Soil salinization and sodification are common processes that particularly characterize drylands. These processes can be attributed either to natural conditions or anthropogenic activities. While natural causes include factors such as climate, lithology, topography, and pedology, human causes are mostly related to agricultural land-use, and specifically, to irrigated agriculture. The objective of this study was to thoroughly review this topic, while highlighting the major challenges and related opportunities. Over time, the extent of saline, sodic, and saline-sodic croplands has increased, resulting in accelerated land degradation and desertification, decreased agricultural productivity, and consequently jeopardizing environmental and food security. Mapping and monitoring saline soils is an important management tool, aimed at determining the extent and severity of salinization processes. Recent developments in advanced remote sensing methods have improved the efficacy of mapping and monitoring saline soils. Knowledge on prevention, mitigation, and recovery of soil salinity and sodicity has substantially grown over time. This knowledge includes advanced measures for salt flushing and leaching, water-saving irrigation technologies, precision fertilizer systems, chemical restoration, organic and microbial remediation, and phytoremediation of affected lands. Of a particular interest is the development of forestry-related means, with afforestation, reforestation, agroforestry, and silvopasture practices for the recovery of salt-affected soils. The forecasted expansion of drylands and aggravated drying of existing drylands due to climatic change emphasize the importance of this topic.

Successful adoption of precision viticulture at the farm level depends on the appreciation of vineyard spatial variability. Knowing the spatial variability of soil properties is a challenge, often very expensive and labor intensive. An alternative approach could be the combined utilization of proximal and remote sensors. This study combined proximal (Geonics EM38‐MK2) and remote (normalized difference vegetation index, NDVI) sensing aimed at mapping homogeneous zones (HZs) of two 3.5‐ha vineyards in the Chianti wine district (Italy). Two HZs in each vineyard were obtained by a k‐means clustering of the first two factors of the principal component analysis performed on four maps: (i) apparent electrical conductivity, obtained by EM38‐MK2 at 0 to 75 cm (ECa1) and (ii) 0 to150 cm (ECa2); (iii) topographic wetness index (TWI), calculated from a digital elevation model; and (iv) NDVI extrapolated by multispectral airborne images. Only ECa1 and ECa2 were correlated with some physical (silt and gravel content) and hydrologic (available water capacity) features of the soils. These two variables could also better discriminate the two HZs with respect to NDVI and TWI. The grapes (Vitis vinifera L.) of the selected HZs were separately harvested and vinified to test the differences in the wine quality. Significant differences emerged between the wines produced from the two HZs, especially in terms of color intensity, dry extract, and anthocyanin content. A wine tasting after 6‐mo aging of the wines confirmed the differences between the wines produced in the two zones, especially in terms of color, structure, and total score.

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Abstract. Deep earthwork activities carried out before vineyard plantation can severely affect soil profile properties. As a result, soil features in the root environment are often much more similar to those of the underlying substratum than those of the original profile. The time needed to recover the original soil functions is ecologically relevant and may strongly affect vine phenology and grape yield, particularly under organic viticulture.The general aim of this work was to investigate soil resilience after vineyard pre-planting earthworks. In particular, an old and a new vineyard, established on the same soil type, were compared over a 5-year period for soil chemical, physical, micro-and mesobiological properties.The investigated vineyards (Vitis vinifera L., cv. Sangiovese) were located in the Chianti Classico district (central Italy), on stony and calcareous soils, and were not irrigated. The older vineyard was planted in 2000, after slope reshaping by bulldozing and back-hoe ploughing down to about 0.8-1.0 m. The new vineyard was planted in 2011, after equivalent earthwork practices carried out in the summer of 2009. Both vineyards were organically managed, and they were fertilized with compost only every autumn (1000 kg ha −1 per year). The new vineyard was cultivated by periodic tillage, while the old vineyard was managed with alternating grass-covered and tilled inter-rows.Soil samples were collected at 0-15 cm depth from fixed locations in each vineyard every spring from 2010 to 2014. The old vineyard was sampled in both tilled and grass-covered inter-rows.According to the results from physical and chemical analyses, the new vineyard, during the whole 2010-2014 period, showed lower total organic carbon, total nitrogen, carbon to nitrogen ratio and electrical conductivity, along with higher silt and total CaCO 3 contents than the old vineyard, suggesting still-evolving equilibrium conditions. The microarthropod analysis showed significantly different abundances and community structures, in relation to both vineyard and time. Rainfall appeared to have an enhancing effect on microarthropod abundance, but only in the old vineyard, where the biota was more structured than in the new one. The euedaphic forms, well adapted to soil life, were always rare. Microbiological analysis revealed a different structure of eubacterial communities between the old and the new vineyard in the whole period. However, the DGGE similarity values of these communities increased by about 2.5 % per year, suggesting that at least 3 years more are needed to compare intra-and inter-specific diversity of the two vineyards.In conclusion, the consequences of deep earthworks on soil chemical, micro-and mesobiological properties were still evident 4 years after planting, indicating that more time is necessary for the recovery of soil functions, probably longer than the time needed to reach a state of economically viable grape production.

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In 2014, the Japanese beetle Popillia japonica (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) was first spotted in northern Italy in the Nature Park of the Ticino Valley, its first detection in continental Europe. This polyphagous invasive species has the potential to cause serious losses to horticulture and agriculture. Particularly for its management in a Nature Park, environmentally friendly strategies are necessary. To develop baseline data for a biological control approach to the Italian outbreak of P. japonica, we conducted laboratory and field experiments testing several indigenous and commercial strains of the entomopathogenic nematode (EPN) species Heterorhabditis bacteriophora and Steinernema carpocapsae against P. japonica larvae. In the laboratory, strains of H. bacteriophora caused greater mortality (ranging from 57% to 100%) than those of S. carpocapsae (3% to 77%). In micro-plot field tests carried out at three different times, the most virulent indigenous EPN strain, H. bacteriophora ItH-LU1, showed again the best results ranging from 44% to 93% against young larvae. Finally, in a large-plot field trial, the commercial H. bacteriophora product provided 46% larval mortality. This study shows that H. bacteriophora strains have good potential as biological control agents of larvae of the invasive P. japonica in northern Italy. K E Y W O R D Sbiocontrol, insect pest, invasive species, Japanese beetle, pest management, white grub

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