4388: Soil quality comparison among organically and conventionally managed citrus orchards in Eastern Sicily (Italy)

Canali, Stefano; di Bartolomeo, Emanuela and Torrisi, Biagio (2005) Soil quality comparison among organically and conventionally managed citrus orchards in Eastern Sicily (Italy) . Poster presented at Researching Sustainable Systems - International Scientific Conference on Organic Agriculture, Adelaide, Australia, September 21-23, 2005.

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Summary

The aim of this work was to compare soil fertility status of conventional and organic managed citrus orchards, using specific soil system descriptors.
The research was carried out in a Mediterranean environment (Sicily region, Southern Italy), on Navelina and Tarocco orange orchards. Soil characteristics were analysed in 54 farms under both organic and conventional management. Farms were selected to obtain similar pairs (27) in the same environmental conditions. For each soil, total organic carbon, total nitrogen, mineral NO3-N and NH4-N were determined. In addition, in order to evaluate biological fertility status of soils, carbon mineralisation and nitrogen mineralisation in anaerobic conditions were studied. Soils humic fraction was at least characterised qualitatively by isoelectric focusing technique, to obtain information on soil organic matter stability.
Results obtained attest that the organic citrus orchards soils are able to conserve energy and store nutrients more than the conventional ones.

Document Language:	English
Keywords:	organic farming, soil quality, soil fertility, citrus, organic matter mineralization
Subject Areas:	Soil > Soil quality
Research affiliation:	International Conferences > ISOFAR conferences > Researching Sustainable Systems 2005
Total budget (Euro):	0
Orgprints ID Number:	4388
Contact:	ISOFAR,
Deposited On:	10 October 2005
EPrint Type:	Conference poster
Published?:	Unpublished
Peer Review Status:	Peer-reviewed and accepted
Additional Publishing Information:	The paper presented here is the final paper submitted by the authors to the conference Researching Sustainable Systems. The final edited papers are available with the following publication: Köpke, Ulrich; Niggli, Urs; Neuhoff, Daniel; Cornish, Peter; Lockeretz, Willie und Willer, Helga, (Hrsg.) (2005) Researching Sustainable Systems. Proceedings of the First Scientific Conference of the International Society of Organic Agriculture Research (ISOFAR), Held in Cooperation with the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) and the National Association for Sustainable Agriculture, Australia (NASAA), 21 – 23 September 2005, Adelaide Convention Centre, Adelaide, South Australia.. Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, CH-Frick, and International Society of Organic Agriculture Research (ISOFAR), c/o Institute of Organic Agriculture (IOL), DE-University of Bonn. http://orgprints.org/4013/ Distribution: Paper copies may be ordered from FiBL at a cost of 28 Euros plus mailing costs (see FiBL shop at http://www.fibl.org/shop); FiBL order number 1394. A PDF version is available free of charge for ISOFAR members via the member area of www.isofar.org.
Related Links:	http://orgprints.org/4013/, http://www.isofar.org/adelaide2005, http://orgprints.org/view/projects/int-conf-isofar-2005.html

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