Soil Erosion Processes in European Vineyards: A Qualitative Comparison of Rainfall Simulation Measurements in Germany, Spain and France

Abstract

Small portable rainfall simulators are considered a useful tool to analyze soil erosion processes in cultivated lands. European research groups in Spain (Valencia, Málaga, Lleida, Madrid and La Rioja), France (Reims) and Germany (Trier) have used different rainfall simulators (varying in drop size distribution and fall velocities, kinetic energy, plot forms and sizes, and field of application) to study soil loss, surface flow, runoff and infiltration coefficients in different experimental plots (Valencia, Montes de Málaga, Penedès, Campo Real and La Rioja in Spain, Champagne in France and Mosel-Ruwer valley in Germany). The measurements and experiments developed by these research teams give an overview of the variety of methodologies used in rainfall simulations to study the problem of soil erosion and describe the erosion features in different climatic environments, management practices and soil types. The aims of this study are: (i) to investigate where, how and why researchers from different wine-growing regions applied rainfall simulations with successful results as a tool to measure soil erosion processes; (ii) to make a qualitative comparison about the general soil erosion processes in European terroirs; (iii) to demonstrate the importance of the development of standard method for measurement of soil erosion processes in vineyards, using rainfall simulators; and (iv) and to analyze the key factors that should be taken into account to carry out rainfall simulations. The rainfall simulations in all cases allowed infiltration capacity, susceptibility of the soil to detachment and generation of sediment loads to runoff to be determined. Despite using small plots, the experiments were useful to analyze the influence of soil cover to reduce soil erosion, to make comparisons between different locations, and to evaluate the influence of different soil characteristics. The comparative analysis of the studies performed in different study areas points out the need to define an operational methodology to carry out rainfall simulations, which allows us to obtain representative and comparable results and to avoid errors in the interpretation in order to achieve comparable information about runoff and soil loss.

Improving stock unearthing method to measure soil erosion rates in vineyards

“…Gerlach troughs (Biddoccu et al, 2016;Rodrigo-Comino et al, 2017a, rainfall simulation experiments (Prosdocimi et al, 2017;Rodrigo Comino et al, 2015;Rodrigo-Comino et al, 2016c) or erosion pins (Novara et al, 2011), watershed discharge measurements and modeling (Keesstra et al, 2014) have provided detailed information Fig. 3.…”

Los suelos de Casapalma (Valle del Guadalhorce, Málaga). Análisis edafogeográfico aplicado a la ordenación del territorio

“…Como es bien sabido, la variabilidad de paráme-tros del suelo como la materia orgánica, la textura, el pH, la relación C/N, la concentración de carbonatos o los procesos erosivos entre otros, son muy elevadas en los suelos naturales, pero más aún si cabe, en los alterados por las actividades agrícolas (Kosmas et al, 1997;Matarechera, 2009;Prasuhn, 2011;Arnáez et al, 2012;Rodrigo Comino et al, 2015;Rodrigo Comino et al, 2016). De esta forma, se hace indispensable conocer su estado físico inicial y aptitud química frente a las actividades que dependen de estos territorios ya sea utilizando análisis de suelos, elaborando perfiles o llevando a cabo experimentos in situ (Arnáez et al, 2007;IUSS-WRB, 2007;Raclot et al, 2009;Wang et al, 2013;Prodoscimi et al, 2016).…”

Rainfall simulation and Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry for the analysis of soil water erosion in Mediterranean vineyards

“…Although soil erosion by water consists of physical processes that vary significantly in severity and frequency according to when and where they occur, they are also strongly influenced by anthropic factors such as land-use changes on large scales and unsustainable farming practices (Cerdà, 2000;León et al, 2015;López-Vicente et al, 2015;Ochoa-Cueva et al, 2015;Montgomery, 2007;Mwango et al, 2016;Nanko et al, 2015;Tarolli et al, 2014). This has led to the definition of 'accelerated' soil erosion as being the result of human impact on the landscape (Tarolli and Sofia, 2016) and this is found in all the continents (Borrelli et al, 2015;Cao et al, 2015;Gessesse et al, 2015;Rodrigo Comino et al, 2016b).…”

“…This works focuses on the use of plot stations under simulated rainfall and on the surface elevation change-based method. Rainfall simulation has become a very effective technique for assessing soil erosion, particle detachment and overland flow at very fine scales (Arnáez et al, 2007;Cerdà et al, 1997;Iserloh et al, 2013;Rodrigo Comino et al, 2016b). Several types and designs of rainfall simulators have been realized to meet the objectives of researchers (Iserloh et al, 2013;Lassu et al, 2015).…”