LANDSCAPE EVOLUTION AND GLOBAL SOIL CHANGE IN ALPINE VALLEYS: IMPACT OF ANTHROPEDOGENESIS ON TERRACED SOILS (BELLUNO, NORTHERN ITALY)

During the last decades, increasing human influence on the environment has determined strong impacts on soils. Although the effects of global soil change are currently quantified, to study and understand how and at which intensity soils are modified by human activity is of capital importance in order to effectively manage the changing ecosystems. One of the most important man-induced land transformations since many centuries is the terraced landform, an agricultural technique that characterizes many agro-ecosystems all over the world. In this study, our objectives were: i) to assess and compare the morphology and the physical-chemical-biological soil parameters of 'natural' and terraced soils; ii) to identify new forms and processes of anthropedogenesis in relation to chronological scales of human action operating within the natural pedogenesis time scales; iii) to use the existing taxonomic models for the classification of the terraced soils investigated.