Search results for "SOIL QUALITY"
showing 10 items of 90 documents
The impact of agricultural management on selected soil properties in citrus orchards in Eastern Spain: A comparison between conventional and organic …
2017
The agricultural management of citrus orchards is changing from flood irrigated managed orchards to drip irrigated organic managed orchards. Eastern Spain is the oldest and largest European producer of citrus, and is representative of the environmental changes triggered by innovations in orchard management. In order to determine the impact of land management on different soil quality parameters, twelve citrus orchards sites were selected with different land and irrigation management techniques. Soil samples were taken at two depths, 0-2. cm and 5-10. cm for studying soil quality parameters under the different treatments. Half of the studied orchards were organically managed and the other si…
Ecosystem responses to land abandonment in Western Mediterranean Mountains
2017
Agricultural expansion in the Mediterranean resulted in plant and soil degradation due to the intensive use, climate conditions, and rugged terrain. After abandonment, the recovery of vegetation contributed to improvement in soil quality from a hydrological, pedological and geomorphological point of view. This paper shows three examples of ecosystem evolution in abandoned fields in Valencia, Murcia and Andalucia and the application of different methodological approaches that resulted in similar findings. In Valencia, the main responses were the recovery of vegetation after land abandonment and an increase in organic matter and infiltration capacity of soils. In Murcia, with the exception of…
Integrating Extensive Livestock and Soil Conservation Policies in Mediterranean Mountain Areas for Recovery of Abandoned Lands in the Central Spanish…
2016
Land abandonment is a global issue with important implications in Mediterranean mountain areas. Abandoned Mediterranean croplands start a process of secondary succession that is initially colonized by grasslands, shrubs and forest. In Mediterranean mountain areas, the process is very slow, so the shrubs remain for decades, preventing livestock from accessing pastureland. Therefore, farmers have to burn or clear the shrubs in order to provide pasture, a practice that has recently been encouraged by several regional governments in Spain. Data from experimental plots of the Aisa Valley Experimental Station in the Spanish Pyrenees allow to evaluate the effects of burning and clearing shrubs on …
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…
SOIL QUALITY INDICATORS AS AFFECTED BY SHALLOW TILLAGE IN A VINEYARD GROWN IN A SEMIARID MEDITERRANEAN ENVIRONMENT
2016
Within the Mediterranean basin, soil tillage enhances the mineralisation of soil organic matter. We assessed the short-term impact of shallow tillage [field cultivator (FC), rotary tiller (RT) and spading machine (SM)] on some soil quality indicators [bulk density, water-stable aggregates, total and labile organic C pools (microbial biomass and extractable organic C), soil respiration and related eco-physiological indexes] in a Sicilian vineyard. Also no tillage was included. We hypothesized that (i) RT and FC worsened soil quality indicators more than SM, and (ii) within the same tillage system, labile C pools, soil respiration and eco-physiological indexes will respond more efficiently th…
Platform GenoSol: a new tool for conserving and exploring soil microbial diversity
2009
International audience; Soils are the principal reservoirs of microbial diversity and represent a core component of terrestrial ecosystems. There is an increasing demand for assessing the impact of agricultural and industrial practices on the environment at large scales in a context of global change. To address this demand, taxonomic and functional diversity of soil microbial communities, and their stability over time need to be characterized for predicting soil quality upon human activities, the evolution of this quality being expected to affect environment quality and public health. Recent methodological progresses have led to the development and automation of molecular biological tools (…
Inter-laboratory evaluation of the ISO standard 11063 "Soil quality - Method to directly extract DNA from soil samples"
2011
International audience; Extracting DNA directly from micro-organisms living in soil is a crucial step for the molecular analysis of soil microbial communities. However, the use of a plethora of different soil DNA extraction protocols, each with its own bias, makes accurate data comparison difficult. To overcome this problem, a method for soil DNA extraction was proposed to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 2006. This method was evaluated by 13 independent European laboratories actively participating in national and international ring tests. The reproducibility of the standardized method for molecular analyses was evaluated by comparing the amount of DNA extracted, …
Nation-wide study of the occurrence of Listeria monocytogenes in French soils using culture-based and molecular detection methods
2013
Identifiant HAL : hal-01120618; International audience; Soil is a potential reservoir of human pathogens and a possible source of contamination of animals, crops and water. In order to study the distribution of Listeria monocytogenes in French soils, a real-time PCR TaqMan assay targeting the phosphoribosylpyrophosphate synthetase (prs) gene of L. monocytogenes was developed for the specific detection and quantification of this bacterium within a collection of 1315 soil DNAs originated from the French Soil Quality Monitoring Network. The prs real-time PCR TaqMan assay was specific for L. monocytogenes and could quantify accurately down to 104L. monocytogenes per gram of dry soil. Among the …
Soil Fungal Community in Grazed Inner Mongolian Grassland Adjacent to Coal-Mining Activity.
2021
Coal mining results in reduced soil quality and makes environments less stable. Soil fungi are suitable indicators of soil quality for monitoring purposes. Here, the objective was therefore to investigate the effects of grazing and mining on the composition of the soil fungal community at the periphery of an opencast coal-mine dump in the Shengli mining area, Xilingol League, Inner Mongolia. A total of 2110 fungal operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were identified and subdivided into 81 orders and nine categories, based on trophic modes. The sensitivity of soil factors to coal-mining and grazing was differently. The sensitive factor to mining was soil pH, and that to grazing were soil nitra…