Riccardo Spaccini

Riccardo Spaccini
University of Naples Federico II | UNINA · Department of Agriculture

About

165
Publications
46,519
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
7,443
Citations
Additional affiliations
January 2009 - November 2015
University of Naples Federico II
Position
  • Senior Researcher

Publications

Publications (165)
Article
Full-text available
Backgrounds and Aims Forest litter is mainly composed by leaves, roots and wood debris (WD) residues. WD decomposition in Mediterranean ecosystems has received less attention compared to other materials and to boreal, tropical and temperate biomes. The OMDY model describes organic matter decomposition using ¹³C NMR spectroscopy. Methods The mass l...
Chapter
Oxidative stress plays a pivotal role in driving immunosenescence by disrupting cellular homeostasis and impairing immune function. Humic substances exhibit scavenging activity against reactive oxygen species (ROS), inhibit ROS generation via metal chelation, and modulate endogenous antioxidant enzyme activity. Additionally, humic substances displa...
Article
Full-text available
Determining the chemical quality of soil organic matter and decomposing organisms is critical for predicting carbon fluxes in ecosystems. However, the classical C/N and lignin/N ratios have been criticized for their capability in predicting ecosystem function including litter decay rate, nitrogen mineralization and soil aggregation. Therefore, with...
Article
Full-text available
Aquatic humic substances (AHS) are defined as an important components of organic matter, being composed as small molecules in a supramolecular structure and can interact with metallic ions, thereby altering the bioavailability of these species. To better understand this behavior, AHS were extracted and characterized from Negro River, located near M...
Article
Full-text available
Protein hydrolysates (PH) and humic substances (HS) are biostimulants that promote crop growth. Despite the widening of knowledge and insights provided by research activities over the past thirty years, there are still uncertainties concerning the possible direct absorption by plants of organic nitrogen as amino acids (AA) delivered as PH and the r...
Chapter
Full-text available
This chapter addresses the future of soil science from an Italian perspective. It complements a previously published work, “Future Soil Issues”, in the Springer monograph Soils of Italy (Terribile et al., 2013), where we analysed Italian society's request for soil research. Here, we aimed to develop a more focused contribution towards the research...
Article
Full-text available
This study monitored the process and investigated the quality of compost obtained from different biomasses. Five blends of agri-food waste were composted by a laboratory pilot plant named COMPOSTER, that is designed to optimize biodegradation, and produce compost efficiently. The COMPOSTER consists of two 35-liter nearly adiabatic, aerated bioreact...
Article
Full-text available
Intensive agriculture maintains high crop yields through chemical inputs, which are well known for their adverse effects on environmental quality and human health. Innovative technologies are required to reduce the risk generated by the extensive and harmful use of pesticides. The plant biostimulants made from humic substances isolated from recycla...
Article
Full-text available
Humic substances play empirically several essential functions in biogeochemical cycles such as storage of carbon, pollutants, nutrients, and water, yet the underlying mechanisms remain poorly known because their precise molecular structure is largely unknown so far. Here, we extracted humic substances from biomass waste of bell pepper, fennel, arti...
Article
Detailed molecular composition of solid phase extracted dissolved organic matter (SPEDOM) collected from fractured-rock groundwater was compared to connected surface river water at two different watersheds in the unconfined chalk aquifer of Champagne in France using full scan ultrahigh resolution electrospray and photoionization Fourier transform i...
Article
The objective of the work was to study the impact of the inclusion of fennel (FEN) and coffee humic (COF) substances on the structure, physical and functional properties of composite materials based on sodium caseinate, guar gum, and beeswax. NMR results revealed the prevalent contribution of beeswax and caseinate suggesting a faster relaxation tim...
Article
Exploring opportunities for biowaste valorization, herein, humic substances (HS) were combined with gelatin, a hydrophilic biocompatible and bioavailable polymer, to obtain 3D hydrogels. Hybrid gels (Gel HS) were prepared at different HS contents, exploiting physical or chemical cross-linking, through 1-ethyl-(3-3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide (...
Article
Full-text available
Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a common human pathogen causing inflammation. Recent studies have suggested a sophisticated interplay between mitochondria, innate immunity and inflammatory response, thus proposing mitochondrial disfunction as the hallmark of severe inflammatory disorders. In this study, humic substances isolated from composted f...
Article
Full-text available
Photoaging is the premature aging of the skin caused by repeated exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays. The harmful effects of UV rays—from the sun or from artificial sources—alter normal skin structures and cause visible damage, especially in the most exposed areas. Fighting premature aging is one of the most important challenges of the medical landsc...
