Soil quality indicators and biodiversity in northern Italian permanent grasslands

Permanent grasslands represented a common type of land use in northern Italy traditional agriculture, but its area has been constantly declining over the last 50 years. Three permanent grasslands of the Po valley (northern Italy) were characterized in terms of biodiversity and soil quality and were compared with other agricultural land uses. Two indicators of biological soil quality (BSQ-ar, BSQ-c) were also applied and validated. Results demonstrated the importance of permanent grasslands as biodiversity ‘hot spots’ within the intensive agroecosystems. The quality of soils was higher in permanent grasslands with respect to the arable lands, as evidenced by the standard soil quality indicators (organic carbon, aggregate stability) and confirmed by BSQ. This research proposes BSQ as a synthetizing soil quality indicator.