0000000000079584

AUTHOR

Susanne Schnabel

0000-0002-8065-8878

Reduction of the frequency of herbaceous roots as an effect of soil compaction induced by heavy grazing in rangelands of SW Spain

Rangelands in SW Spain constitute the most extensive ranching system on the Iberian Peninsula. During the last few decades, a significant increase in livestock numbers, along with a progressive substitution of cattle for sheep, have led to land degradation processes such as the reduction of grass cover and increased soil compaction in heavily grazed areas. Nevertheless, a better understanding of how soil compaction affects grass production is still needed. In this study, some of the effects of soil compaction due to heavy grazing are analysed, mainly the reduction of the frequency of herbaceous roots and its relationships with bulk density and soil penetration resistance. The study was carr…

research product

Soil hydrological response under simulated rainfall in the Dehesa land system (Extremadura, SW Spain) under drought conditions

Soil hydrology was investigated in the Guadelperalon experimental watershed in order to determine the influence of land use and vegetation cover on runoff and infiltration within the Dehesa land system. Five soil–vegetation units were selected: (1) tree cover, (2) sheep trials, (3) shrub cover, (4) hillslope grass and (5) bottom grass. The results of the simulated rainfall experiments performed at an intensity of 56·6 mm h−1 during one hour on plots of 0·25 m2, and the water drop penetration time test indicate the importance of water repellency in the Dehesa land system under drought conditions. Low infiltration rates (c. 9–44 mm h−1) were found everywhere except at shrub sites and in areas…

research product

Developing scoring functions to assess soil quality at a regional scale in rangelands of SW Spain

ABSTRACT The drawing of maps of soil quality at a large scale is increasingly being more useful to land planners and stakeholders. Nevertheless, it involves different methodological steps from the description of soil profiles in the field until the regional mapping of integrative soil quality index (IQI) values. The development of proper scoring functions is a paramount task for the calculation of these IQI values since every parameter needs to be standardized accordingly and weighting factors are usually estimated by multivariate techniques. The main goal of this study was to map soil quality in the Spanish region of Extremadura (commonly known by its rangelands called dehesas). To do that…

research product

Spatial variability of the relationships of runoff and sediment yield with weather types throughout the Mediterranean basin

Este artículo contiene 16 páginas, 6 figuras, 2 tablas.

research product

Relationship of Weather Types on the Seasonal and Spatial Variability of Rainfall, Runoff, and Sediment Yield in the Western Mediterranean Basin

Producción Científica

research product

Using topographical attributes to evaluate gully erosion proneness (susceptibility) in two mediterranean basins: advantages and limitations

Empirical multivariate predictive models represent an important tool to estimate gully erosion susceptibility. Topography, lithology, climate, land use and vegetation cover are commonly used as input for these approaches. In this paper, two multivariate predictive models were generated for two gully erosion processes in San Giorgio basin (Italy) and Mula River basin (Spain) using only topographical attributes as independent variables. Initially, nine models (five for San Giorgio and four for Mula) with pixel sizes ranging from 2 to 50 m were generated, and validation statistics were calculated to estimate the optimal pixel size. The best models were selected based on model performance using…

research product

Developing scoring functions to assess soil quality at a regional scale in rangelands of SW Spain

ABSTRACT The drawing of maps of soil quality at a large scale is increasingly being more useful to land planners and stakeholders. Nevertheless, it involves different methodological steps from the description of soil profiles in the field until the regional mapping of integrative soil quality index (IQI) values. The development of proper scoring functions is a paramount task for the calculation of these IQI values since every parameter needs to be standardized accordingly and weighting factors are usually estimated by multivariate techniques. The main goal of this study was to map soil quality in the Spanish region of Extremadura (commonly known by its rangelands called dehesas). To do that…

research product