Sadeghi et al. (2025) Soil moisture dynamics under various drought resilience measures in Mediterranean vineyards of the northern Apennines, Italy

Identification

• Journal: The Science of The Total Environment
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-12-19
• Authors: Seyed Hamidreza Sadeghi, Michael Maerker, Mostafa Zabihi Silabi, Sudabeh Gharemahmudli, Massimiliano Bordoni, Thi Ngoc Anh Nguyen, Matteo Gatti, Stefano Poni, Claudia Meisina
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.181210

Research Groups

• Department of Watershed Management Engineering, Faculty of Natural Resources, Tarbiat Modares University, Iran.
• Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Pavia, Italy.
• Leibniz Zentrum für Agrarlandschaftsforschung (ZALF), Müncheberg, Germany.
• Department of Sustainable Crop Production, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, Italy.

Short Summary

This study evaluates the impact of various green manure management measures on soil moisture dynamics at different depths in Mediterranean vineyards. The findings reveal that while certain treatments significantly enhance topsoil moisture, they may simultaneously reduce subsoil water content, highlighting the complexity of drought resilience strategies.

Objective

• To investigate the relationship between soil moisture (SM) and key climatic, soil, and plant factors across different green manure management measures at two distinct soil depths (0–30 cm and 30–90 cm).

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Four vineyard demonstration farms located in the Northern Apennines, Italy.
• Temporal Scale: A three-year monitoring period (data spanning 2023–2025 based on the publication timeline).

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Statistical analysis and hydrological behavior assessment based on a multi-variable database.
• Data sources: Field observations and measurements of 14 climatic and soil properties; soil moisture content (SMC) sensors at depths of 0–30 cm and 30–90 cm.

Main Results

• Topsoil Moisture: Average soil moisture in the 0–30 cm layer ranged from 23% to 29.8% across different treatments.
• Subsoil Moisture: Average moisture in the 30–90 cm layer was higher, ranging from 37.2% to 42.9%.
• Treatment Impact: The "U3" treatment increased topsoil moisture by approximately 17% compared to the control, but resulted in an 11% decrease in subsoil moisture.
• Variability: The upper 30 cm of soil exhibited significantly higher moisture variability than the deeper layers across all demonstration sites.
• Management Performance: Different soil management treatments showed heterogeneous performance across the various farms, suggesting that current managerial practices require site-specific optimization for effective water storage.

Contributions

• Provides empirical evidence on the depth-specific effects of green manure on soil water balance in Mediterranean viticulture.
• Identifies a trade-off between topsoil moisture retention and subsoil depletion under specific drought-resilience treatments.
• Offers a dataset integrating climatic, soil, and vegetation variables to inform climate change adaptation strategies in vineyard management.

Funding

• Not specified in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Sadeghi2025Soil,
  author = {Sadeghi, Seyed Hamidreza and Maerker, Michael and Silabi, Mostafa Zabihi and Gharemahmudli, Sudabeh and Bordoni, Massimiliano and Nguyen, Thi Ngoc Anh and Gatti, Matteo and Poni, Stefano and Meisina, Claudia},
  title = {Soil moisture dynamics under various drought resilience measures in Mediterranean vineyards of the northern Apennines, Italy},
  journal = {The Science of The Total Environment},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.181210},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.181210}
}

Generated by BiblioAssistant using gemini-3-flash-preview (Google API)