Search results for " erosion"
showing 10 items of 356 documents
Rainfall simulation and Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry for the analysis of soil water erosion in Mediterranean vineyards
2016
[EN] Soil water erosion is a serious problem, especially in agricultural lands.Among these, vineyards deserve attention, because they constitute for the Mediterranean areas a type of land use affected by high soil losses. A significant problem related to the study of soil water erosion in these areas consists in the lack of a standardized procedure of collecting data and reporting results, mainly due to a variability among the measurement methods applied. Given this issue and the seriousness of soil water erosion in Mediterranean vineyards, this works aims to quantify the soil losses caused by simulated rainstorms, and compare them with each other depending on two different methodologies: (…
Understanding the role of soil erosion on co2-c loss using (13)c isotopic signatures in abandoned Mediterranean agricultural land.
2016
Understanding soil water erosion processes is essential to evaluate the redistribution of soil organic carbon (SOC) within a landscape and is fundamental to assess the role of soil erosion in the global carbon (C) budget. The main aim of this study was to estimate the C redistribution and losses using (13)C natural abundance. Carbon losses in soil sediment, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and CO2 emission were determined. Four bounded parallel plots were installed on a 10% slope. In the upper part of the plots, C3soil was replaced with C4soil. The SOC and δ(13)C were measured after 145.2mm rainfall in the upper (2m far from C4strip), middle (4m far from C4strip) lower (6m far from C4strip) t…
Scale effects on plot runoff and soil erosion in a mediterranean environment
2017
Explaining scale effects for runoff and erosion improves our understanding of hydrological and erosion processes. In this investigation, plot-scale effects on event runoff per unit area, Qe, sediment concentration, Ce, and soil loss per unit area, SLe, were checked at the Sparacia (Italy) site. Similar information on the scale effects was obtained with different dependent variables, i.e., individual values of Qe, Ce, and SLe for each plot or the mean of their replicated values, and scale indicators, i.e., plot length, l, or plot area, A. The most common result, occurring for 57 to 62% of the events depending on the considered variable, was the lack of any scale effect. When scale effects we…
Causes and underlying processes of measurement variability in field erosion plots in Mediterranean conditions
2007
Published online 25 May 2006
Influence of the rainfall measurement interval on the erosivity determinations in the Mediterranean area
2006
Summary The single-storm erosion index, EI, of the USLE and RUSLE models may vary appreciably with the rainfall measurement interval, Δ t . However, the effect of Δ t on EI has not been investigated in the Mediterranean area. Approximately 700 erosive events and 1.5 years of rainfall energies measured by a rainfall impact measurement device were used to evaluate the effect of the rainfall measurement interval (5 min ⩽ Δ t ⩽ 60 min) on the erosivity determinations in the Mediterranean semi-arid area of Sicily. According to both literature and practical considerations, a reference time interval equal to 15 min was used in this investigation. Hourly rainfall data led to an appreciable underes…
Plot-scale measurement of soil erosion at the experimental area of Sparacia (southern Italy)
2004
Obtaining good quality soil loss data from plots requires knowledge of the factors that affect natural and measurement data variability and of the erosion processes that occur on plots of different sizes. Data variability was investigated in southern Italy by collecting runoff and soil loss from four universal soil-loss equation (USLE) plots of 176 m2, 20 ‘large’ microplots (0·16 m2) and 40 ‘small’ microplots (0·04 m2). For the four most erosive events (event erosivity index, Re ≥ 139 MJ mm ha−1 h−1), mean soil loss from the USLE plots was significantly correlated with Re. Variability of soil loss measurements from microplots was five to ten times greater than that of runoff measurements. D…
Plant genetic resources and traditional knowledge on medicinal use of wild shrub and herbaceous plant species in the Etna Regional Park (Eastern Sici…
2014
Ethnopharmacological relevance: This paper illustrates the results of a study carried out in the Etna Regional Park (Eastern Sicily, Italy) concerning the traditional knowledge on medicinal use of wild plant species. It specifies contains the results of a quantitative analysis carried out for the first time. A total of 71 wild species are used for medicinal purposes. Two species, Astracantha sicula (Biv.) Greuter and Trifolium phleoides Willd., are little known as medicinal in the Mediterranean area. Aim of the study: The main aim of the study was to understand to what extent current knowledge on the medicinal use of plants is still an element of the culture within the elderly population of…
Predicting rainfall erosivity by momentum and kinetic energy in Mediterranean environment
2018
Abstract Rainfall erosivity is an index that describes the power of rainfall to cause soil erosion and it is used around the world for assessing and predicting soil loss on agricultural lands. Erosivity can be represented in terms of both rainfall momentum and kinetic energy, both calculated per unit time and area. Contrasting results on the representativeness of these two variables are available: some authors stated that momentum and kinetic energy are practically interchangeable in soil loss estimation while other found that kinetic energy is the most suitable expression of rainfall erosivity. The direct and continuous measurements of momentum and kinetic energy by a disdrometer allow als…
Effects of parent material on soil erosion within Mediterranean new vineyard plantations
2018
[EN] Parent material can determine specific physical and chemical soil properties and, therefore, soil erosion rates. However, for new vine plantations, there is not enough research on soil erosion assessment on different parent materials which could be helpful for agricultural management plans. The main aim of this research was to quantify soil erosion rates of two recent vineyard plantations under similar climate and land use management conditions, but on different parent materials, namely colluvium (2 years old) and marls (8 years old), located within the Les Alcusses valley vineyards in Eastern Spain. To achieve this goal, the ISUM (improved stock unearthing method) was applied. ISUM in…
Relationship of Weather Types on the Seasonal and Spatial Variability of Rainfall, Runoff, and Sediment Yield in the Western Mediterranean Basin
2020
Producción Científica