Integrated study of a soil catena in the Turbolo watershed (Calabria, southern Italy): Soil processes, hydrology and geomorphic dynamics

Erosion susceptibility varies along slopes as a function of lithology, relief features, hydrological processes, vegetation cover and land use changes, which lead to spatial variability of erosion processes and intensity. The “soil catena” concept (e.g. MILNE, 1936) represents a basic and powerful tool for analysing the results of variations in soil profiles (soil depth, assemblage, juxtaposition, thickness and boundaries of different genetic horizons) on a landscape at the hillslope scale (soil toposequence). This concept takes into account the recurrent patterns and changes of soil profiles on a topographic transect and permits to interpret them in terms of interplay between soilforming and geomorphic processes, based on flow connectivity of materials and processes from hillslope summit to its base. It has been progressively refined and applied to different purposes across the last decades (e.g. SOMMER & SCHLICHTING, 1997; BRUNNER et alii, 2004; PING et alii, 2005; HATTAR et alii, 2010), also including evaluation of soil degradation (YANDA, 2000). Tillage effects on soil redistribution play a key role in reshaping and changing sloping agricultural landscapes, influencing soil quality and productivity and causing soil loss rates in places strongly exceeding tolerance levels (cfr. DE ALBA et alii, 2004 and references therein). The main objective of this study was a multidisciplinary characterisation of a soil catena in the Turbolo watershed (northwest Calabria, southern Italy).