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Abstract: Soil quality in Mediterranean conventional and organic stockless arable systems was assessed by a multidisciplinary approach. At the end of the first cycle of a 5-year crop rotation (2002–2006) in the Mediterranean Arable Systems Comparison Trial (MASCOT) long-term experiment, the effects of organic and conventional management systems were evaluated by using soil chemical, biochemical and biological parameters. Chemical and biochemical parameters linked to soil C cycle, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and microarthropod communities were analysed according to a comparative approach. Results suggested a higher soil carbon sequestration in the organic respect to the conventional system, as shown by the values of total organic C (9.5 and 7.8gkg−1, for organic and conventional system, respectively) and potentially mineralisable C (277 and 254mgkg−1, for organic and conventional system, respectively). AMF population, AMF root colonisation and diversity of microarthropod population were slightly influenced by management system. On the other hand, mites/collembolans ratio was higher in conventionally than in organically managed soil (2.67 and 1.30, respectively), indicating as organic managed soils were more disturbed than conventional ones, probably as the consequence of the more frequent soil tillage performed for mechanical weeds control. The overall results demonstrated that, even in the short-term, the implementation of organically managed stockless systems in Mediterranean areas determined significant changes of some attributes for soil quality evaluation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Optimising the implementation of energy used in agriculture is an important objective in the “Climate Action and Renewable Energy Package” adopted by the European Union. Therefore, studying the management of different cropping systems represents a good method to optimise input requirements, yield and net energy supply. The aim of this study is to compare the energy use of a 12-year rainfed cropping system, located in Tuscany, Italy. The system is cultivated under two different management intensities: a conventional system (CS) and a low input system (LIS) for a six-year crop rotation that included sugar beet, durum wheat, sorghum, sunflower, and durum wheat. In the sixth year, the soil was set-aside. The results showed that crop yield and energy yield were not significantly affected by management intensities, whereas energy efficiency of the low input system increased significantly, by about 30%. Future research should include more crops and locations to obtain further information about the range of energy parameters and their long-term trends. Furthermore, could be interesting to evaluate the overall reduction of environmental impacts and production costs that could occur limiting the use of chemicals and adopting conservative soil tillage strategies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]