Ferré, Chiara; Comolli, Roberto (2025): Pedodiversity and biodiversity in Andossi Plateau [dataset]. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.986602

As part of the Pascol-Ando and PascoliAmo project, in the framework of the PSR (Rural Development Program) of the Lombardy Region, which aimed to promote sustainable pasture management (Mascetti et al., 2023; doi:10.1080/14888386.2023.2192687), a pedological and floristic survey was carried out at 156 and 264 georeferenced points, respectively. The locations of the soil sampling points were selected to best represent the variability in vegetation and geomorphological characteristics. Soil minipits were opened down to the C horizon or rock, and corings were carried out using a 4 cm diameter, 50 cm long gauge auger designed to differentiate and sample the soil by horizon (minipit:coring ratio 1:4). Soils were described and sampled by horizon, then analyzed for the purpose of classification. The soils were classified according to the WRB taxonomic system (IUSS Working Group WRB, 2022). The vegetation survey was carried out over two years, from July to the end of August, at 138 points in 2020 and 126 points in 2021, in correspondence with the soil sampling. Within each 1 × 1 m plot, all species were identified, and their visual percent cover was estimated using a grid with 10 × 10 cm cell units. Each plot was selected to be representative of a larger area in terms of vegetation cover and species composition. The nomenclature follows the updated checklists of the vascular flora of Italy (Bartolucci et al., 2024; doi:10.1080/11263504.2024.2324134) which are continuously updated on The Portal to the Flora of Italy (https://dryades.units.it/floritaly/, Martellos et al., 2020; doi:10.3897/phytokeys.156.54023). Six vegetation types (PP: poor pasture; RP: rich pasture; CP: calcareous pasture; EH; earth hummock; PB: peat bog; S: shrub) were considered, based on a previous study on the characterization of pasture plant communities (Mascetti et al., 2023). Geological information is available for each point, obtained by simplifying the geological units of the available map of the study area into six classes (ECD: eluvial-colluvial deposit; PD: peat bog deposit; GlD: glacial deposit; GD: gravitative deposit; CR: carbonatic rock; SR: schistose rock; CS: carbonatic rock and GrD: gravitative deposit).