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Sustainable soil management aims at safeguarding the natural resource, and accordingly, there is a need to implement soil quality indicators that respond rapidly to management changes, especially in vulnerable environments such as the Alpine region. Soil organic carbon is usually considered the most important indicator to assess soil quality, but the speed of its dynamics does not help us to understand the real effectiveness of agroecological practices. This note shows results of a field study, in which a set of soil quality parameters were analyzed, including the Soil Biological Quality index during 3 years. The Soil Biological Quality index is a rather inexpensive metric index applied mostly in Mediterranean environment. The only parameter showing a highly significant difference between the soil indicators was the Soil Biological Quality index. The Soil Biological Quality index can be a useful tool for monitoring soil quality also in Alpine environment and could be joined with other soil parameters to give a significant response during the application of agroecological practices.

Local food production systems of least developed countries (LDCs) are more vulnerable to environmental factors, such as climate change, with respect to those of developed ones. Hence, the development of low-tech processes to empower LDCs adaptive capacity through a circular economy approach is very promising. Here, we report on a straightforward process for potential application in LDCs contexts based on the thermal conversion of fishery by-products (fish bone) into calcium phosphate-based materials with application as fertilizers and biostimulants. Sardinella auritabones collected from artisanal ports in Senegal were calcined in air at 300 °C, 600 °C and 900 °C. The sample obtained at 300 °C was a composite material made of an organic part, deriving from the uncomplete combustion of fish bone collagen and fatty acid, and an inorganic part made of very poorly crystalline hydroxyapatite. The other two samples obtained at 600 °C and 900 °C had a negligible content of organic matter, and consisted of hydroxyapatite and β-TCP. Materials phytotoxicity was tested against Lepidium sativumseed, and their bio-stimulation activity was assayed on Zea maisseedlings and coleoptiles. All the materials showed promising results in terms of seed germination, plant fertilization and corn coleoptile biostimulation. Finally, we briefly analyzed the environmental impacts and economic cost of the proposed low-tech thermal process to confirm its large-scale applicability in LDCs for the conversion of fish bones into valuable products.