Maria Costanza Andrenelli

Council for Agricultural Research and Agricultural Economy Analysis | CREA · Research Centre for Agrobiology and Pedology (Florence) (CRA-ABP)

This research aimed at testing the use of present and past climosequences to estimate soil organic carbon (SOC) and related physical quality indicators under future climatic conditions. The influence of climate on soil features was studied for four combinations of typical Mediterranean soil types and cropping systems, placed along climosequences of...

For many years papers have been published showing differences between sedimentation-based methods against laser diffraction. Differences were found especially in the fine texture ranges and regression equations were presented to convert data obtained between different methods. In this paper we aimed at understanding which method is closer to an ind...

This paper aims to show the effectiveness of different soil management strategies for improving soil structure in degraded areas within two vine farms in Tuscany (Italy). The management practices adopted were: Composted organic amendment addition (COMP), Green Manure (GM), Dry mulching (DM) and Control (CONTR). Topsoil samples were taken at the beg...

GHGs production and emission may vary depending on soil physical properties, water management and fertilization. Two paddy soils characterized by different texture were incubated to evaluate the impact of flooding (permanent or intermittent) and N addition on potential N2O, CH4 and CO2 production and release into atmosphere and soil solution. Relat...

The application of pelletized biochar is seldom employed in field, and its effect on soil hydrological behaviour scarcely investigated. Biochar is usually added in powdered or granular form to improve the homogeneity of distribution, meanwhile favouring its interaction with soil matrix. In this study we evaluated the possibility of applying pelleti...

El objetivo de este estudio fue determinar los efectos de las enmiendas orgánicas y acolchados sobre la estabilidad de los agregados y otros parámetros asociados a la agregación del suelo, cinco años después del comienzo de una restauración experimental en Sierra de Gádor (Almería). Los técnicas de restauración utilizadas fueron una combinación de...

The first step to restoring degraded mine soils from limestone quarries in semiarid environments, usually without soil structure, consists mainly of creating a topsoil layer with minimum physical, chemical and biological properties. The aim of this presentation is to convey the effects of organic amendments and mulches on soil aggregate stability a...

The goal of this research was to develop a procedure to minimize the cost of soil survey optimizing ARP© (Automatic Resistivity Profiling) deployment and selecting the best placement of the sampling sites to employ for soil profile description and analysis. In this respect, devoted tests were conducted in a 3.5 ha vineyard located in Tuscany (centr...

Successful adoption of precision viticulture at the farm level depends on the appreciation of vineyard spatial variability. Knowing the spatial variability of soil properties is a challenge, often very expensive and labor intensive. An alternative approach could be the combined utilization of proximal and remote sensors. This study combined proxima...

This monograph brings together the most significant results of two research projects whose common denominator was the study of the edaphic factors important for viticulture. The first project, entitled “Brolio”, was financed by Barone Ricasoli Spa Agricola, the wine cellars of Brolio, while the second, entitled “Issuovino”, was financed by the CRA,...

The particle-size distribution is a fundamental soil physical property commonly used for attributing the textural class and, given its strict linkage with both several soil edaphyc properties and geomorphology processes, it represents a routine lab determination.Over recent decades, various new methods for grain-size analysis have been developed, a...

The focus of precision viticulture is the site-specific management of the vineyard surface; for this reason, the knowledge of the crop spatio-temporal variability response and of environment characteristics is needed. Identifying relationships between pedological variability and vegetation is the base to detect appropriate cultural techniques and f...

The effects of different management practices, such as the traditional tillage system (deep ploughing) with compost addition, and a conservative one (minimum tillage), on soil organic matter and macroporosity are investigated. A three-year research (2005-2007) was performed on a silty clay loam soil under sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) continuous cro...

Introduction Viticultural precision farming needs detailed soil information, which can be obtained by means of remote as well as proximal sensors, besides traditional invasive soil survey. Nevertheless, the use of the new technologies is still in its infancy, because of their costs and the lack of knowledge about the detail actually needed for the...

Rainfall simulators have been developed as tools for evaluating hydrological and erosive processes due to agronomical activities and have been very rarely used in forested areas. When a rainfall simulator is operating under forest cover, the characteristics of this peculiar environment (high trees, irregular topography, steep slopes, difficulties i...

In an experimental beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) coppice plot, throughfall, stemflow and superficial runoff were monitored on a single event basis, in order to verify the short term hydrological balance in different conditions of leaf cover. Rainfall events were simulated using a rainfall simulator, operated at two different intensities. The plot was...

A pluviometrical data analysis was carried out for 292 Italian weather stations in order to identify an index able to classify the climatic aggressiveness with respect to some instability phenomena (quick flows, soil erosion and shallow landslides). Several climatic variables were calculated such as the average annual rainfall, the two-year return...

The evaluation of forest protective function has been divided into four main branches according to the different types of instability phenomena (landslide events, erosion, floods, avalanches). This paper presents the first module related to landslide events and will be followed by others. Two opposing factors have been considered: instability tende...

La pista temporanea di esbosco fa parte della viabilità non permanente interna ad un bosco il cui impiego è limitato alla durata delle operazioni colturali quali, tagli per diradamenti e per ceduazione, con successiva fase di esbosco, nonché tutte le opere generali di manutenzione del bosco stesso. Secondo la “Legge Forestale della Toscana” (L.R. n...

An evaluation tool based on neural networks is proposed for assessing the land tendency to soil water erosion. This instrument is a nation-wide knowledge-based tool able to provide consistent and reproducible estimates of susceptibility to erosion shared into 5 classes. The methodological approach refers to the RUSLE; however only the factors not d...