Geophysical Research Abstracts

Vol. 19, EGU2017-4195-3, 2017

The impact of olive leaves, mosses and the burrowing of wild boars on soil
erosion in olive orchards
Artemi Cerdà (1), Estela Nadal-Romero (2), Eric C Brevik (3), Manuel Pulido (4), Fermando T Maestre (5), Tani
Taguas (6), Agata Novara (7), Saskia Keesstra (8), Erik Cammeraat (9), and Luis Parras-Alcantara (10)
(1) Soil Erosion and Degradation Research Group. University of Valencia, Department of Geography, Valencia, Spain.
artemio.cerda@uv.es, (2) Department of Geography and Spatial Planning. Environmental Sciences Institute. University of
Zaragoza. Spain, (3) Department of Natural Sciences, Dickinson State University, USA, (4) GeoEnvironmental Research
Group (GIGA). University of Extremadura, Caceres, Spain, (5) Departamento de Biología y Geología, Física y Química
Inorgánica Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain, (6) University of Córdoba, Department of Rural Engineering,
Córdoba, (7) Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie e Forestali, University of Palermo, Italy, (8) Soil Physics and Land Management
Group, Wageningen University. The Netherlands, (9) Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED). University
of Amsterdam. The Netherlands, (10) Department of Agricultural Chemistry and Soil Science. Faculty of Sciences. University
of Córdoba. Spain

The main factor controlling soil erosion is vegetation cover (Cerdà and Doerr, 2005; Van Eck et al., 2016; van
Hall et al., 2017). However, due to the removal of the vegetation in agricultural fields and the increase in soil
erosion rates other factors arise as keys to control soil erosion rates and mechanisms (Ochoa-Cueva et al., 2016;
Rodrigo Comino et al., 2016). Soil erosion rates in olive plantations are high due to the lack of vegetation cover
as a consequence of intensive tillage and herbicides abuse (Taguas et al., 2015; Parras-Alcantara et al., 2016;
Zema et al., 2016). This is also found in vineyards and other orchards around the world (Prosdocimi et al., 2016;
Rodrígo Comino et al., 2016), and the reason to look for sustainable management techniques such as geotextiles,
mulches or catch crops that will stop the accelerated soil erosion (Giménez Morera et al., 2010; Mwango et al.,
2016; Nawaz et al., 2016a; 2016b; Nishigaki et al., 2016). All these management techniques are difficult to apply
and have high costs. Natural solutions such as weeds to provide cover are very efficient and have no cost (Cerdà et
al., 2016; Keesstra et al., 2016) and they can be adapted to the management of the farmers. In olive orchards under
herbicide treatment there is a natural growth of mosses and the development of a litter layer composed of olive
leaves. There is also burrowing by wild boars that “ploughs” the soil. This research evaluates the impact of the
three items above on soil erosion. The measurements were carried out using simulated rainfall experiments over
an area of 0.25 m2 at a rainfall rate of 55 mm h-1 during one hour (Cerdà, 1996; Prosdocimi et al., 2017) on 15
plots of mosses, 15 wild boar burrowed surfaces and 15 leaf covered surfaces during the winter of 2015. The soil
erosion rates were 34 times greater in the wild boar burrowed soils, meanwhile the litter and mosses covered soils
showed similar erosional responses and the soil erosion rates were negligible.

Acknowledgements
The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework
Program (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n_ 603498 (RECARE project) and the CGL2013- 47862-C2-1-R
and CGL2016-75178-C2-2-R national research projects.

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