Article
Full-text available
Background: An important goal of modern medicine is the development of products deriving from natural sources to improve environmental sustainability. In this study, humic substances (HS) and compost teas (CTs) extracted from artichoke (ART) and coffee grounds (COF) as recycled biomasses were employed on Ocimum basilicum plants to optimize the yie...
Article
Full-text available
Traditional agriculture represents the most-extensive food-producing segment in the world. However, these agroecosystems are widely and closely associated with rural poverty, reflecting the dualism between the subsistence and the commodity-producing sector in the peripheric countries. Therefore, socially adapted technologies may be a reliable and h...
Article
In weathered tropical soils, the inherent pedoclimatic characteristics strengthen the role of soil organic matter (SOM) pools within carbon cycle for both forest and agricultural ecosystems. The fast SOM turnover and the humid climate hasten the impact of land use and emphasize the importance of water extractable organic matter (WEOM) on soil organ...
Article
Full-text available
Garden cress is a vegetable crop in the Brassicaceae family that is appreciated for its nutraceutical and taste-giving components in minimally processed food chains. Due to its very short cycle, which depends on the range of production from microgreens to baby-leaf vegetables, this crop is threatened by soil-borne pathologies developing within the...
Preprint
Full-text available
Helicobacter pylori ( H. pylori ) is a common human pathogen causing inflammation. Recent studies have suggested a sophisticated interplay between mitochondria, innate immunity and inflammatory response, thus proposing mitochondrial disfunction as the hallmark of severe inflammatory disorders. In this study, humic substances isolated from composted...
Article
Full-text available
Background Salinity is one of the major environmental threats to agriculture, limiting plant growth and reducing crop yield. The use of humic substances to alleviate salt stress in plants is well reported, but the mechanisms remain unclear. This work aimed to apply humic acids on seedlings to acclimate plants to tolerate further salt stress exposit...
Article
Water extractable organic matter (WEOM) drives many fundamental functions in soil equilibria, acting as useful probe to highlight the effect of land management on overall C cycling. The ecological importance of WEOM is emphasized in tropical environments characterized by humid climate and short OC turnover. The low OC concentration and the physical...
Article
Full-text available
Background The Essential oils (EOs) are important bioactive secondary metabolites of aromatic plants, such as Basil, and find extensive utilization in pharmaceutical sector as therapeutic agents. A more eco-friendly industrial production of EOs requires new sustainable methods to improve yield and quality of these bioactive compounds in aromatic pl...
Article
Full-text available
We evaluated the effectiveness of natural organic surfactants such as humic acids (HA) from lignite to simultaneously wash heavy metals (HM) and polychlorobiphenyls (PCB) from a heavily contaminated industrial soil of northern Italy. Supramolecular HA promote in solution a micelle-like structure, where recalcitrant apolar organic xenobiotics are re...
Article
Full-text available
AimsIn Mediterranean ecosystems fire and drought are two natural disturbances that affect plant traits and generate a highly heterogeneous landscape. The objective of this research was to analyze leaf chemistry, one important driver of carbon and nutrients cycles, and decomposition of Phillyrea angustifolia L. in a landscape affected by recurrent f...
Article
A Humeomic fractionation revealed the humus molecular composition of two uncropped calcareous soils of Northern France and differentiated the soils Humeome by extracting humic components first unbound to the organo-mineral matrix and then liberated from their progressively stronger intermolecular and intramolecular ester and ether linkages. We sepa...
Article
Sugarcane bagasse, vinasse and a mixture of sugarcane bagasse and vinasse were hydrothermally carbonized (HTC), with and without the addition of phosphoric acid, in order to propose new applications of sucroenergetic industry by-products on soil. Detailed information on the composition and properties of hydrochars has been obtained through elementa...
Article
Full-text available
Hydrochar is a carbon-based material that can be used as soil amendment. Since the physical chemical properties of hydrochar are mainly assigned to process parameters, we aimed at evaluating the organic fraction of different hydrochars through 13 C-NMR and off-line TMAH-GC/MS. Four hydrochars produced with sugarcane bagasse, vinasse and sulfuric or...
Article
The acknowledgement of bioactive functions of compost teas promotes the research on characteristics and potential application of these heterogeneous water-soluble extracts from recycled biomasses. In this work, compost teas were isolated from on-farm composts made with agro-industrial residues of artichoke, pepper and coffee husks with the aim to e...
Article
Full-text available
Background Plants primed by humic acids showed physiological and molecular response against different abiotic stresses without the presence of stressor agents (salinity, drought, heavy metal toxicity). It is plausible that humic acids themselves can act as chemical priming substances in plants. We hypothesized that humic acids can trigger the weak...
