Cultivos herbáceos, viñedos y olivares : el manejo tradicional del suelo y sus consecuencias en la erosión hídrica

R. Bienes; M. J. Marqués; M. Ruíz-Colmenero

doi:10.18172/cig.1275

Authors

R. Bienes Universidad de Alcalá
M. J. Marqués Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
M. Ruíz-Colmenero Instituto Madrileño de Investigación y Desarrollo Rural, Agrario y Alimentario

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18172/cig.1275

Keywords:

Erosion in agricultural fields, cereal, olive groves, vineyards, erosion control

Abstract

The loss of productivity and the frequent use of fertilizers and pesticides in Spanish agricultural fields makes us reflect on the adequacy of the soil management used in our land. Soil erosion is one of the processes involved in this loss of productivity, showing the need/importance to evaluate its severity. Such an evaluation is essential for decision-making by society, consumers and/or farmers, and to guide the competent authorities to implement suitable measures. During the last 16 years we have been studying soil loss in the main crops in Spain (cereal, olive groves and vineyards) using different techniques. So, we can know the impact of different land management in our agricultural lands and whether the erosion rate is tolerable or not by today’s standards. It has been tested in different settings that the managements with bare soil, such as tilling and/or the use of herbicides, threatens the soil conservation with average erosion rates up to 20 t ha-1 yr-1. These erosion rates vary from 1.3 t ha-1 yr-1 with rains of low erosivity, to 93.5 t ha-1 that can be produced in a single storm event highly erosive. In the case of woody crops (olives and grapes), we have studied different soil managements. The spontaneous vegetation reduced vineyard erosion rates to 1.76 t ha-1 yr-1, value limit of what is considered admissible in our circumstances. The soil managements more effective to control erosion were permanent grass cover and mown cereal cover, with soil losses of 0.24 and 0.32 t ha-1 yr-1 respectively. Thus, we recommend the use of groundcovers, the management of which will vary depending on the characteristics of the area.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

ARSHAD, M.A., GILL, K.S., (1997). Barley, canola and wheat production under different tillage-fallow-green manure combinations on a clay soil in a cold, semiarid climate. Soil & Tillage Research, 43: 263-275.

BASIC, F., KISIC, I., MESIC, M., NESTROY, O., BUTORAC, A., (2004). Tillage and crop

management effects on soil erosion in central Croatia. Soil & Tillage Research, 78: 197-206.

BAZZOFFI, P. (2009). Soil erosion tolerance and water runoff control: minimum environmental standards. Reg. Environ Change, (9): 169-179.

BETTS, H.D., DE ROSE, R.C., (1999). Digital elevation models as a tool for monitoring and measuring gully erosion. Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. & Geoinf., 1: 91-101.

BIENES, R., TORCAL SÁINZ, L., (1997). Influencia del manejo del suelo sobre erosión en depósitos de terraza (El Encín y Marchamalo). Cuaternario y Geomorfología, 11: 113-124.

BIENES, R. GUERRERO-CAMPO, J, AROCA, J.A., GÓMEZ, B., NICOLAU, J.M., ESPIGARES, T. (2001). Evolución del coeficiente de escorrentía en campos agrícolas del centro de españa con diferentes usos del suelo. Ecología, 15: 23-36.

BIENES, R., MARQUÉS, M.J. (2002). Pérdida de nutrientes de suelos con distintos tipos de usos del territorio en el centro de la Península Ibérica. En: Actas del congreso Nacional de Medio Ambiente, CONAMA, pp. 1-17, Madrid.

BIENES, R., MORÉ, A., MARQUÉS, M.J., MOREIRO, S., NICOLAU, J.M., (2005). Efficiency of different plant cover to control water erosion in central Spain. In: Sustainable Use and Management of Soils. Arid and Semiarid Regions. Adv. Geoecol., 36: 155-162.

BIENES, R., MARQUES, M.J. (2008). Rill and interril erosion produced by a single-storm event in an olive grove in central Spain. Proceedings of EUROSOIL 2008, Control No. 2008-A-804, Vienna (Austria). August 25-29, 2008

BIENES, R., RUÍZ-COLMENERO, R., ARÉVALO, D., MARQUÉS PÉREZ, M.J., (2011). Distribución del tamaño de gota de una lluvia natural y su energía cinética. En: Control de la degradación y uso sostenible del suelo (Ortiz Silla, R. y Sánchez Navarro, A. Eds.), pp. 165-168. Murcia.

BOARDMAN, J., POESEN, J., EVANS, R., (2003). Socio-economic factors in soil erosion and conservation. Environmental Science & Policy, 6: 1-6

CALATRAVA, J., BARBERA, G.G. AND CASTILLO, V.M., (2011). Farming practices and policy measures for agricultural soil conservation in semi-arid Mediterranean areas: the case of the Guadalentín basin in southeast Spain. Land Degrad. Develop., 22: 58-69.

