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Relative Importance of Plant Species Composition and Environmental Factors in Affecting Soil Carbon Stocks of Alpine Pastures (NW Italy)

Author

Listed:
  • Simone Ravetto Enri

    (Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences, University of Torino, 10095 Torino, Italy)

  • Fabio Petrella

    (Istituto per le Piante da Legno e l’Ambiente (IPLA), 10132 Torino, Italy)

  • Fabrizio Ungaro

    (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto per la BioEconomia, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy)

  • Laura Zavattaro

    (Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Torino, 10095 Torino, Italy)

  • Andrea Mainetti

    (Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences, University of Torino, 10095 Torino, Italy
    Gran Paradiso National Park, Botanical and Forest Conservation Office, 11012 Aosta, Italy)

  • Giampiero Lombardi

    (Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences, University of Torino, 10095 Torino, Italy
    These authors equally contributed to this work.)

  • Michele Lonati

    (Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences, University of Torino, 10095 Torino, Italy
    These authors equally contributed to this work.)

Abstract

Alpine pastures are agricultural systems with a high provision of ecosystem services, which include carbon (C) stocking. Particularly, the soil organic C (SOC) stocks of Alpine pastures may play a pivotal role in counteracting global climate change. Even if the importance of pasture SOC has been stated by several research studies, especially by comparing different land uses, little is known about the role of plant species composition. We studied a wide sample of 324 pastures in the north-western Italian Alps by performing coupled vegetation and soil surveys. Climatic (i.e., mean annual precipitation), topographic (i.e., elevation, slope, southness), vegetation (i.e., the first three dimensions of a non-metric multid imensional scaling—NMDS), and soil (i.e., pH) parameters were considered as independent variables in a generalised linear model accounting for SOC stocks in the 0–30 cm depth. Pasture SOC was significantly affected by precipitation (positively) and by pH (negatively) but not by topography. However, the higher influence was exerted by vegetation through the first NMDS dimension, which depicted a change in plant species along a thermic-altitudinal gradient. Our research highlighted the remarkable importance of vegetation in regulating SOC stocks in Alpine pastures, confirming the pivotal role of these semi-natural agricultural systems in the global scenario of climate change.

Suggested Citation

  • Simone Ravetto Enri & Fabio Petrella & Fabrizio Ungaro & Laura Zavattaro & Andrea Mainetti & Giampiero Lombardi & Michele Lonati, 2021. "Relative Importance of Plant Species Composition and Environmental Factors in Affecting Soil Carbon Stocks of Alpine Pastures (NW Italy)," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-24, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:11:y:2021:i:11:p:1047-:d:664548
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Rodríguez-Ortega, T. & Olaizola, A.M. & Bernués, A., 2018. "A novel management-based system of payments for ecosystem services for targeted agri-environmental policy," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 34(PA), pages 74-84.
    2. Canedoli, Claudia & Ferrè, Chiara & Abu El Khair, Davide & Comolli, Roberto & Liga, Claudio & Mazzucchelli, Francesca & Proietto, Angela & Rota, Noemi & Colombo, Giacomo & Bassano, Bruno & Viterbi, Ra, 2020. "Evaluation of ecosystem services in a protected mountain area: Soil organic carbon stock and biodiversity in alpine forests and grasslands," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
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    Cited by:

    1. Natalya Ivanova & Ekaterina Zolotova, 2023. "Landolt Indicator Values in Modern Research: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-22, June.

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