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A WebGis tool called GoProsit has been developed to support winegrowers in planning a new sustainable vineyard and in the identification of high-quality terroir in Tuscany, Central Italy, by providing various information on soils, climate, hydrological risks, and fertilization. GoProsit, hosted by the web platform GEAPP, is a free, user-friendly, and interactive Geographic Decision Support System (GDSS). Soil data behind the WebGis tool has a 1 ha resolution, achieved by processing the legacy vector-type soil database of the Tuscany Region with the DSMART (Disaggregation and Harmonization of Soil Map Units Through Resampled Classification Trees as supervised classification) algorithm, which disaggregated the map to 297,023 vineyard grid cells. Each grid cell holds climatic and pedologic information, along with physical and chemical features for each horizon of the most probable soil. GoProsit also provides soil maps in image format obtained by georeferencing about 50 historical soil maps (1969–2012). Finally, GoProsit runs and returns the outputs of six models: (a) carbon footprint, (b) potential erosion and maximum vine row length compatible with tolerable erosion, (c) potential water stress, (d) risk of runoff/waterlogging, (e) identification of suitable rootstocks, and (f) nutritional needs before planting. Statistics of the main model results for the investigated area are reported. This promising tool will soon be usable for the whole Italian territory; however, its potential makes it suitable for use in any wine-growing district. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research presented here seeks to describe the impact of wild boar to a natural truffle ground of Tuber aestivum Vittad. on Monte Amiata (Tuscany - Italy). Pedoclimatic analyses indicated that the selected area could be considered suitable for the truffle production. Then classification of the vegetation of a Quercus cerris forest was carried out exploring the possibility of the BACI (Before-After-Control-Impact) sampling design. Finally 10 plots were selected, half of which have been fenced. For the first time the impact of wild boar was evaluated by estimating the surface area turned over by its activity. Moreover in each plot the number and weight of summer truffles was performed every 10 days during the fruiting period (June-November 2006-2008). The hypothesis that the presence of Sus scrofa has a strong negative influence on truffle harvesting has been amply confirmed by the data presented here, given the large increase of fruiting bodies of the summer truffle collected in the fenced plots. Consequently the destructive behaviour of the wild boar imply not only an ecological but also an economic damage in areas in which non-wood forest products are an important source of income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An operational method to map soil carbon content (SOC) is applied in Tuscany. • It is based on the combination of ground, ancillary and remote sensing datasets. • The method is tested versus all measurements and through a leave-one-out approach. • The final map reproduces the SOC observations and follows main ecosystem features. The organic carbon stored in the topsoil is an essential component of the global carbon cycle which should be quantified for a variety of purposes. The current paper proposes a new approach to map the amount of organic carbon stored in the 0.3 m topsoil (SOC), based on the statistical combination of a large number of ground observations with ancillary and remote sensing data. This approach is applied and tested in Tuscany, a region of Central Italy that is characterised by extremely diversified and heterogeneous environmental features. More than 3500 soil samples were collected and made available for the purpose, together with a soil map, meteorological data, a land use map and MODIS Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) imagery. This information was processed by advanced statistical methods to yield a final map which describes the SOC spatial distribution in the region with a spatial resolution of 250 m. The map well reproduces the SOC variability in the region, showing higher SOC values for forests with respect to grasslands and croplands and SOC peaks related to peats and acidic soils. The accuracy assessment, carried out both versus all ground observations and by a leave-one-out cross validation strategy, testifies to the high quality of the SOC map, which has a global RMSE comprised between 17.5 and 32.3 t ha−1. The map is also accompanied by per-pixel estimates of error variance which are informative on the uncertainty of SOC prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Monitoring multi taxa responses to forest management is mandatory. • The effects of two different thinning methods in black pine stands were monitored. • The responses of five taxa were evaluated along with structural factors. • Both silvicultural treatments modified the structure of the analysed stands. • Biotic communities showed a high resistance to thinning intensities. Biodiversity maintenance is a key strategy for sustainable forestry in both above-ground and below-ground biotic communities. However, few studies applied continuous monitoring to analyse the responses of different taxonomic groups to silvicultural treatments. We studied the short-term effects of three silvicultural treatments (no thinning, thinning from below, and selective thinning) on taxonomic richness and composition in two Pinus nigra J.F. Arnold plantations in Tuscany (Italy). We conducted a 1 year before–3 years after control-impact (BACI) experiment with a complete randomized design and analysed the responses of five different taxonomic groups (bacteria, nematodes, microarthropods, mushrooms and vascular plants (overstorey and understorey), along with the patterns of different structural variables. The silvicultural treatments induced a sudden decrease of many parameters such as number of trees per hectare, basal area, and standing volume, with a direct impact on the Photosynthetic Active Radiation on the ground. Despite this, biological communities showed a high resistance to the tree thinning intensities. Indeed, none of the thinning treatments significantly affected the different communities in the short-term, neither regarding taxonomic richness nor composition. The different taxonomic groups showed a similar, low or null, sensitivity to forest management, and thus a high congruence in their responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]