Rehabilitation of Semiarid Landscapes in Australia. I. Restoring Productive Soil Patches

Abstract

A rehabilitation procedure designed to reestablish resource control processes in a degraded Acacia aneura woodland was successful in improving soil nitrogen and carbon content, exchange properties, and water infiltration rates. Soil respiration rates and soil fauna populations increased, and soil temperatures were moderated. The procedure comprised laying piles of branches in patches on the contour of bare, gently sloping landscapes, with the expectation that soil, water, and litter would accumulate in these branch piles, thus improving the soil habitat and its productive potential. The procedure was derived from landscape function analysis, indicating that surface water flow was the principal means of resource transfer in these landscapes. Under degradation such overland flow results in a loss of resources. This rehabilitation procedure reversed loss processes, resulting in gains in the productive potential of soils within patches. This procedure was successful despite grazing pressure being maintained throughout the experiment.

Emerging Issues in Rangeland Ecohydrology: Vegetation Change and the Water Cycle

“…Insights into how such feedbacks are initiated, perpetuated, and manifested at different scales is currently the weak link in our ability to devise sustainable restoration strategies (Tongway and Ludwig 1996;Manu et al 1999). The ultimate challenge will be linking an ecohydrological understanding with the socioeconomic drivers of degradation (Reynolds 2001).…”

Analysis and evaluation of ecological restoration experiments in the Succulent Karoo (South Africa)

“…They ascribe this effect to the fact that soil biota decrease the amount of nitrogen in its more mobile form as nitrate and lead to an immobilization and storage of nitrogen in the increasing microbial biomass. For brushpacks Ludwig & Tongway (1996a) report an increase in organic carbon and nitrogen after 3 years under a brushpack treatment conducted in the semi-arid woodlands of Australia but only significant within the first 1 cm depth. As expected, the "stones" treatment showed no significant effect on any of the examined soil parameters.…”

Effects of topsoil treatments on afforestation in a dry Mediterranean climate (southern Spain)

“…2). Several studies have shown that inadequate soil water storage is the major limiting factor for the sapling establishment in semiarid areas (Haase and Rose, 1993;Whisenant et al, 1999;South, 2000;HuesoGonzález et al, 2015;Muñoz-Rojas et al, 2016c), and others have reported new techniques needed to increase the AWC in dryland soils (Tongway and Ludwing, 1996;Shachak et al, 1998). Ros et al (2006) showed that the addition of amendments (urban organic waste, green waste, manure, and sewage sludge) favored the development of vegetation cover in Spain because of increased soil moisture.…”