Article
Organic matter plays many roles in the soil ecosystem. One property of the substance concerns the metal complexation and interaction with organic contaminants. In this sense, the humic substances (HS), a heterogeneous mixture of compounds, naturally derived from degradation of biomass, have been widely studied in environmental sciences. Recent adva...
Article
Soil Organic Matter (SOM) is essential for soil stability, fertility and crop productivity. Recent fidings showed that SOM supramolecular structure is strongly inflenced by cultivation and land management. In this study, we investigated the molecular dynamics of organic matter in soils from three long-term fild-experiments which were subjected for...
Article
Full-text available
Background We applied Fourier-Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) techniques in combination with selective humus extractions to investigate in situ the chemical features of organic matter in three soil profiles recently developed from Dutch sand dunes, under well-documented vegetation sequence and containing a relatively simple mineral-organic...
Article
Inspired by the presence of anthropogenic organic matter in highly fertile Amazonian Dark Earth (ADE), which is attributed to the transformation of organic matter over thousands of years, we explored hydrothermal carbonization as an alternative for humic-like substances (HLS) production. Hydrothermal carbonization of sugarcane industry byproducts (...
Article
Full-text available
The development of soil microbiota and the chemical composition of Soil Organic Matter (SOM) were studied in a 180 days incubation experiment upon addition of a characterized lignocellulosic biorefinery residue (BYP) at two different rates. The microbial growth was studied by PLFA analysis after 30, 60 and 180 days, while SOM molecular composition...
Article
Full-text available
Background The use of humic substances as plant biostimulants has been increasingly attracting farmers and stunning researchers. The ability of these substances to enhance root growth by changing root architecture is often linked to their hormonal activities, such as auxin effects and nitric oxide production. Humeomics accesses the molecular consti...
Article
Full-text available
Preventing degradation of soil quality and productivity entails development of sustainable practices to enhance soil organic matter. We followed soil organic carbon (OC) accumulation during three years‐long field experiments in two different Italian soils under conventional tillage (TRA), reduced tillage (MIN), green manure (GM) and two rates of ma...
Article
Soil organic matter (SOM) or humus is essential for the agricultural and environmental functionality of soils. Humus comprises small-size heterogeneous organic molecules arranged in complex meta-stable suprastructures, whose composition can be greatly affected by land management. Here, we report the molecular dynamics of the fractions extracted fro...
Article
On-farm composting is suitable to recycle agricultural biomasses in mature and stable organic matter that can be applied to improve the general soil conditions, such as physical, chemical, hydro-physical, texture, and refresh the provided ecosystem services for human well-being. Quality compost have a high potential in sustaining plant health throu...
Article
The molecular characteristics of different vermicomposts, produced with variable rates of cattle manure and cotton residues, and of related humic acids were determined by 13 C-CPMAS NMR and Off-line pyrolysis THM-GC-MS. The analyses highlighted a composition of mature vermicomposts based on differential amounts of lignocellulosic fraction and alkyl...
Chapter
Full-text available
Humus or humic substances (HS) are of pivotal importance in the global ecosystem dynamics, since fluctuation in their amount affects not only the growth of both plants and soil microorganisms, but also the main biogeochemical cycles. The development of technologies aimed at controlling HS in the agroecosystem processes is hindered by the limited kn...
Article
Full-text available
Humic Substances (HS) from Leonardite and two different composts were used as biosurfactants to wash heavy metals (Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd, Cr) from a soil added with two metals concentrations and aged for 4 and 12 months. Composts were obtained by mixing manure with either 40 (CM-I) and 20 (CM-II) % of straw as structuring material. For both aging periods...
Article
Full-text available
The ability of Trichoderma harzianum (strain OMG-08) as plant growth promoting fungus (PGPF), was tested on Zea mays plants grown in soil pots added with different inorganic (triple superphosphate and rock phosphate) and organic (cow and horse manure composts) P fertilizers. The effect of treatments was evaluated by following the variations of plan...
Chapter
Full-text available
The importance of soil humus carbon in the ecological and environmental domains can be hardly overestimated. The complex and heterogeneous chemical nature of the soil Humeome has for a long time baffled the development of man-made technologies for the control of soil carbon. A new paradigm was introduced in the early years of the millennium that vi...
Article
Full-text available
Facing an exploding population growth with consequent increase of agriculture intensification, new chemical technologies are being sought to limit organic matter losses and reduce land degradation. Here we report that an effective organic carbon sequestration in different cropped soils of Italy is obtained by an in situ photo-oxidative coupling amo...
