Mutamenti climatici e carbon sink: valutazione della variazione spaziale delle riserve di carbonio nel suolo in sistemi colturali estensivi tipici della Gallura (Sardegna nord-orientale)

The title of the thesis is "Climate Change and soil carbon sink: evaluation of the spatial variation of the soil organic carbon stocks in typical cropping systems of Gallura (North-East area of Sardinia)". The aim of this research was to study the effects of orography and several Mediterranean cropping system (pasture and short term forage crop) on the spatial variation of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and soil bulk density, to verify the spatial representativeness of the pedologic characterization based on the study of several soil profiles. All measured variables were characterised by classical descriptive statistics (mean and standard error of the mean) without considering the spatial nature of the data, to determinate their effects on the spatial variability of the soil organic carbon stock. Then geostatistical methods were applied to study the spatial variation of soil variables. Moreover, we have used GIS tools to identify several homogeneous sub-areas characterized by the same slope, exposure and land use. Furthermore GIS tools were used to map the results.