engleski

Land management effects on soil erosion and degradation in Croatian vineyard obtained by rainfall simulation

Soil degradation and erosion are a major concern in the world today. Eroded lands have deteriorated soil physical, chemical, and biological properties and reduced productivity which is a great threat to environmental safety and ecosystem stability. Thus, is important to adopt suitable land management. The aim of this work is to study the land management effect on soil erosion caused by intensive rainfall of soil properties in vineyards by comparing freshly tilled vineyard (VT) and permanently grass covered vineyard (VG) plots. The study vineyard is located in Sisak – Moslavina County, Croatia (45°31’ N, 16°43’ E ; average elevation 194 m) on the roughly 8° slope with the E exposition. Fieldwork comprised of 8 rainfall simulations (58 mm/h for 30 min over 0.785 m2 plot surface), and collection of overland flow per treatment. The analyzed properties were ; 1) Soil water content (SWC), 2) Mean weight diameter (MWD), 3) Water stable aggregates (WSA), 4) Ponding time, 5) runoff time, 6) infiltration rate, 7) total outflow yield, 8) sediment yield, 9) soil pH. The results showed that significant differences were observed in all analyzed properties with exception of SWC and pH. VT plots had lower (p < 0.05) MWD (2.56 mm), WSA (53.1 %) and infiltration rate (41.4 %) compared to VG. Conversely, significantly higher MWD (3.02 mm), WSA (88.1 %) and infiltration rate (98.4 %) values were determined on VG in addition to VT. Ponding time and time to runoff were lower on the VT which caused longer outflow time and increased total outflow yield and sediment yield. The tilled vineyard had 745.4 times more sediment loss than grass-covered (VT 6.87 t/ha compared to VG 0.0092 t/ha). Tillage is recognized as unsustainable practice on study area and key factor for absence of vegetation, deteriorated soil structure and decreased aggregate stability. Altogether, tillage has resulted in drastically higher soil loss by rainfall compared to grass-covered treatment. Grass covered vineyards on the slope is recognized as an appropriate form of land management for sustainable vine production.

Land management ; soil erosion ; vineyard

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