A critical analysis of Vacca, A., Aru, F., and Ollesch, G. (2017). Short‐term impact of coppice management on soil in a Quercus ilex L. Stand in Sardinia. Land Degradation & Development, 28(2), 553–565

Abstract

Inappropriate forest management degrades the quality of soil resources. Soil erosion, for instance, leads to decreased soil fertility and landscape quality. Coppice‐wood management includes risk factors for soil erosion due to the partial and temporary lack of soil cover, and this review highlights the importance of considering both an adequate methodology and objective interpretation of findings. This critical review was carried out due to the substantial deficiencies in the research design and methodology, analysis and interpretation of data, and conclusions in the paper that are not supported by their findings. In this paper, we provide a different interpretation of their data, which reveals absence of substantial risk of soil erosion, even in the short period after coppicing when the soil is most exposed. We aim to provide a clearer context for readers about the impact of coppice management in Quercus ilex stands in the south of Sardinia.

Reply to “A critical analysis of Vacca, A., Aru, F., and Ollesch, G. (2017). Short‐term impact of coppice management on soil in a Quercus ilex L. stand of Sardinia. Land Degradation & Development, 28(2), 553–565.” by Giadrossich and Guastini

“…We are gratified that our article in the 28th issue of Land Degradation & Development (Vacca, Aru, & Ollesch, ) has provoked Giadrossich and Guastini () to open debate about the short‐term impact of coppice management on soil and its importance in the Mediterranean region, and we gladly take the opportunity offered by the editors of the journal to respond. Giadrossich and Guastini remarked that our observations were done in the first years after coppicing rather than integrating the later years when vegetation is recovering and that our paper does not provide any measurement or model‐based evaluation of the rates or volumes of erosion.The title of our paper is “Short‐term impact of coppice management on soil in a Quercus ilex L. stand of Sardinia.” As clearly stated in our paper, the investigation was made slightly more than 2 and 3 years after coppicing at the selected sites.…”