Abstract
Most vines in the Mediterranean are cultivated on bare soils, due to the scarcity of water. In addition, most traditional soil conservation measures have been eliminated to facilitate the movement of machinery in the fields. In such conditions, high erosion rates are recorded. Given the predicted changes in precipitation and an increasing number of extreme events, an increase in erosion processes is expected. In this study, erosion processes under different climate change scenarios were evaluated as well as the effects of implementing drainage terraces in vineyards. Soil losses were simulated using the WEPP model. The results confirmed the relevance of extreme events on annual soil losses. The WEPP model gave satisfactory results in predicting runoff and soil losses, although the soil losses recorded after some extreme events were under-predicted. The model responded to changes in precipitation and because of that a decrease in precipitation gave rise to a decrease in soil losses. For the scenario in 2050, runoff volumes decreased between 19.1 and 50.1%, while erosion rates decreased between 34 and 56%. However, the expected increase in rainfall intensity may contribute to higher erosion rates than at present. The construction of drainage terraces, perpendicular to the maximum slope, 3 m wide and 30 m between terraces, may lead to an average decrease in soil losses of about 45%.
Highlights
Soil erosion is a natural process that can be greatly accelerated by land use and climate changes, and is a major hazard to the long-term sustainability of agriculture and ecosystems
The results show that they seem to be affected by complex interactions of changes in rainfall distribution and intensity and in land use and management, which should be considered when climate change effects are considered [34,35,36]
Annual soil losses ranged between 6.8 Mg ha−1 in 2012 and about 10 Mg ha−1 in 2011
Summary
Soil erosion is a natural process that can be greatly accelerated by land use and climate changes, and is a major hazard to the long-term sustainability of agriculture and ecosystems. In the Mediterranean area, typical land uses such as olive trees, almond trees, orchards or vineyards are among those that incur higher rates of erosion. Among these land uses, vineyards are one in which greatest soil losses are recorded [1,2,3,4]. The Mediterranean climate is characterized by large variability in rainfall from to year to year, irregularly distributed throughout the year and with high intensity rainfall events, in autumn Some of these events are highly erosive [5], and usually one or two events every year are responsible for a high percentage of the annual soil losses.
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