Soil as memories of the past and forecasts for the future

During its development, the soil is in equilibrium with the formation environment in terms of climate, vegetation and geomorphology: soil horizons develop, while organic and mineral phases form, and reflect the environmental conditions of those times. Some characteristics may persist for thousands of years, others are more labile, but in both cases knowing the relationships between pedogenesis and soil properties helps in paleoenvironmental reconstructions, in optimizing present land use, and in predicting the variations that may occur to soil productivity and ecosystem services upon global change.
The specific expertise of the research group is:

• Pedogenesis, clay mineralogy and organo-mineral interactions (Bonifacio)
• Iron oxides (Bonifacio, Celi)
• Pedogenesis and dynamics of organic matter (Celi)
• Pedogenesis and dynamics of nutrients in seasonally snow-covered areas (Freppaz, Pintaldi, Benech)
• Periglacial features, permafrost and interaction with water bodies in high-elevation ecosystems (Freppaz,Colombo,Pintaldi)
• Alpine pedogenesis and paleoenvironmental reconstruction in high-elevation ecosystems (Freppaz,Pintaldi,Colombo)
• Pedogenesis and soil physical properties, interaction with soil ecosystem services (SES) (Stanchi).

The know-how of the components of the research group are complementary and field phases are coupled with chemical and instrumental analyses dealing with agricultural, forest and high elevation soils in varying ecological zones.
In addition the research group is responsible of the Laboratorio Neve e Suoli Alpini at l’Istituto Scientifico Angelo Mosso (Alagna Valsesia/Gressoney la Trinité, 2901 m slm), which belongs to the Italian LTER Network.

Insights

• LTER - Istituto Angelo Mosso
• Laboratorio Neve e Suoli Alpini

• Valutazione e conservazione della biodiversità in habitat montani e subalpini del Parco Nazionale della Val Grande (Convenzione con Parco Val Grande)
• Be-Archaeo. Beyond Archaeology. An advanced approach linking East to West through Science
• Interreg Alpine Space Links4Soils - Linking Alpine Soil Knowledge to Sustainable Ecosystem Management and Capacity Building (2016-2020) 
• Data-LTER-Mountain - Harmonisation and standards for existing and newly collected Data and MetaData on LTER sites in Italian Mountain ecosystems (2013-2015)
• PNRR - NODES (Nord-Ovest Digitale E Sostenibile), Spoke 4: Montagna digitale e sostenibile (2022-2026)
• PNRR - NBFC (National Biodiversity Future Center), Spoke 3: Assessing and monitoring terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity and its evolution: from taxonomy to genomics and citizen science (2022-2026)
• PRIN - SENTINEL – The reSponsEs of Italian mouNTaIN Ecosystems to cLimate change (2023-2025)

• D’Amico M.E., Pintaldi E., Sapino E., Colombo N., Quaglino E., Stanchi S., . . . Freppaz M. (2020). Soil types of aosta valley (NW-italy). Journal of Maps, 16(2), 755-765. doi:10.1080/17445647.2020.1821803
• Negri S., Raimondo E., D'Amico M.E., Stanchi S., Basile A., & Bonifacio E. (2021). Loess-derived polygenetic soils of north-western italy: A deep characterization of particle size, shape and color to draw insights about the past. Catena, 196 doi:10.1016/j.catena.2020.104892 
• Negri S., Stanchi S., Celi L., Bonifacio E. (2021). Simulating wildfires with lab-heating experiments: Drivers and mechanisms of water repellency in alpine soils. Geoderma (402).
• Pintaldi, E., D'Amico, M., Colombo, N., Martinetto, E., Said-Pullicino, D., Giardino, M., Freppaz, M., (2021). Hidden paleosols on a high-elevation Alpine plateau (NW Italy): Evidence for Lateglacial Nunatak?. Global and Planetary Change, 103676. doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2021.103676
• Pintaldi, E., Santoro, V., D'Amico, M. E., Colombo, N., Celi, L., & Freppaz, M. (2022). Origin and characteristics of ancient organic matter from a high‐elevation Lateglacial Alpine Nunatak (NW Italy). European Journal of Soil Science, e13328.  doi:10.1111/ejss.13328

University of Colorado-INSTAAR (USA)
Boku University-Institute of Forest Ecology (Austria)
Lund University-Dept of Biology (Svezia)
FAO-Mountain Partnership Secretariat, KMETIJSKI INSTITUT SLOVENIJE - Slovenian Institut of Agriculture (Slovenia)
Universitat Innsbruck - Institut für Geographie (Austria)
Alpine Soil Partnership
EURAC Research - Institute for Alpine Environment
WSL Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research
Competence Centre for Mountain Innovation Ecosystems, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bozen, Italy
Water Research Institute (CNR-IRSA), National Research Council of Italy, Rome & Brugherio, Italy
Environmental Protection Agency of Valle d’Aosta, Climate Change Unit, Saint-Christophe, Italy
Environmental Protection Agency of Piemonte, Department of “Natural and Environmental Risks”, Turin, Italy
Institute of Polar Sciences, National Research Council of Italy, Milan, Italy
Institute of Earth Sciences, NAWI Graz Geocenter, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
Research Institute for Geo-Hydrological Protection, National Research Council of Italy, Turin, Italy
Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche (Spagna)