition and carbon isotope composition (δ 13 C), and characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Both...
Presentation
Natural organic matter and humic acids fractions from sediments sampled along a transect from the mainland (river) to the center of a Northern Adriatic lagoon (open lagoon and a fish farm) were analysed for their elemental composition and carbon isotope composition (δ 13 C), and characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Both...
Article
Full-text available
The introduction of the “subaqueous soils” into the international classification system of the Soil Taxonomy (2010) gives a possibility to soil scientists to use the pedogenetic approach to investigate coastal soils in view of resource protection and valorization. Coastal areas, in fact, are complex and fragile ecosystems whose ecological value is...
Article
Full-text available
Land application of sewage sludge (SS) is a convenient way of disposal compared to incineration or landfill, but can result in accumulation of potentially toxic elements (PTE) in agricultural soils. The environmental risk associated with PTE accumulation in soils that received several SS applications depends mainly on soil pH and SS treatments. We...
Article
Full-text available
The suspended matter discharged by the Isonzo river has carried over, for centuries, heavily contaminated mine spoils from the Idrija mercury mining site (Slovenija). A frequently flooded area at the confluence of the Isonzo and Torre rivers was chosen for a preliminary study on the effects of long term mercury pollution on soil biological activiti...
Article
The use of appropriate amendments derived from two phase olive mill wastes (TPOMW) can represent a suitable option to maintain and restore C levels in agricultural soils under Mediterranean climates. We evaluated soil organic matter stabilisation pathways among different humic pools in a Calcaric Cambisol amended with 2% (40 Mg ha− 1) of TPOMW comp...
Article
Full-text available
The aim of this study was to measure and compare methane oxidation rates of arable and grassland soils that received 7.5tha(-1)y(-1) of noncontaminated aerobically treated sewage sludge for ten years. Arable soils showed generally lower methane oxidation rates (from 6 to 15∗10(-3)h(-1)) than grassland soils (from 26 to 33∗10(3)h(-1)). Oxidation rat...
Article
Effects of long term Hg contamination and addition of Hg2 + on soil CH4 oxidation were investigated in laboratory incubation experiments. Non‐contaminated soils had CH4 oxidation rate constants (k) between 5.2 and 24.5 × 10− 3 h− 1, whereas Hg contaminated soils had rates ranging from 2.4 to 8.0 × 10− 3 h− 1. Specific oxidation rates (qK = k / Cbio...
Article
Humic fractions were shown to be closely involved in gene expression and promotion of different PM H+-ATPase isoforms, as well as in lateral root development, indicating an enhanced nutrient absorption capacity of the plant root system. HPLC-SEC confirmed that water-soluble humic substances (WSHS) correspond to a subfraction of the fulvic fraction...
Article
Full-text available
The authors evaluated the quality of sewage sludges of 10 typical small-scale wastewater treatment plants receiving mainly domestic or urban wastewaters from an area characterised by a prevalently rural economy, with only small contributions from industrial effluents. In view of their direct distribution on agricultural land and/or utilisation to p...
Article
Full-text available
The interaction between hexavalent chromium Cr(VI), as K(2)CrO(4), and standard humic acids (HAs) in bulk solution was studied using three complementary analytical methods: UV-Visible spectroscopy, X-ray absorption spectroscopy and differential pulse stripping voltammetry. The observed UV-Vis and X-ray absorption spectra showed that, under our expe...
Article
This study evaluates the possibility to immobilise toxic metals (Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn) in contaminated soils by applying a chemical treatment consisting in repeated cycles of soil saturation with 0.1 M FeSO4, air drying and pH neutralisation with Ca(OH)2. The treatment was tested on a contaminated arable soil analyzing exchangeable (Mg(NO3)2 extra...
Article
Full-text available
The hydrolysis of the fluorescein diacetate (FDA), related to several soil hydrolases, has been utilised to estimate the potential microbial activity of soil freshly amended with a wide range of organic amendments and compared to the size and activity of soil microflora, measured by the microbial biomass C (B C) and CO2 evolution, respectively. Thr...
Article
Soil organic matter comprises all dead plant and animal residues, from the most recent inputs to the most intensively humified. We have found that traces of fresh substrates at microg g(-1) soil concentrations (termed 'trigger molecules') activate the biomass to expend more energy than is contained in the original 'trigger molecules'. In contrast,...
