Landscaping compromises for land degradation neutrality: The case of soil erosion in a Mediterranean agricultural landscape

Smetanová, Anna; Follain, Stéphane; David, Mélodie; Ciampalini, Rossano; Raclot, Damien; Crabit, Armand; Bissonnais, Yves Le

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.01.063

Cited by 43 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 62 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Abandonment could be seen as a nature-based solution such as the use of straw in forest fire affected land [66,67] to the high erosion rates found in agricultural land [68], and could be used as a strategy to balance the carbon cycle [69] and rehabilitate the soils under the millennia-old use of agriculture [70]. The research carried out at the Canals Municipality shows that abandonment could be positive from an environmental point of view, but there is also the risk of a forest fire as the vegetation could be very flammable during the Mediterranean summer drought [71].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Farmland Abandonment on Water Resources and Soil Conservation in Citrus Plantations in Eastern Spain

Cerdà

Ackermann

Terol

et al. 2019

Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Due to the reduction in the prices of oranges on the market and social changes such as the ageing of the population, traditional orange plantation abandonment in the Mediterranean is taking place. Previous research on land abandonment impact on soil and water resources has focused on rainfed agriculture abandonment, but there is no research on irrigated land abandonment. In the Valencia Region—the largest producer of oranges in Europe—abandonment is resulting in a quick vegetation recovery and changes in soil properties, and then in water erosion. Therefore, we performed rainfall simulation experiments (0.28 m2; 38.8 mm h−1) to determine the soil losses in naveline orange plantations with different ages of abandonment (1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 10 years of abandonment) which will allow for an understanding of the temporal changes in soil and water losses after abandonment. Moreover, these results were also compared with an active plantation (0). The results show that the soils of the active orange plantations have higher runoff discharges and higher erosion rates due to the use of herbicides than the plots after abandonment. Once the soil is abandoned for one year, the plant recovery reaches 33% of the cover and the erosion rate drops one order of magnitude. This is related to the delay in the runoff generation and the increase in infiltration rates. After 2, 3, 5, 7 and 10 years, the soil reduced bulk density, increase in organic matter, plant cover, and soil erosion rates were found negligible. We conclude that the abandonment of orange plantations reduces soil and water losses and can serve as a nature-based solution to restore the soil services, goods, and resources. The reduction in the soil losses was exponential (from 607.4 g m−2 in the active plot to 7.1 g m−2 in the 10-year abandoned one) but the water losses were linear (from 77.2 in active plantations till 12.8% in the 10-year abandoned ones).

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Farmland Abandonment on Water Resources and Soil Conservation in Citrus Plantations in Eastern Spain

Cerdà

Ackermann

Terol

et al. 2019

Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For this, modeling approaches that distinguish long-term means and extreme rainfall conditions, or hindcasting long-term trends, can be useful. Ideally, modeling would be applied for strategically planning management for upcoming seasons [10,87,88]. Again, availability of data inventories for continuous model calibration and validation, availability of seasonal rainfall predictions, and modeling (labor, financial, time, and programming) costs hinder the application of more complex models at large scales.…”

Section: What To Map: Means or Extremes?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Representing spatial-temporal relationships to indicate when minimal management efforts could have maximized effects is desirable [10]. The use of gridded time-series products enables the application of geospatial statistical methods to distinguish spatial and temporal extremes.…”

Section: What To Map-spatial or Temporal Extremes?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When water is the dominant mechanism of soil loss across a catchment, soil-water conservation measures in sediment source areas can drastically decrease catchment sediment yields [6,7]. Modeling and monitoring studies showed that timely and spatially adjusted management can significantly decrease downstream sediment delivery [8][9][10]. However, sediment sources are unknown in many semi-arid catchments, and no data are available to adjust management accordingly.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Mesoscale Mapping of Sediment Source Hotspots for Dam Sediment Management in Data-Sparse Semi-Arid Catchments

