The role of soil characteristics, soil tillage and drip irrigation in the timber production of a wild cherry orchard under Mediterranean conditions

Abstract

23Over the last decade high-quality timber plantations have increased in Europe because 24 of the constant high market price of timber and economical incentives from the EU. 25These latter are mainly due to timber plantations' role in CO 2 capture. Noble wood 26 plantations have also been established in Mediterranean areas, but many of them suffer 27 from low growth rates due to deficient plantation management and/or non-optimal 28 environmental conditions. Furthermore, little information exists about soil and water 29 management in these plantations and how different soil characteristics may affect 30 management results. In this study, a trial was established in a pure wild cherry 31 plantation under Mediterranean conditions. The trial evaluated the effects that soil type 32 (bad performance versus good performance for woody crops), soil management (soil 33 tillage versus no tillage), irrigation regime (drip irrigation versus no irrigation) and their 34 interactions may have on wood production. Soil water content and the spontaneous 35 vegetation that appeared in the alleys of the no-tillage treatments were also measured. 36The results showed that sandy-clay-loam soil with a water-holding capacity of 101.5± 37 5.2 mm had 65% more wood volume increase during the study period than sandy-loam 38 soil with a water-holding capacity of 37.

Reducing water use by alternate-furrow irrigation with livestock wastewater reduces antibiotic resistance gene abundance in the rhizosphere but not in the non-rhizosphere

“…We took pepper as the model plant in this work, but the method is applicable to other crops (Kang and Zhang, 2004). Also, the Calcaric fluvic cambisol investigated in this study is a type of soil existing widely in both arid and semi-arid areas in the world (Dabach et al, 2016; Márquez et al, 2017; Molina et al, 2016; Parihar et al, 2016; Schirrmann et al, 2016; Sharma et al, 2017). Our results about the feasibility of using AFI to control spread of ARGs in soil-plant systems has potential implications in these regions.…”

Sap flow of a wild cherry tree plantation growing under Mediterranean conditions: Assessing the role of environmental conditions on canopy conductance and the effect of branch pruning on water productivity

“…The selected site was an alluvial terrace with two zones clearly showing different soil performances and separated by a transition zone with mixed materials from both. The experimental design followed a split-plot structure with three replications arranged in a complete block design (Molina et al, 2016a). The main plot factor was soil management (soil tillage to 30 cm depth versus no tillage) and the sub-plot factor was drip irrigation (I, irrigated or NI, nonirrigated).…”

“…Irrigated treatments were drip-irrigated from May to September with 4 emitters (16 l h −1 tree −1 ) and daily doses were calculated at the beginning of each week as a function of the weekly sums of reference evapotranspiration and rainfall during the previous week. There was no irrigation when evapotranspiration was lower than rainfall (Molina et al, 2016a).…”

“…Studies aiming to select and improve wild cherry trees in order to give them the best growth rates, forms and wood properties have increased in response to growers' demands (Ducci et al, 2013;Nocetti et al, 2010;Diaz et al, 2007;Curnel et al, 2003;Martinsson, 2001). Wild cherry plantations have also been established in Mediterranean areas, although these areas are outside the natural range of this species and irrigation is normally required to face summer drought (Ducci et al, 2013) and to reduce the rotation length when grown under such conditions (Molina et al, 2016a). Most of the irrigated plantations are nowadays managed in line with selvicultural guidelines, which are mainly concerned with the effects of pruning and thinning interventions on diameter growth (Vilanova et al, 2018;Cisneros et al, 2006).…”

Comparison of growth development of micropropagated and generatively reproduced wild cherry (Prunus avium (L.) L.) on the Polná demonstration plot (Czech Republic) up to the age of 15 years

“…It is also frequently necessary to deal with natural physiological barriers to tree reproduction, for example age of commencing fructification, intervals between seed years, and others (e.g. Schmidt 2006;Molina et al 2016).…”