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Field observations in central Belgium indicate a significant soil degradation process which has hitherto not been considered in assessments of soil erosion rates: i.e., soil losses due to root crop harvesting (SLRH). The objectives of this study were: (1) to assess SLRH for two commonly grown root crops in Belgium, i.e. chicory roots and sugar beet, (2) to investigate some factors controlling the...
Villages in the countryside hinterland of Hong Kong traditionally preserve small remnant woodlands for utilitarian and spiritual reasons. In the territory, these remnants often furnish the most natural ecosystems with rich biodiversity. Some sites have been preserved, whereas others have been subject to different uses, and subsequently secondary woodland has reestablished. This study evaluates woodland...
The eastern Canary Islands constitute a region that is vulnerable to desertification processes, mainly due to its intensely arid climate and the action of man. Vegetation in the island of Fuerteventura has been profoundly transformed over the last few hundred years, and the greater part of the insular territory is presently covered by substitution brush.In this work, a study of soil degradation processes...
Most soil and water conservation planning approaches rely on empirical assessment methods and hardly consider farmers' knowledge of soil erosion processes. Farmers' knowledge of on-site erosion indicators could be useful in assessing the site-specific erosion risk before planning any conservation measures. The aims of this study were to identify erosion indicators based on the farmers' knowledge and...
Soil organic matter (SOM) was monitored at five research sites along a climatic transect extending from the Judean Mountains (mean annual rainfall 700mm; annual mean temperature 17 °C) to the Dead Sea (mean annual rainfall <100mm; annual mean temperature 23 °C) in Israel. At four sites, representing four climatic regions, Mediterranean (site GIV), semi-arid (site MAL), mildly arid (site MIS) and...
In addition to its direct impact on soil physical and chemical soil properties, fire produces a sudden change in plant cover. The post-fire impact of falling raindrops on unprotected soil surfaces is a major cause of detachment of aggregates, physical degradation and erosion of soils. The aim of this work was to analyse the effects of burning intensity and rain under factor-controlled conditions using...
This study presents the results of an analysis into the role of soil surface conditions in the regulation of soil hydrology and erosive processes at one hillslope under dry Mediterranean climatic conditions. The methodology was based on the analysis of hillslope surface components and their hydrological and erosive function on a patch to scale by means of rainfall simulation and experimental plots...
Low altitude humid tropical mountains in Central America have experienced a process of livestock expansion during recent decades. However, the use of sloping areas for cattle grazing may lead to significant soil degradation and therefore we examined the influence of the slope gradient on soil degradation in pastures in a humid tropical mountainous area in northern Honduras. Understanding this relationship...
Information on soil surface roughness at the centimetre scale is needed for inclusion in a range of physical and functional algorithms including heat budgets, runoff and sediment transfer models, and can also be used to understand soil degradation processes. Previous work has shown that such information can be obtained from multiple view angle measurements of hyperspectral Hemispherical Conical Reflectance...
Changes in land use and vegetation cover affect various soil properties, including the soil organic carbon (SOC) pool and the transfer of atmospheric CO2 to terrestrial landscapes. In natural or quasi-natural conditions a reduction in biomass increases the risk of erosion, and can reduce the stored soil organic matter content. This can cause (i) consolidation of low levels of organic carbon stored...
Two sites (Asciano and Castelfalfi) were selected in Tuscany (central-west Italy) in order to study the effects of wild boar activities (rooting and trampling) at two different densities and on the organic matter quality and functionality in soil ecosystems. In each site, two study areas with different vegetation (woodland (W) and olive tree grove (O)) were identified to evaluate the influence of...
This study was conducted to understand the impacts of dam-induced water-level fluctuations (WLFs) on soil properties. The redundancy analysis (RDA) and two soil degradation indices were used to analyse soil degradation under different land uses and at different soil depths. In addition, the relationships among soil degradation and topographical and geographical parameters were determined. The sampling...
Forest fires are probably the more deleterious event in forest and range areas in the Mediterranean nowadays. Despite the significant area burned every year, little has been done to develop strategies and techniques for soil and water conservation in burned areas, despite the major impacts on soil erosion and hydrological processes.The main problem is the fast speed at which soil and water degradation...
This paper analyses land degradation phenomena at the SE part of R. Nestos Delta, Greece. The work includes geological, hydrological and hydrogeological data interpretation in the study area, including field and laboratory measurements and soil samples analyses during 2007, 2008 and 2009. The study also involved the correlation of certain soil parameters such as pH, ECe and chemical characteristics...
Prescribed (controlled) fire has recently been adopted as an important wildfire-fighting strategy in the Mediterranean. Relatively little research, however, has assessed its impacts on soil erosion and soil quality. This paper investigates hillslope-scale losses of soil, organic matter and selected nutrients before and after a ‘worst-case scenario’ prescribed fire in a steep, shrub-vegetated catchment...
Long-term archaeological data gathering in the southern Netherlands may deliver an unprecedented regional comparison that could be exemplary for the Pleistocene sand areas of the Northwest European Plain. On a micro-scale level, it has become clear that Bronze Age (2000-800 BC) and Iron Age (800-12 BC) farmers intensively used the landscape, resulting in a relatively dense distribution pattern of...
Water erosion is the main cause of soil degradation on cultivated lands under Mediterranean climate. In these conditions, ephemeral gully erosion (EGE) is a major contributor to loss of soil productivity due to the big amounts of soil removed from the most productive top-layer. However, only a few studies on the effects of EGE and artificial controlling measures on soil degradation are available....
One of the priorities of land planners is the development of methodologies that allow the detection of negative impacts on soils. The objective of this work was to evaluate the impact of rice production systems that use irrigation with groundwater on soil at the field scale, using a soil quality index. Six soil quality indicators (SQI) corresponding to different soil properties were measured: aggregate...
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