Article
Soil aggregation is considered as a crucial process in agro-system sustainability due to the role in soil physical, chemical and biological dynamics. Here we tested the hypothesis that the initial chemical traits of organic matter (OM) may help to explain the variability of soil aggregation dynamics after organic amendment. We characterized ten OM...
Article
Four water extractable organic matter (WEOM) were obtained from composts made out of residues of: 1. artichoke (C-CYN), 2. artichoke/fennel (C-CYNF), 3. tomato/woodchips (C-TOM), 4. Municipal solid waste (C-MSW), and their bioactivity was tested for maize seed germination and maize seedling growth. The molecular properties of both original composts...
Article
Full-text available
Background Agricultural practices that enhance organic matter content in soil can play a central role in sequestering soil organic carbon (SOC) and reducing greenhouse gases emissions. Methods We used a water-soluble iron-porphyrin to catalyze directly in situ oxidative polymerization of soil organic matter in the presence of H2O2 oxidant, with th...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Modelling organic matter decomposition is fundamental to predict biogeochemical cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. Current models use C/N or Lignin/N ratios to describe susceptibility to decomposition, or implement separate C pools decaying with different rates, disregarding biomolecular transformations and interactions and their effect on decompos...
Article
A Humeomics sequential chemical fractionation coupled to advanced analytical identification was applied directly to soil for the first time. Humeomics extracted ~ 235% more soil organic carbon (SOC) than by the total alkaline extraction traditionally employed to solubilise soil humic molecules (soil Humeome). Seven fractions of either hydro- or org...
Article
Full-text available
Background and AimsModelling organic matter decomposition is fundamental to understand biogeochemical cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. Current models use C/N or Lignin/N ratios to describe susceptibility to decomposition, or implement separate C pools decaying with different rates, disregarding biomolecular transformations and interactions and th...
Poster
Full-text available
La crescente attenzione verso le tematiche ambientali e la situazione economica mondiale impongono la ricerca di fonti di energia alternative al petrolio, in grado di sostituire in modo ecologico e sostenibile i tradizionali carburanti. L’etanolo come carburante può essere potenzialmente ottenuto da qualsiasi tipo di materiale vegetale, ma è chiama...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Le pratiche agricole che incrementano il contenuto e la qualità della sostanza organica del suolo (SOM) possono svolgere un ruolo centrale nel sequestrare il carbonio organico (CO) nei suoli e, di conseguenza, ridurre le emissioni di gas serra. Nel quadro del progetto EU-LIFE-CarbOnfarm, sono state applicate due differenti tecniche, su due diversi...
Article
Full-text available
Phosphorus (P) is a limiting factor for plant growth, especially in highly weathered tropical soils. Plants have several mechanisms to overcome low P availability in soil, such as humic substances , that reduce phosphate (P i) adsorption on oxide surfaces and enhance soil P availability. However, the direct influence of humic substances on P i tran...
Article
Full-text available
Two oxidative catalytic systems, titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles and a biomimetic Mn-porphyrin linked to montmorillonite through a spacer (MnP-M), were used to photo-polymerize soil organic matter (SOM) directly in situ on soil, with the aim to sequester organic carbon (OC) and reduce CO2 emissions from soil. We first validated, by infrared s...
Article
Compost teas are compost-derived liquid products that may potentially induce positive effects on treated crops, including disease suppressiveness and biostimulation of the overall improved plant status. In this work four teas, produced from agricultural and municipal waste compost, were applied in a processing tomato cropping system to gain sustain...
Article
Full-text available
Compost amendment to agricultural soils influences plant growth and soil quality by affecting activity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and composition of microbial community. We related the molecular composition of compost of different maturity added to soils to their effects on maize growth, N and P uptake, AMF root colonization and growth,...
Article
Full-text available
Background The current wide diffusion of bio-degradable plastic made up by starch-based polymeric composite has focused the attention on the allocation of bio-polymers for the direct recycling in composting processes. Actually, the acknowledged current methods to estimate the bio-degradability are mainly based on laboratory tests and measurements u...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Increasing the sustainability of cropping systems requires management strategies that involve the beneficial activity of rhizosphere microorganisms and the recycling of organic wastes. Limited information are available on the combined application of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculants and composted organic wastes on soil microbial communi...
Article
We applied humeomics to a soil unextractable humin fraction (HUM1) and its derived humin (HUM2) after removal of minerals by an HF/HCl treatment. Humeomics implies progressive separation and structural characterization of molecules released from complex humin matrices as (i) unbound, (ii) weakly ester-bound, (iii) strongly ester-bound, and (iv) eth...