Assessment of sustainable land management practices in Mediterranean rural regions

Ruiz, Itxaso; Almagro, María; Jalón, Silvestre García de; Solà, María del Mar; Sanz, María José

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.111293

Cited by 30 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Combined with human population growth, agriculture expansion, urbanization, and other land use changes, climate change exacerbates already extensive habitat loss [ 4 , 5 , 6 ]. To reverse habitat loss and mitigate climate change while also supporting human populations, many land management techniques aim to conserve or restore habitats that provide multiple important ecological functions, such as wildlife habitat or carbon sequestration [ 7 , 8 ], and often promote forest conservation and restoration in urban and rural sites [ 9 , 10 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Scarification, Phytohormones, Soil Type, and Warming on the Germination and/or Seedling Performance of Three Tamaulipan Thornscrub Forest Species

Luera

Wahl-Villarreal

Christoffersen

et al. 2021

Plants

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The Tamaulipan thornforests of south Texas and northeast Mexico are an ecologically and economically important conservation hotspot. Thornforest restoration is limited by native tree and shrub seedling availability for planting. Seedling shortages arise from low seed availability and knowledge gaps regarding best practices for germinating and growing the 70+ thornforest species desired for restoration plantings. To fill key knowledge gaps, we investigated three ecologically important thornforest species with low or highly variable germination or seedling survival rates: Ebenopsis ebano, Cordia boissieri, and Zanthoxylum fagara. For each, we quantified the effects of different dosages of chemical seed treatments used to promote germination (sulfuric acid, SA; gibberellic acid, GA; indole-3-butyric acid, IBA) on germination likelihood and timing. We also quantified the effects that these chemical seed treatments, soil media mixture type, and soil warming had on seedling survival, growth, and root morphology. Ebenopsis germination peaked (>90%) with 40–60 min SA treatment. Cordia germination peaked (40%) with 100 mg/L GA treatment. Zanthoxylum germination was negligible across all treatments. Seed molding was rare but stirring during SA treatment reduced Ebenopsis molding by 4%. Ebenopsis seedling survival, height, leaf count, and root morphology were minimally affected by seed treatments, generally reduced by warming, and influenced by soil mix, which also mediated responses to warming. These results suggest improvements to existing practices that could increase Ebenopsis germination by 10–20% and potentially double Cordia germination.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Scarification, Phytohormones, Soil Type, and Warming on the Germination and/or Seedling Performance of Three Tamaulipan Thornscrub Forest Species

Luera

Wahl-Villarreal

Christoffersen

et al. 2021

Plants

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“…Moreover, the Balkans is a region that includes former Soviet Bloc countries, such as Bulgaria, Romania, and former Yugoslavia, whose agricultural sector is a transitional condition. So, they are trying to reorientate their agricultural policy, taking into account the current worldwide food market, technological advances, and climate change [39,40].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal Estimation of the Olive and Vine Cultivations’ Growing Degree Days in the Balkans Region

et al. 2021

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Olive and vine cultivations are two of the most important crops in Europe, yielding high quality and value food products. The climate change over the Balkans may elevate the agroecological pressure for the established crops and shift their cultivations areas. One of the widely-used agroclimatic indices is the growing degree days (GDD) which accumulates the necessary thermal units for the selected crops. Despite the advances on the agroclimatic research, there are few available methods for spatiotemporal estimation of this useful index. So, this research is focused on the construction of simple and reliable equations for the calculation and projection of olive and vine cultivations’ GDD over the Balkans. The models’ input parameters are the time, the altitude, the distance from the seashore, and the latitude. Its assembly is made by the extracted spatial data, combined with the Agri4Cast dataset for the period of 1980 to 2018 incorporating the regional climate change trend. The results indicate that the most influential parameter is the time, followed by the latitude, for both cultivations. According to the projections, as quantified by GDD, a vast sprawl of olive and vine cultivation areas will have been formed to the northern parts of the studied area. To be more precise, the viticulture could expand spatially by 28.8% (of the Balkans area) by 2040, and by 15.1% to 2060, when the olive cultivations’ area could sprawl 23.9% by 2040 and 20.3% by 2060.

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“…The most common sustainable agricultural practices to maintain existing SOC stocks and restore SOC stocks in carbon-depleted soils include reducing tillage intensity and frequency, growing cover crops, the application of compost or manure, and crop residue retention (Hillel and Rosenzweig 2011;Hutchinson et al 2007;Paustian et al 2016;Zahra et al 2016). In this sense, crop diversification practices such as intercropping in woody cropping systems have recently been proposed as a promising management strategy to simultaneously address global environmental challenges such as soil degradation, climate change mitigation and food security (Bossio et al 2020;Ruiz et al 2020;Tamburini et al 2020). In particular, the potential of intercropping for restoring SOC losses derived from the conversion of native ecosystems to croplands in Mediterranean environments has been demonstrated (Aguilera et al 2013;Almagro and Martínez-Mena 2014;Pardo et al 2017;Vicente-Vicente et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short-term impact of crop diversification on soil carbon fluxes and balance in rainfed and irrigated woody cropping systems under semiarid Mediterranean conditions

et al. 2021

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Purpose Diversification practices such as intercropping in woody cropping systems have recently been proposed as a promising management strategy for addressing problems related to soil degradation, climate change mitigation and food security. In this study, we assess the impact of several diversification practices in different management regimes on the main carbon fluxes regulating the soil carbon balance under semiarid Mediterranean conditions. Methods The study was conducted in two nearby cropping systems: (i) a low input rainfed almond (Prunus dulcis Mill.) orchard cultivated on terraces and (ii) a levelled intensively irrigated mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco) orchard with a street-ridge morphology. The almond trees were intercropped with Capparis spinosa or with Thymus hyemalis While the mandarin trees were intercropped with a mixture of barley and vetch followed by fava bean. Changes caused by crop diversifications on C inputs into the soil and C outputs from the soil were estimated. Results Crop diversification did not affect soil organic carbon stocks but did affect the carbon inputs and outputs regulating the soil carbon balance of above Mediterranean agroecosystems. Crop diversification with perennials in the low-input rainfed woody crop system significantly improved the annual soil C balance in the short-term. However, crop diversification with annual species in the intensively managed woody crop system had not effect on the annual soil C balance. Conclusions Our results highlight the potential of intercropping with perennials in rainfed woody crop systems for climate change mitigation through soil carbon sequestration.

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Assessment of sustainable land management practices in Mediterranean rural regions

Cited by 30 publications

References 35 publications

Effects of Scarification, Phytohormones, Soil Type, and Warming on the Germination and/or Seedling Performance of Three Tamaulipan Thornscrub Forest Species

Effects of Scarification, Phytohormones, Soil Type, and Warming on the Germination and/or Seedling Performance of Three Tamaulipan Thornscrub Forest Species

Spatiotemporal Estimation of the Olive and Vine Cultivations’ Growing Degree Days in the Balkans Region

Short-term impact of crop diversification on soil carbon fluxes and balance in rainfed and irrigated woody cropping systems under semiarid Mediterranean conditions

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