Search results for " Erosion"

Soil aggregates, organic matter turnover and carbon balance in a Mediterranean eroded vineyard

2014

The carbon cycle is being affected by the human impacts (Novara et al., 2011; Yan-Gui et al., 2013), and one of those is the intensification in the soil erosion in agriculture land (Cerdà et al., 2009; García Orenes et al., 2009). Vineyards also are affected by the human activities (Fernández Calviño, 2012). Vineyards in Sicily are cultivated on 110.000 ha, 10% of which on >10% slope. Deficiencies of soil organic matter are typical of the semi arid Mediterranean environment especially where traditional intensive cropping practices are adopted (Novara et al., 2012; 2013). These practices in vineyards could lead soil to intensive erosion processes (Novara et al., 2011). The fate of SOC under …

Cover crops effectiveness for soil erosion control in Sicilian vineyard

2009

In vineyards, which are very common in Mediterranean area, cover crops are becoming increasingly used to reduce soil erosion. Cover crops reduce runoff by increasing infiltration and increasing roughness and then reducing the ovelandflow velocity. The aim of the present study was to quantify soil and water losses under different soil managements systems on vineyards. The study site was a Sauvignon blanc winegrape vineyard located in Southwestern Sicily. Vineyards were managed both traditionally (conventional tillage) and alternative management using cover crops: 1) Vicia faba ; 2) Vicia faba and Vicia sativa; 3) Trifolium subterraneum, Lolium perenne, Festuca rubra; 4)Trifolium subterraneum…

Soil erosion and carbon budget in Mediterranean vineyards

2016

Vineyards of Mediterranean regions are characterized by low organic matter level and high sediment and nutrient erosion rates, which are the main causes of soil degradation and low sustainability of vine production. Alternative soil management - cover crops, green manure of prune residues, buffer strip- has widely applied as soil management practices to reduce soil degradation processes. However, the effectiveness of innovative soil management should be evaluated in relation to climatic and soil conditions. Many studies have been carried out in Sicilian vineyards in order to improve the sustainability with particular attention to: reduction of erosion, increase of soil organic matter, manag…

Effective Practices in Mitigating Soil Erosion from Fields

2017

Soil erosion by water is a natural process that cannot be avoided. Soil erosion depends on many factors, and a distinction should be made between humanly unchangeable (e.g., rainfall) and modifiable (e.g., length of the field) soil erosion factors. Soil erosion has both on-site and off-site effects. Soil conservation tries to combine modifiable factors so as to maintain erosion in an area of interest to an acceptable level. Strategies to control soil erosion have to be adapted to the desired land use. Knowledge of soil loss tolerance, T, i.e., the maximum admissible erosion from a given field, allows technicians or farmers to establish whether soil conservation practices need to be applied …

The use of straw mulch as a strategy to prevent extreme soil erosion rates in citrus orchard. A Rainfall simulation approach

2014

Not only the Sahel (Haregeweyn et al., 2013), the deforested land (Borelli et al., 2013) the chinese Plateau are affected by intense soil erosion rates (Zhao et al., 2013). Soil erosion affect agriculture land (Cerdà et al., 2009), and citrus orchards are being seeing as one of the crops with the highest erosion rates due to the managements that avoid the catch crops, weeds or litter. Example of the research carried out on citrus orchards is found in the Mediterranean (Cerdà and Jurgensen, 2008; 2009; Cerdà et al., 2009a; 2009b; Cerdà et al., 2011; 2012) and in China (Wu et al., 1997; Xu et al., 2010; Wang et al., 2011; Wu et al., 2011; Liu et al., 2011; Lü et al., 2011; Xu et al., 2012), a…

MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF GULLY-EROSION PROCESS: SUSCEPTIBILITY ASSESSMENT AND TEMPORAL VALIDATION IN A WATERSHED OF NORTH-CENTRAL SICILY, ITALY

2010

Testing the SEDD model in Sicilian basins

2005

Abstract The Sediment Delivery Distributed (SEDD) model combines the universal soil loss equation (USLE) or the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) with a sediment delivery ratio to predict basin sediment yield. The model was applied to seven Sicilian basins, ranging in size from 20 to 213 km2 . Each basin has a reservoir located at its outlet. The model was applied to each basin using a raster scheme, and a subroutine of ArcInfo software to identify the hydraulic path linking each hillslope cell to the nearest stream cell, and to calculate both the travel time and the sediment delivery ratio of each cell. A procedure for estimating the β coefficient, which appears in the expressio…

Testing a new sampler for measuring plot soil loss

2016

In order to measure soil loss in equipped plots the estimate of the weight of solid material intercepted at their lower end is required. At the experimental area of Sparacia, Sicily, the runoff produced by an erosive event is collected within storage tanks with a capacity of about 1m3. In this paper, the use of a new sampler is proposed to measure easily the weight of solid material eroded from an experimental plot and collected into a storage tank. The sampler is a cylinder having a closing valve at the bottom. Two different series of runs were carried out both to test the reliability of the sampler and to establish a sampling procedure, respectively. An analysis of various sampling config…

Supporting USLE-MM reliability by analyzing soil loss measurement errors

2017

Sampling the collected suspension in a storage tank is a common procedure to obtain soil loss data. A calibration curve of the tank has to be used to obtain actual concentration values from those measured by sampling. However, literature suggests that using a tank calibration curve was not a common procedure in the past. For the clay soil of the Sparacia (Italy) experimental station, this investigation aimed to establish a link between the relative performances of the USLE-M and USLE-MM models, usable to predict plot soil loss at the event temporal scale, and soil loss measurement errors. Using all available soil loss data, lower soil loss prediction errors were obtained with the USLE-MM (e…

USLE-based models: perspectives and limitations in soil erosion modelling

2020

Water soil erosion is a process of detachment and transport of soil particles due to rainfall and runoff and causes the landform modeling on earthʹs surface. The acceleration of soil erosion process through anthropogenic perturbation has severe impacts on soil which becomes qualitatively poor for crop establishment and growth. Planning soil conservation strategies requires prediction technologies of soil loss over a long‐time period. The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), and its revised versions, are widely tested and applied in different environments throughout the world. At present, the USLE continues to be the most applied model for estimating soil loss and still represents the best c…