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Assessment of agri-spillways as a soil erosion protection measure in Mediterranean sloping vineyards

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Abstract

Suitable vineyard soils enhance soil stability and biodiversity which in turn protects roots against erosion and nutrient losses. There is a lack of information related to inexpensive and suitable methods and tools to protect the soil in Mediterranean sloping vineyards (>25° of slope inclination). In the vineyards of the Montes de Málaga (southern Spain), a sustainable land management practice that controls soil erosion is actually achieved by tilling rills in the down-slope direction to canalize water and sediments. Because of their design and use, we call them agri-spillways. In this research, we assessed two agri-spillways (between 10 m and 15 m length, and slopes between 25.8° and 35°) by performing runoff experiments under extreme conditions (a motor driven pump that discharged water flows up to 1.33 l s-1 for 12 to 15 minutes: ≈1000 l). The final results showed: i) a great capacity by these rills to canalize large amounts of water and sediments; and, ii) higher water flow speeds (between 0.16 m s-1 and 0.28 m s-1) and sediment concentration rates (up to 1538.6 g l-1) than typically found in other Mediterranean areas and land uses (such as badlands, rangelands or extensive crops of olives and almonds). The speed of water flow and the sediment concentration were much higher in the shorter and steeper rill. We concluded that agri-spillways, given correct planning and maintenance, can be a potential solution as an inexpensive method to protect the soil in sloping Mediterranean vineyards.

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Acknowledgments

First, we acknowledge the farmer’s syndicate UPA (Unión de Pequeños Agricultores) and the wine-grower Pepe Gámez (Almáchar) for providing access to the study area. Second, we thank the students of the Bachelors course and Masters from Trier University for their hard work in the field and laboratory during the Almáchar campaign. Third, we acknowledge the geomorphology and soil laboratory technicians María Pedraza and Rubén Rojas of GSoilLab (Málaga University) for the soil analysis. Finally, we also thank the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport of Spain for the Scholarship grant (FPU) awarded to J. Rodrigo-Comino.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Geomorfología y Suelos, Department of Geography, University of Málaga, 29071, Málaga, Spain

    Jesús Rodrigo-Comino & José D. Ruiz-Sinoga

  2. Physical Geography, Trier University, 54286, Trier, Germany

    Jesús Rodrigo-Comino, Stefan Wirtz & Johannes B. Ries

  3. Department of Natural Sciences, 291 Campus Drive, Dickinson State University, Dickinson, ND, 58601, USA

    Eric C. Brevik

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  1. Jesús Rodrigo-Comino
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  2. Stefan Wirtz
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  4. José D. Ruiz-Sinoga
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  5. Johannes B. Ries
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Correspondence to Jesús Rodrigo-Comino.

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Rodrigo-Comino, J., Wirtz, S., Brevik, E.C. et al. Assessment of agri-spillways as a soil erosion protection measure in Mediterranean sloping vineyards. J. Mt. Sci. 14, 1009–1022 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-016-4269-8

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