Impact of Grass Cover Management with Herbicides on Biodiversity, Soil Cover and Humidity in Olive Groves in the Southern Iberian

Carmelo M. Musarella,Carlos J. Pinto-Gomes,Eusebio Cano,Felipe Leiva,Ana Cano-Ortiz,Ricardo Quinto-Canas,J.C. Piñar Fuentes

doi:10.3390/agronomy11030412

Carmelo M. Musarella, Carlos J. Pinto-Gomes + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11030412

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Abstract

In the present work, we studied the effect of herbicide use on extensive olive grove cultivation. To carry out this study, we analysed the effect that herbicide use had on biodiversity, vegetation cover and soil water content. For this purpose, 96 vegetation and soil sampling points were first taken, then georeferenced, and for each sampling point, several bioclimatic variables were interpolated. We concluded that the management of cover crops with herbicides over a long period of time resulted in a decrease in biodiversity, and the dominance of some species that were more resistant to herbicides was increased. Another finding was that the vegetation cover was reduced in the resampling in cases with herbicide management and that the location within the cropland (under the tree canopy, road, boundary or pasture) also has an influence. Finally, the study of soil moisture shows that soil water content was lower in the case of management with herbicides than in the case of management without herbicides. This loss of soil moisture was more accentuated and faster in areas with less vegetation cover. This work highlights the need to change the management models for tree crops in order to preserve biodiversity, soil quality and optimise water resources in a context of accelerated climate change in one of the regions most severely affected by global warming, the Mediterranean belt.

Highlights

The Mediterranean region is highly vulnerable to global warming and is suffering a significant decline in rainfall, and a decrease in available water resources in the circum-Mediterranean region [1]
Vitally important to implement models to manage vegetation covers, given the effects of global warming on vegetation covers and the scarcity of water resources, as without adequate management, they can compete aggressively with crops [61,62,63], especially in herbaceous crops with similar phenology and development. This suggests research should be directed towards herbaceous crops with low water demand, such as certain varieties of wheat. In view of these results, it can be concluded that the management of herbaceous vegetation cover with herbicides over a long period of time has a negative influence on biodiversity
There has been an increase in the dominance of some species that are more resistant to herbicides or whose flowering phenology is not coupled to the application of herbicides

Summary

Introduction

The Mediterranean region is highly vulnerable to global warming and is suffering a significant decline in rainfall, and a decrease in available water resources in the circum-Mediterranean region [1]. In the Mediterranean region, the southern Iberian Peninsula is renowned for its agricultural activity in general and olive groves in particular. To this end, we analysed the impact of the management of grass cover in the period spanning 2006–2016. Of olive groves were cultivated in 2013, representing 60% of European Union production and 45% of world production [7] These extensive crops pose a high demand for water resources and require improved management of surface water, to avoid depending on groundwater, in growing crops and for grazing needs [8,9]

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