Integrated analysis for the estimation of water erosion rates in the Northern Apennines: the Monte Cusna study case

The aim of the study was to reconstruct soil erosion and environmental changes in an area affected by diffuse and concentrated water runoff, on the NW slope of Mt. Cusna (Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, Italy). A multidisciplinary approach (field activity, laboratory analysis and micromorphology of thin sections) was carried out on soil samples. The investigated soils show a complex history of the area, underlining the occurrence of separate events of pedogenesis, spatio-temporally linked to recognizable stability phases at slope scale. These phases of biostasy, characterized by vegetation cover and soil development, are alternated to phases of rhexistasy, characterized mainly by slope instability and colluvial events.