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Compost Amendment Enhances Natural Revegetation of a Mediterranean Degraded Agricultural Soil

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Abstract

A vegetation analysis was carried out on a degraded agricultural soil of the Mediterranean area (Campania region, southern Italy) in order to study the effects of different fertilization practices (quality compost, mineral fertilizers, mixed fertilization, and no fertilization) on the whole spontaneous vegetation community. The study was performed for two consecutive years at three different scales (species level, community structure, and community properties), using three different units of abundance (number of individuals, biomass, and cover of each species). The observations were carried out in spring, after 5 and 6 years of soil treatments, on a total area of 4 m2 for each soil treatment and in each year. The different fertilization practices did not determine changes in species composition; however, the relative abundance of dominant species increased in compost and mixed fertilized soils, particularly in the second year of observation. Although the dominance and diversity were unaffected by the different fertilization practices, the total biomass and total number of individuals increased in compost-amended soils. These results indicate the effectiveness of soil quality compost amendments to enhance natural revegetation, a key step in the recovery of degraded areas.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the Dipartimento per le Politiche Territoriali, Direzione Generale per i Lavori Pubblici e la Protezione Civile, Giunta Regionale della Campania, for providing us the thermo-pluviometric data.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standard

The experiments comply with the current laws of the country in which they were performed.

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Author notes

  1. Luigi Morra

    Present address: Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l’analisi dell’economia agraria - Unità di Ricerca per la Futticoltura (CRA-FRC), Via Torrino, 2 - 81100, Caserta, Italy

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Chimica e Biologia, Università degli Studi di Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132 - 84084, Fisciano, SA, Italy

    Daniela Baldantoni, Alessandro Bellino & Anna Alfani

  2. Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l’analisi dell’economia agraria - Unità di Ricerca per le Colture Alternative al Tabacco (CRA-CAT), Via P. Vitiello, 106 - 84018, Scafati, SA, Italy

    Luigi Morra

Authors
  1. Daniela Baldantoni
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  2. Alessandro Bellino
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  3. Luigi Morra
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  4. Anna Alfani
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alessandro Bellino.

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Baldantoni, D., Bellino, A., Morra, L. et al. Compost Amendment Enhances Natural Revegetation of a Mediterranean Degraded Agricultural Soil. Environmental Management 56, 946–956 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-015-0539-4

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