CERDÁ, A., (1999). Simuladores de lluvia y su aplicación a la Geomorfología. El estado de la cuestión. Cuadernos de Investigación Geográfica, 25: 45-84.

CHRISTIANSEN, J.E., (1942). Irrigation by sprinkling. University of California Agric. Exp. Sta. Bulletin, Bulletin 670- Experiment Station, 124 pp. California, US.

COUTINHO, M.A., TOMÁS, P.P., (1995). Characterization of raindrop size distributions at the Vale Formoso Experimental Erosion Center. Catena, 25: 187-197.

DUNJÓ, G., PARDINI, G., GISPERT, M., (2004). The role of land use-land cover on runoff generation and sediment yield at a microplot scale, in a small Mediterranean catchment. Journal Arid Environment, 57(2): 239-256.

EC (European Commission) (2006). A strategy to keep Europe’s soils robust and healthy. http://ec.europa.eu/environment/soil/index.htm

EUROPEAN ENVIROMENT AGENCY - European Topic Centre on Land use and spatial information (2010). The European Enviroment: State and Outlook 2010. Land Use. EEA, Copenhagen, 2010. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2010. 52 pp.

ELÍAS CASTILLO, F., RUIZ BELTRÁN, L., (1979). Precipitaciones máximas en España. Estimaciones basadas en métodos estadísticos. ICONA-Monografías, vol. 21.

FLESKENS, L., STROOSNIJDER, L., (2007). Is soil erosion in olive groves as bad as often claimed? Geoderma, 141: 260-271.

GARCÍA-RUIZ, J.M., (2010). The effects of land uses on soil erosion in Spain: A review. Catena, 81: 1-11.

GARCÍA-RUIZ, J.M., LANA-RENAULT, N., (2011). Hydrological and erosive consequences of farmland abandonment in Europe, with special reference to the Mediterranean region-A review. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2011.01.003.

GONZÁLEZ-HIDALGO, J.C., DE LUÍS ARRILLAGA, M., PEÑA MONNÉ, J.L., (2005). Los eventos extremos de precipitación, la variabilidad del clima y la erosión del suelo. Reflexiones ante el cambio del clima en los sistemas mediterráneos. Rev. C. y C., 19 (1-2): 49-62.

GUZHA, A. C., (2003). Effects of tillage on soil microrelief, surface depression storage and soil water storage. Soil and Tillage Research, 76(2): 105-114.

LÓPEZ-BERMÚDEZ, F., (2002). Erosión y desertificación. Nivola Ed., Madrid (Spain).

MARQUÉS, M.J., JIMÉNEZ, L., PÉREZ-RODRÍGUEZ, R., GARCÍA-ORMAECHEA, S., BIENES, R., (2005). Reducing water erosion in a gypsic soil by combined use of organic amendent and shrub revegetation. Land Degrad. Develop, 16: 339-350.

MARQUÉS, M.J., BIENES, R., JIMÉNEZ L., PÉREZ-RODRÍGUEZ, R., (2007). Effect of vegetal cover on runoff and soil erosion under light intensity events. Rainfall simulation over USLE plots. Sci. Total Environ., 378: 161-165.

MARQUES, M.J., BIENES, R., PEREZ-RODRIGUEZ, R., JIMENEZ, L., (2008). Soil degradation in Central Spain due to sheet water erosion by low-intensity rainfall events. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 33: 414-423.

MARQUÉS, M.J., RUIZ-COLMENERO, R., GARCIA-MUÑOZ, S., CABELLO, F., MUÑOZ-ORGANERO, G., PÉREZ-JIMÉNEZ, M.A., BIENES, R., (2009). Protección contra la erosión versus productividad en viñedos. Ensayos de cubiertas vegetales en cultivos en pendiente. En: Advances in Studies on Desertification (Romero, A., Belmonte, F., Alonso, F., López-Bermúdez, F., Eds.), pp. 319-322, Murcia.

MARQUÉS M.J., VELASCO, A., RUIZ-COLMENERO, M., CUADRADO, J., BIENES, R., (2010). To what extent are farmers willing to collaborate to control land degradation? In: Land Degradation Processes and Assessment: wind erosion, interrill erosion, gully erosion, land cover features (Vermang, J., Gabriels, D., Cornelis, W.M., De Boever, M., Eds.) Unesco Chair of Eremology, Ghent University, Belgium, 173 pp.

MARQUÉS, M.J., GARCÍA-MUÑOZ, S., MUÑOZ-ORGANERO, G., BIENES, R., (2010). Soil conservation beneath grass cover in hillside vineyards under Mediterranean Climatic conditions (Madrid, Spain). Land Degrad. Develop., 21(2): 122-131.