Smetanová

Müller

Zargar

et al. 2020

Water

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Land degradation and water availability in semi-arid regions are interdependent challenges for management that are influenced by climatic and anthropogenic changes. Erosion and high sediment loads in rivers cause reservoir siltation and decrease storage capacity, which pose risk on water security for citizens, agriculture, and industry. In regions where resources for management are limited, identifying spatial-temporal variability of sediment sources is crucial to decrease siltation. Despite widespread availability of rigorous methods, approaches simplifying spatial and temporal variability of erosion are often inappropriately applied to very data sparse semi-arid regions. In this work, we review existing approaches for mapping erosional hotspots, and provide an example of spatial-temporal mapping approach in two case study regions. The barriers limiting data availability and their effects on erosion mapping methods, their validation, and resulting prioritization of leverage management areas are discussed.

show abstract

“…However, there is a lack of information about the spatial distribution of soil degradation at the regional and sub-regional scales [24].Knowing the soil micronutrient content is important for elaborating correct and suitable land management plans [25,26], which are often not performed due to sampling costs and laboratory analysis [27]. One strategy used to reduce sampling costs and laboratory analyses is the delimitation of management areas, which could be an interesting tool to be included in plans to combat land degradation and achieve neutrality [28,29]. The delimitation of these sub-regions aims to achieve differentiated management focused mainly on correction and soil fertilization, considering the spatial variability of the nutrients [30].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Determining Land Management Zones Using Pedo-Geomorphological Factors in Potential Degraded Regions to Achieve Land Degradation Neutrality

Keshavarzi

Kumar

Bottega

et al. 2019

Land

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The proper delineation of site-specific management zones is very important in the agricultural land management of potentially degraded areas. There is a necessity for the development of prospective tools in management plans to correctly understand the land degradation processes. In order to accomplish this, we present a pedo-geomorphological approach using soil texture, land elevation and flow vector aspects to distinguish different management zones and to discretize soil micronutrients. To achieve this goal, we conducted the study in the Neyshabur plain, Northeast Iran. For data collection, grid sampling (500 × 500 m) was used with 70 specific points. Soil samples were collected in triplicates from various sites as composite samples (0-30 cm) to analyse clay, Zn, Mn, Cu and Fe. Using the altitude information (obtained with GPS at each sampling point), flow vectors were also modelled for all selected points. Based on the values of altitude, flow vectors and clay, management zones were delimited using geographic information systems. The best data organization was obtained from the combination of clay + elevation + flow vector attributes, generating two different management zones. In this circumstance, the lowest fuzzy performance index (FPI) and modified partition entropy (MPE) values were generated. It can be observed that the management zone 1 (MZ1) is located in the areas with a lower elevation and higher content of clay. On the other hand, the MZ2 was characterized by areas with a higher elevation and lower clay content. This study concluded that the design of management zones, using pedo-geomorphological information could reduce the time and cost of sampling necessary to assess potentially degraded areas of land. reforestation or geotextiles are also successfully applied. However [10,11], the drastic decline in yield or wood production and the increase in soil degradation processes can also be attributed to the intensification of its cultivation or exploitation, as well as the imbalance in soil nutrient management and physical properties [12,13].It is unusual to assess soil degradation or delimitate land management zones via clay, Zn, Mn, Cu and Fe. However, recent research conducted by [14] in India demonstrated that micronutrient deficiency in intensively cultivated regions may be associated with a low organic availability and excessive reliance on chemical fertilizers. In Northern Greece, [15] assessed Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu bioavailability their correlation with foliar micronutrient concentrations in mature organic olive orchards, highlighting the key role of organic matter to sustain metal uptake by olive trees. However, it is not common to see clear examples showing how these data on micronutrients can be a basis for a land management planning tool to achieve land degradation neutrality. Usually, other robust indicators such as cation exchange capacity, base saturation, the content of soil organic matter, but in several cases, only a few data about soil chemical properties such as micronutrients are analysed...

show abstract

Landscaping compromises for land degradation neutrality: The case of soil erosion in a Mediterranean agricultural landscape

Cited by 43 publications

References 62 publications

Impact of Farmland Abandonment on Water Resources and Soil Conservation in Citrus Plantations in Eastern Spain

Impact of Farmland Abandonment on Water Resources and Soil Conservation in Citrus Plantations in Eastern Spain

Mesoscale Mapping of Sediment Source Hotspots for Dam Sediment Management in Data-Sparse Semi-Arid Catchments

Determining Land Management Zones Using Pedo-Geomorphological Factors in Potential Degraded Regions to Achieve Land Degradation Neutrality

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About