Effects of Anthropic Impact on Soil Abiotic and Biotic Properties

Soil is a key component of terrestrial areas as it provides many services such as functionality of the ecosystems, support organism life and their wellness and sustain plant or crop productivity. Therefore, soils maintain the environmental quality. In the last century, human density rapidly increased, causing strong environmental variations to satisfy their needs and leading to excessive land transformation. Land use changes determine deep alterations of ecosystem functionality that governs physical, chemical and microbiological processes. As soil formation is slower than its consumption, it is necessary to preserve over the time its quality. The research aimed: i) to assess the effects on soil abiotic and biotic properties of human impacts in different ecosystems (urban, agricultural and human managed forest); ii) to provide a minimum data set of soil properties as useful tool for decision-makers to monitor, conserve or improve the soil quality. The main results of the research highlighted that the main soil abiotic properties that were affected by different land-uses were: quantity and quality of organic matter, soil C:N ratio, water content, pH and some heavy metal content. In turns, these properties caused changes in the fungal and bacterial fractions of the soil microbial biomass. Bacteria appeared favored in soils with scarce content of mineralizable substrates and alkaline soil pH, and fungi in soils with water stress condition. In conclusion, only few abiotic and biotic soil properties (organic matter and water content, C:N ratio, bacterial and fungal biomass and microbial respiration) are good indicators of soil quality and crucial factors to take into account in programs for soil recovery.