Zusammenfassung
In the European Limestone Alps, "Lithic Borofolists", i.e. soils in a thick, peat-like organic surface layer, occur widespread in the subalpine vegetation belt in northern Italy. The most important properties of the Lithic Borofolists are their field capacity of more than 600% of the dry weight and an extremely high infiltration capacity. These soils prevent any hydraulic erosion and equilibrate ...
Zusammenfassung
In the European Limestone Alps, "Lithic Borofolists", i.e. soils in a thick, peat-like organic surface layer, occur widespread in the subalpine vegetation belt in northern Italy. The most important properties of the Lithic Borofolists are their field capacity of more than 600% of the dry weight and an extremely high infiltration capacity. These soils prevent any hydraulic erosion and equilibrate the water budget of forests and the discharge of mountain torrents. Forest fires, clear-cutting, or overgrazing by cattle and horses could result in the collapse of the ecosystem within a short period of time. In the study area, overgrazing and trampling by cattle lead to a rapid degradation of Lithic Borofolists to "Histic Rendzinas" on the summer pastures. This causes a serious decrease in both field and infiltration capacity. On such degraded soils, the rainfall of an average thunderstorm may cause Horton overland flow and erosional features on the slopes as well as on the valley bottoms. Overland flow from the valley heads carries enormous quantities of silt, resulting in an extensive siltation of the summer pastures on the valley bottom and thereby lead to further reduction of the infiltration capacity. On the valley floor, the overland flow will be concentrated in shallow depressions, where it causes the erosion of steep-sided gullies. Even a beaten hunter path in a wooded area led to the formation of a deep gully during a thunderstorm. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
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