Soil structure characterisation of selected European volcanic soils

A characterisation of the soil structure has been produced on 6 selected volcanic soils from Italy, Portugal and Spain. Field morphology, micromorphology, image analysis and water retention measurements have been used in order to perform such analysis. The image analysis work, produced by using a recent methodological approach, has proved the relevance in using the pore size distribution as a powerful tool in order to understand (i) the functional properties of soil structure and the (ii) anthropic influence on soil structure. The comparison of field morphology, micromorphology, image analysis on the 6 profiles has proved that major differences in results exist between field method and the other methods; such differences seem to rely on the assumption behind the different analysis. Classical micromorphological description has proved to be in good agreement with the image analysis results. Pore (equivalent) size distribution obtained by the water retention measurements, performed in one case study, has also proved to be in agreement with the image analysis results.