Article
Biological and chemical stabilization of organic C was assessed in soils sampled from the long-term experiments at Rothamsted (UK), representing a wide range of carbon inputs and managements by extracting labile, non-humified organic matter (NH) and humic substances (HS). Four sequentially extracted humic substances fractions of soil organic matter...
Article
The effects of different temperature and moisture regimes of a composted growing medium on N and P plant-availability and main differences with a peat-based growing medium have been evaluated during laboratory incubation experiments. The influence of root growth has also been tested by plant growth experiments. Microbial biomass and extractable N a...
Article
The possibility to foster toxic metals (Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn) fixation on Fe (hydr)oxides, either native or added as ameliorants, was investigated at the laboratory scale in two heavily polluted arable and grassland soils by inducing repeated cycles of the reduction and oxidation. Soil samples were treated with Fe-rich waste (FeW) alone or togethe...
Article
Our aim was to compare the soil microbial biomass concentration and its activity (measured as CO2–C evolved) following the rewetting and aerobic incubation of soils which have previously been stored air-dry for different periods. Some of the soils have been stored in the Rothamsted sample archive for 103 years, others were comparable freshly sample...
Article
A technology for remediation of mine tailings, based on air oxidation of added Fe(II) in solution, was tested by chemical extraction and growing pea (Pisum sativum) plants in a greenhouse experiment. Tailings, from a mine site (Cave del Predil, Italy) with high content of Pb and Zn, were saturated with a 0.5M FeSO4 solution and then air-dried. The...
Article
The effects of simulated crude oil soil contamination on microbial biomass, its activity and capacity to degrade crude oil hydrocarbons were examined in different soil types under different crop managements. The effect of the addition of different organic amendments (glucose, maize stalks and maize stalk compost) on microbial survival and crude oil...
Article
Full-text available
Questo articolo affronta il problema della bonifica di scorie industriali mediante metodi biologici a basso costo in alternativa ai metodi chimico-fisici o al semplice smaltimento in discarica. Viene illustrato il caso delle ceneri di pirite derivanti dal processo di estrazione dello zolfo. E’ stata avviata una ricerca in condizioni semi-controllat...
Article
Martens [Soil Biol. Biochem. 33 (2001) 701] recently reported that Jenkinson and Oades [Soil Biol. Biochem. 11 (1979) 193] method for measuring adenosine 5′ triphosphate (ATP) in soil leads to serious underestimations. We have now compared the Jenkinson and Oades extraction technique, which corrects for incomplete extraction of ATP by reference to...
Article
Full-text available
The activity of microorganisms and the availability of composting substrates for decomposition are seriously affected by drying and rewetting cycles. We have measured microbial biomass C (BC) and ninhydrin reactive N (BNIN) of samples of composting material taken at different times from a pile of ligno-cellulosic wastes. Dynamics of these two param...
Article
Interactions in solution of both water-soluble and sodium hydroxide extractable humic substances with four model organic compounds of different polarity and four pesticides of different solubility were investigated by size-exclusion chromatography. At neutral or alkaline pH, association occurred only for the most hydrophobic compounds (acridine ora...
Article
The microbial biomass in moist aerobic soils has an adenosine 5′-triphosphate (ATP) concentration of around 8–12 μmol ATP g−1 biomass C and an adenylate energy charge (AEC) of between about 0.8–0.95, both typical of micro-organisms undergoing exponential growth in vitro. In fact, only a very small fraction of the biomass can be in this condition at...
Article
Two soils from temperate sites (UK; arable and grassland) were incubated aerobically at 0, 5, 15 or 25°C for up to 23 days. During this period both soils were analysed for soil microbial biomass carbon (biomass C) and adenosine 5′ triphosphate contents (ATP). Biomass C did not change significantly in either soil at any temperature throughout, excep...
Article
Full-text available
 We studied the long-term effects (12 years) of municipal refuse compost addition on the total organic carbon (TOC), the amount and activity of the microbial biomass (soil microbial biomass C, BC and metabolic quotient qCO2) and heavy metal bioavaiability in soils as compared to manuring with mineral fertilizers (NPK) and farmyard manure (FYM). In...