Enhancing soil health with hydrochar: Improvements in chemical and biological properties.

Agricultural activity may cause soil degradation through pollution, erosion and consequent loss of organic matter and nutrients. Restoration of degraded agricultural soils is essential for safeguarding the ecosystem services they provide (like climate regulation, water and nutrient cycling, and food provisioning and security). An innovative strategy to reach this goal is the addition of low-decomposable organic improvers to soil, as hydrochar, which derives from hydrothermal carbonization.

Critical range of soil organic carbon in southern Europe lands under desertification risk.

Soil quality is fundamental for ecosystem long term functionality, productivity and resilience to current climatic changes. Despite its importance, soil is lost and degraded at dramatic rates worldwide. In Europe, the Mediterranean areas are a hotspot for soil erosion and land degradation due to a combination of climatic conditions, soils, geomorphology and anthropic pressure.

Faster N Release, but Not C Loss, From Leaf Litter of Invasives Compared to Native Species in Mediterranean Ecosystems.

Plant invasions can have relevant impacts on biogeochemical cycles, whose extent, in Mediterranean ecosystems, have not yet been systematically assessed comparing litter carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) dynamics between invasive plants and native communities. We carried out a 1-year litterbag experiment in 4 different plant communities (grassland, sand dune, riparian and mixed forests) on 8 invasives and 24 autochthonous plant species, used as control. Plant litter was characterized for mass loss, N release, proximate lignin and litter chemistry by C CPMAS NMR.