Search results for "SOIL FERTILITY"
showing 10 items of 77 documents
The influence of fire history, plant species and post-fire management on soil water repellency in a Mediterranean catchment : The Mount Carmel range,…
2017
Fire is a key factor impacting soil hydrology in many Mediterranean catchments. Soil water repellency (SWR) can stimulate land degradation processes by reducing the affinity of soil and water thereby triggering a reduction in soil fertility and increasing soil and water losses. The effects of two consequent fires (1989 and 2005) on SWR were assessed in the Carmel Mountains, Israel. Fire history, plant recovery and post-fire management (14 treatments) were investigated as determining factors in a time dependent system. In total 210 locations were investigated 9 times from October 2011 to February 2012, which totals 1890 water drop penetration tests that were performed. During each visit to t…
EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT WEED CONTROL PRACTICES ON SOIL QUALITY IN MEDITERRANEAN CROPS
2017
Effects of different weed control practices on soil quality in mediterranean crops This research approaches the question of weed control sustainability, from the point of view of soil quality maintenance and enhancing. A big choice of practices and products for weed control are available nowadays, but the actual definition of "sustainable practice" not always considers soil fertility. Soil processes timescale is wider than the productive, commercial and legislative ones. Also the definition of survey protocols is a process slower than the evolution of weed control methods. The faster reaction in the soil ecosystem after an external pressure is given by the organisms living in it, and the mi…
Soil Erosion as an Environmental Concern in Vineyards. The Case Study of Celler del Roure, Eastern Spain, by Means of Rainfall Simulation Experiments
2018
Soil erosion in vineyards is considered as an environmental concern as it depletes soil fertility and causes damage in the fields and downstream. High soil and water losses decrease soil quality, and subsequently, this can reduce the quality of the grapes and wine. However, in specialized journals of viticulture and enology, soil erosion studies are not present. This paper surveys the soil erosion losses in the vineyards of Celler del Roure, Eastern Spain, as an example of Mediterranean vineyards. We applied rainfall simulation experiments (10 plots) using a small portable rainfall simulator and 55 mm h−1 in one hour to characterize soil erodibility, runoff discharge, and soil erosion…
Plant growth improvement mediated by nitrate capture in co-composted biochar
2015
AbstractSoil amendment with pyrogenic carbon (biochar) is discussed as strategy to improve soil fertility to enable economic plus environmental benefits. In temperate soils, however, the use of pure biochar mostly has moderately-negative to -positive yield effects. Here we demonstrate that co-composting considerably promoted biochars’ positive effects, largely by nitrate (nutrient) capture and delivery. In a full-factorial growth study with Chenopodium quinoa, biomass yield increased up to 305% in a sandy-poor soil amended with 2% (w/w) co-composted biochar (BCcomp). Conversely, addition of 2% (w/w) untreated biochar (BCpure) decreased the biomass to 60% of the control. Growth-promoting (BC…
Organic Fertilization in Traditional Mediterranean Grapevine Orchards Mediates Changes in Soil Microbial Community Structure and Enhances Soil Fertil…
2016
Soil microbial populations and their functions related to nutrient cycling contribute substantially to the regulation of soil fertility and the sustainability of agroecosystems. A field experiment was performed to assess the medium-term effect of a mineral fertilizer and two organic fertilization systems with different nitrogen sources on the soil microbial community biomass, structure, and composition (phospholipid fatty acids, pattern, and abundance), microbial activity (basal respiration, dehydrogenase, protease, urease, β-glucosidase, and total amount of phosphomonoesterase activities), and physical (aggregate stability) and chemical (total organic C, total N, available P and water-solu…
Lotus spp: biotechnological strategies to improve the bioeconomy of lowlands in the Salado River Basin (Argentina)
2016
The Salado River Basin region is the most important livestock breeding area in Argentina, wherethe Lotus species has been traditionally cultivated as forages. Nearly 60% of their land surface is dominated by salt-affected soils with severe constraints for crop cultivation. In order to cope with that limitation, farmers have utilized species such as non-native L. tenuis (ex- Lotus glaber), which shows a very good adaptation. As a result, inter-seeding of L. tenuis has been proposed as a strategy of choice for improving forage production in marginal areas. The increase in soil quality by these means is achieved by an increment of the organic matter content, improvement of soil fertility as we…
Organic coating on biochar explains its nutrient retention and stimulation of soil fertility
2017
Amending soil with biochar (pyrolized biomass) is suggested as a globally applicable approach to address climate change and soil degradation by carbon sequestration, reducing soil-borne greenhouse-gas emissions and increasing soil nutrient retention. Biochar was shown to promote plant growth, especially when combined with nutrient-rich organic matter, e.g., co-composted biochar. Plant growth promotion was explained by slow release of nutrients, although a mechanistic understanding of nutrient storage in biochar is missing. Here we identify a complex, nutrient-rich organic coating on co-composted biochar that covers the outer and inner (pore) surfaces of biochar particles using high-resoluti…
SOIL FERTILITY, GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS AND AGRONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN A VINEYARD WITH DIFFERENT SOIL MANAGEMENT IN A SEMIARID MEDITERRANEAN ENVIRONME…
2017
In the semiarid Mediterranean environment, vineyard soils are often characterised by intensive tillage and large supply of inorganic fertilizers. Those practices, coupled with the semiarid Mediterranean climate features (warm to hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters),speed up the mineralisation of soil organic matter (SOM) so that many lands have lost much fertility. To counteract SOM decline, the introduction of cover crops with or without nitrogen (N) fixing forage legumes, has become a management technique widely used. Indeed, cover crops besides increasing SOM and potentially mineralisable N, it can mitigate soil erosion in sloping vineyards. However, the competition risk for soil wate…
The ecological role of Pyrus Spinosa Forssk. in the ecosystem recovery and land restoration of Mediterranean woodlands
2021
In the Mediterranean basin, large areas still call for active reforestation, having a very low woody cover, thus resulting less resistant and resilient to climate change and suffering from a higher risk of soil degradation processes. Knowing the effects on soil fertility and carbon sequestration of single woody species can be of great practical importance, although being rarely tested. We aimed to assess the effect of Pyrus spinosa on soil fertility (soil carbon and nitrogen), microbial biomass and carbon sequestration (in aboveground stems) of Mediterranean pasturelands. The research was carried out in Ficuzza Nature Reserve (NW Sicily), where large areas are composed of extensive pasturel…
Soil profile dismantlement by land levelling and deep tillage damages soil functioning but not quality
2016
We investigated the effects of land levelling followed by deep tillage, thus inducing a drastic dismantlement of soil profile, on both soil functioning and quality by monitoring various bioindicators (microbial biomass and community structure, basal respiration, enzyme activities) expressed on either whole soil and TOC mass units, respectively. As expected, in disturbed soils all measured properties had much higher coefficients of variation (CVs), regardless of either whole soil or TOC mass basis, due to the induced spatial variability. The amount of total organic C in the first cubic meter of soil profile was of one order of magnitude greater in undisturbed soils compared to disturbed ones…