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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Soil erosion after land abandonment in a semiarid environment of southeastern Spain

subject

description

Different soil units were selected in southeastern Spain to investigate the effects of land abandonment on soil erosion under semiarid conditions. The study sites selected were a cultivated field (bare), a 3‐yr‐abandoned field (herbs), a 10‐yr‐abandoned field (Artemisia herba‐alba Asso.), and two soil units covered with semi‐native (Stipa tena‐cissima L) and native (Pinus halepensis Miller) vegetation. Simulated rainfall measurements showed that the erosion and runoff increased after the land abandonment, but later erosion decreased owing to the influence of increasing vegetation. Runoff discharge (35%) and the erosion rates (334 g m2 h‐1) were high in the 3‐yr‐abandoned land in comparison with the other land uses. Cultivation promotes infiltration of rainfall; as a consequence, the runoff and erosion rates were greatly reduced. Under Stipa tenacissima and Artemisia herba‐alba, site conditions were very stable because of the high infiltration rates in the vegetated patches (100% of the rain infiltrated). ...