Search results for "Oil quality"
showing 10 items of 101 documents
Changes in soil microbial community structure influenced by agricultural management practices in a mediterranean agro-ecosystem.
2013
Agricultural practices have proven to be unsuitable in many cases, causing considerable reductions in soil quality. Land management practices can provide solutions to this problem and contribute to get a sustainable agriculture model. The main objective of this work was to assess the effect of different agricultural management practices on soil microbial community structure (evaluated as abundance of phospholipid fatty acids, PLFA). Five different treatments were selected, based on the most common practices used by farmers in the study area (eastern Spain): residual herbicides, tillage, tillage with oats and oats straw mulching; these agricultural practices were evaluated against an abandon…
Soil macrofauna and organic matter in irrigated orchards under Mediterranean climate
2017
Soil fauna abundance and diversity and organic matter content are key indicators for the rate of soil degradation in Mediterranean-type ecosystems. The soil macrofauna populations were examined in three orange (Citrus sinensis) orchards and one persimmon (Diospyros kaki) orchard, with the same soil type and different management systems, to establish whether organic management benefits soil fauna and soil quality and what is the effect of flood irrigation. Vegetation cover, soil organic matter, bulk density and moisture were measured at each experimental site within the Canyoles watershed in Eastern Spain in summer of 2015. Earthworm abundance was highest at the organic orchard with flood ir…
Soil quality indicators as affected by a long term barley-maize and maize cropping systems
2011
Most soil studies aim a better characterization of the system through indicators. In the present study nematofauna and soil structure were chosen as indicators to be assess soil health as related to agricultural practices. The field research was carried out on the two fodder cropping systems continuous maize (CM, Zea mays L.) and a 3-year rotation of silage-maize – silage-barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) with Italian ryegrass (R3) and grain-maize maintained in these conditions for 18 years. Each crop system was submitted to two management options: 1) the high input level (H), done as a conventional tillage, 2) the low input level (L), where the tillage was replaced by harrowing and the…
Relationships between earthworm communities and burrow numbers under different land use systems
2010
International audience; This study addresses the influence of three different land use systems (continuous maize, pasture/maize rotation, permanent pasture) on the relationships between earthworm populations and the number of earthworm burrows quantified in a soil profile. Quantified burrows were limited to those observable by the naked eye (i.e. >2 mm in diameter) and enumerated earthworms were limited to those which could have created the observable burrows (i.e. >0.3 g). The results were combined with data from the literature coming from different geographical regions. This study showed that earthworm abundance decreased with the increasing land management intensity (maize crop vs. pastu…
Key Biochemical Attributes to Assess Soil Ecosystem Sustainability
2011
Soil is not a renewable resource, at least within the human timescale. In general, any anthropic exploitation of soils tends to disturb or divert them from a more “natural” development which, by definition, represents the best comparison term for measuring the relative shift from soil sustainability. The continuous degradation of soil health and quality due to abuse of land potentiality or intensive management occurs since decades. Soil microbiota, being ‘the biological engine of the Earth’, provides pivotal services in the soil ecosystem functioning. Hence, management practices protecting soil microbial diversity and resilience, should be pursued. Besides, any abnormal change in rate of in…
Effect of land management on soil properties in flood irrigated citrus orchards in Eastern Spain
2018
Abstract. Agricultural land management greatly affects soil properties. Microbial soil communities are the most sensitive and rapid indicators of perturbations in land use and soil enzyme activities are sensitive biological indicators of the effects of soil management practices. Citrus orchards frequently have degraded soils and this paper evaluates how land management in citrus orchards can improve soil quality. A field experiment was performed in an orchard of orange trees (Citrus Sinensis) in the Alcoleja Experimental Station (Eastern Spain) with clay-loam agricultural soils to assess the long-term effects of herbicides with inorganic fertilizers (H), intensive ploughing and inorganic fe…
Long-term effects of soil management on ecosystem services and soil loss estimation in olive grove top soils
2016
Soil management has important effects on soil properties, runoff, soil losses and soil quality. Traditional olive grove (OG) management is based on reduced tree density, canopy size shaped by pruning and weed control by ploughing. In addition, over the last several decades, herbicide use has been introduced into conventional OG management. These management strategies cause the soil surface to be almost bare and subsequently high erosion rates take place. To avoid these high erosion rates several soil management strategies can be applied. In this study, three strategies were assessed in OG with conventional tillage in three plots of 1. ha each. Soil properties were measured and soil erosion …
Soil Quality as Affected by Intensive Versus Conservative Agricultural Managements
2017
Soils, the earth’s skin, are at the intersection of the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. The persistence of life on our planet depends on the maintenance of soils as they constitute the biological engines of earth. Human population has increased exponentially in recent decades, along with the demand for food, materials, and energy, which have caused a shift from low-yield and subsistence agriculture to a more productive, high-cost, and intensive agriculture. However, soils are very fragile ecosystems and require centuries for their development, thus within the human timescale they are not renewable resources. Modern and intensive agriculture implies serious concern about…
Factors Affecting Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Composition
2011
ABBREVIATIONS I. THE CONCEPT OF OLIVE OIL QUALITY II. EVOO COMPOSITION AND NUTRITIONAL PROPERTIES III. SOURCES OF VARIABILITY OF EVOO COMPOSITION AND PROPERTIES IV. AGRONOMICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AFFECTING EVOO COMPOSITION AND QUALITY A. Genotype B. Growing Area and Seasonal Conditions C. Tree Water Status D. Productivity and Alternate Bearing E. Orchard Management 1. Cultivation Method 2. Training System and Pruning 3. Fertilization and Soil Management
Historical Perspectives on Soil Mapping and Process Modeling for Sustainable Land Use Management
2017
Basic soil management goes back to the earliest days of agricultural practices, approximately 9000 BCE. Through time humans developed soil management techniques of ever increasing complexity, including plows, contour tillage, terracing, and irrigation. Spatial soil patterns were being recognized as early as 3000 BCE, but the first soil maps did not appear until the 1700s and the first soil models finally arrived in the 1880s. The beginning of the 20th century saw an increase in standardization in many soil science methods and wide-spread soil mapping in many parts of the world, particularly in developed countries. However, the classification systems used, mapping scale, and national coverag…