Publication: Erosión y desertificación.-Impact of land-use change on soil degradation by establishment of terraces with subtropical orchards in sloping areas (Granada, SE Spain)
Authors
Rodríguez Pleguezuelo, C.R. ; Durán Zuazo, V.H. ; Martín Peinado, F.J. ; Franco Tarifa, D.
item.page.secondaryauthor
Universidad de Murcia
item.page.director
Publisher
publication.page.editor
publication.page.department
DOI
item.page.type
info:eu-repo/semantics/other
Description
Abstract
ABSTRACT
In the coast of Granada, an intensive irrigated agriculture based on subtropical crops has
been established. These trees have been planted in highly sloped areas, by the construction
of terraces. In this fragile Mediterranean agroecosystem, the removal of native spontaneous
vegetation cover and substitution by orchards, increase the susceptibility to soil degradation
and eventually brings up the destruction of these structures by rainfall events. To study this
net change, we monitored the soil loss and runoff over a two-year period in the taluses of
terraces with a mature mango (Mangifera indica L.) orchard. The studied treatments were
bare soil (BS) and spontaneous vegetation (NSV), each twice replicated. The erosion plots
were 4 m x 4 m in area and were located in the taluses of orchard terraces (65� slope). The
average annual soil loss by erosion for BS and NSV was 2.5 and 0.3 Mg ha-1 yr-1, and for
runoff 34.1 and 6.8 mm yr-1, respectively. Therefore, soil erosion and runoff from BS plot
were 8- and 5-times higher than in NSV, showing the importance of plant covers in the
taluses of terraces in reducing this impact. Thus, the removal of plant cover from the taluses
under these conditions, represent a high risk of slump and collapse, causing serious
environmental and economic problems for farmers of subtropical crops.etadata.jsp
publication.page.subject
Citation
item.page.embargo
Ir a Estadísticas
Este ítem está sujeto a una licencia Creative Commons. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/