PARMA

Description of organisation

University of Parma, with a community of 30,000 students and around 1,900 faculty and staff members, is the second largest University in Emilia-Romagna and one of the oldest in Europe (1117).

Research activities range from agricultural and food sciences to biotechnologies, from ecology to experimental medicine, including law, economics and arts. The Course catalogue consists of 35 First cycle Degree courses, 38 Second cycle Degree courses (2 held totally in English) and 6 Single cycle Degree courses; all the courses on offer are coordinated by the 18 departments.

Nine departments, in the areas of arts and humanities, economics, law and social studies, medicine and veterinary studies are located in the city centre. The University Campus is located in an area of over 77 hectares and hosts 9 scientific departments, with a number of sports facilities and services for students.

The UNIPARMA team will host the LANDMARK Roundtable 6 in October 2017.

Description of the unit participating in LANDMARK

The Soil Ecology unit, within the Department of Life Sciences, has a long tradition in research on the relationship between soil (quality and biodiversity) and vegetation, land and crop management. In particular it was developed and tested a synthetic indicator for the assessment of soil quality on the base of the diversity and the structure of soil micro arthropod communities.

The Unit has a complete laboratory for the study of soil micro arthropods and for the characterization of soil chemico-physical parameters.