MARTÍNEZ-MENA, M.A., ABADIA, R., CASTILLO, V., ALBALADEJO, J. (2001). Diseño experimental mediante lluvia simulada para el estudio de los cambios en la erosión del suelo durante la tormenta. Cuaternario y Geomorfología, 15(1-2): 31-43.

NICOLAU, J.M., BIENES, R., GUERRERO-CAMPO, J., AROCA, J. A., GÓMEZ, B., ESPIGARES, T., (2002). Runoff coefficient and soil erosion rates in croplands in a Mediterranean-continental region, in Central Spain. En: Man and Soil at the Third Millenium (Rubio J.L., Morgan, R.P.C., Asíns, S., Andreu, V., Eds.) Geoforma Ediciones, pp. 1359-1368, Logroño.

PIERSON, F.B., BLACKBURN, W.H., VAN VACTOR, S.S., WOOD, J.C., (1994). Partitioning small scale spatial variability of runoff and erosion on sagebush rangeland. Water Resources Bulletin, 30: 1081-1089.

PIMENTEL, D., (2006). Soil erosion: a food and environmental threat. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 8: 119-137.

PIMENTEL, D., HARVEY, C., RESOSUDARMO, P., SINCLAIR, K., KURZ, D., MCNAIR, M., CRIST, S., SHPRITZ, L., FITTON, L., SAFFOURI, R., BLAIR, R., (1995). Environmental and economic cost of soil erosion and conservation benefits. Science, 267: 1117-1123.

RAINBAULT, B.A., VYN, T.J., TOLLENAAR, M., (1990). Corn response to rye cover crop management and spring tillage systems. Agronomy Journal, 82(6): 1088-1093.

RAMOS, M. C., (2006). Soil water content and yield variability in vineyards of Mediterranean northeastern Spain affected by mechanization and climate variability. Hydrol. Process., 20: 2271-2283.

RENSCHLER, C.S., HARBOR, J, (2002). Soil erosion assessment tools from point to regional scales-the role of geomorphologists in land management research and implementation. Geomorphology, 47: 189-209.

ROMERO DÍAZ, A., LÓPEZ-BERMÚDEZ, F., BELMONTE-SERRATO, F., (1998). Erosión y escorrentía en el campo experimental de “El Ardal” (Murcia). Nueve años de experiencias. Papeles de Geografía, 27: 115-130.

ROMERO DÍAZ, A., (2003). Influencia de la litología en las consecuencias del abandono de tierras de cultivo en medios mediterráneos semiáridos. Papeles de Geografía (38): 151-165.

RUIZ-COLMENERO, M., BIENES, R., MARQUES, M. J., (2010). Runoff and soil loss under different land management practices in vineyards: grass cover treatments and traditional tillage. Results from simulated rainfall. Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 12, EGU2010-4153-6, EGU General Assembly 2010.

SHINJO, H., FUJITA, H., GINTZBUGER, G., KOSAKI, T., (2000). Impact of grazing and tillage on water erosion in northeastern Syria. Soil Sci. Plant Nutr., 46: 151-162.

SIMONCINI, R., (2009). Developing an integrated approach to enhance the delivering of environmental goods and services by agro-ecosystems. Reg Environ Change, 9: 153-167.

SOUCHERE, V., KING, C., DUBREUI, N., LECOMTE-MOREL, V., LE BISSONNAIS, Y., CHALAT, M., (2003). Grassland and crop trends: role of the European Union Common Agricultural Policy and consequences for runoff and soil erosion. Environmental Science & Policy, 6: 7-16.

STURGUL, S. J., DANIEL, T. C., MUELLER, D. H., (1990). Tillage and canopy cover effects on interrill erosion from first-year alfalfa. Soil Science Society of America Journal (USA), 54(6): 1733-1739.

VANDEKERCKHOVE, L., POESEN, J., OOSTWOUD-WIJDENES, D., GYSSELS, G., BEUSELINCK, L., DE LUNA, E., (2000). Characteristics and controlling factors of bank gullies in two semi-arid mediterranean environments. Geomorphology, 33: 37-58.

VERHEIJEN, F.G.A., JONES, R.J.A., RICKSON, R.J., SMITH, C.J., (2009). Tolerable versus actual soil erosion rates in Europe. Earth-Sci. Rev., 94: 23-38.

WISCHMEIER, W.H., SMITH, D.D., (1978). Predicting Rainfall Erosion Losses. A Guide to Conservation Planning, USDA Agric, U.S. Govt. Printing Office, Washington, US. Handbook, nº 537, 58 pp.

ZANCHI, C., TORRI, D., (1980). Evaluation of rainfall energy in central Italy. En: Assessment of erosion (De Boodt, J., Gabriels, D., Ed) Wiley, pp. 133-142, London, UK.