Abstract
In Southern Portugal (Algarve), the occurrence of extreme climatic events has become more limiting to agriculture and forestry productivity. Severe or moderate drought during spring, summer, and autumn is common, with major implications on yield, farmers income, and on a long-term basis, land use. Facing this scenario, farmers rely on certain crops in order to obtain a complementary revenue, as an alternative to more intensive and high-demanding farming. One of these crops is carob tree, a multipurpose and industrial fruit tree species very well adapted to dry-farming conditions and very important to the sustainability of these fragile agroecosystems. The aim of this study is to analyse the fruit productivity during 30 years in two mature carob tree orchards grown in two contrasting soils: a fertile, calcareous soil and in a non-fertile soil. Based on this exploratory analysis, the gross income of farmers obtained from fruit selling in the regional market is discussed. Moreover, the possibility of using tree carbon sequestration as an ecosystem service shall be considered as a novel alternative in these depreciated agroecosystems.
Highlights
Carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua L.) is a woody tree species cultivated all over the Mediterranean region, which presents a great ability to grow under different edaphic conditions [1]
Carob tree is an industrial crop since the fruits and leaves, are processed by local industry
At least four ha of non-fertile soil are needed to meet the gross income obtained in the fertile soil
Summary
Carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua L.) is a woody tree species cultivated all over the Mediterranean region, which presents a great ability to grow under different edaphic conditions [1]. It is tolerant to water and soil nutrient stress (e.g., low N and P) due to a marked ecological plasticity, possessing several types of physiological and morphological resistance and tolerance mechanisms [1,2]. It is an industrial crop and Portugal is the third top producer, globally, of carob, a dry pod that is used for animal feed and human food [2]. Calcareous soils with medium to high soil organic matter are the best soils to grow carob tree, but less fertile soils (low organic matter) with no calcium carbonate may be used, revealing the high ecological plasticity of this crop [1,2]. Economic return and long-term variation of gross income in these two contrasting ecosystems—calcareous soil (“Barrocal” region) and non-calcareous soil (“Serra” region)—have never been studied and compared
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