Indicators and Thresholds for Desertification, Soil Quality, and Remediation A specific targeted research project within the

sixth framework programme (global change in ecosystems) (GOCE-CT-2003-505450)

JUSTIFICATION OF SITE SELECTION

Technical Report

18.10.2004

Document prepared by Max Kuderna, wpa Beratende Ingenieure GmbH

Index - Justification of site selection

Contents

1 2 3

PRESSURES LEADING TO SOIL DEGRADATION AND DESERTIFICATION...................................3 CRITERIA FOR SITE SELECTION ........................................................................................................4 SITE LOCATION. PRESSURES AND GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS IN THE RESPECTIVE REGIONS ................................................................................................................................................5 3.1 Regional distribution of sites .........................................................................................................5 3.2 Aridity................................................................................................................................................5 3.3 Plant cover........................................................................................................................................6 3.4 Soil loss by water erosion...............................................................................................................8 3.5 Organic carbon content ..................................................................................................................9 3.6 Desertification vulnerability..........................................................................................................11

LOCAL VARIATION OF PRESSURES................................................................................................12 4.1 Type of selected sites - an overwiew ...........................................................................................12 4.2 Plant cover and related pressures (tillage, animal pressures) .................................................13 4.3 Soil erosion.....................................................................................................................................15 4.4 Organic matter depletion / amendment .......................................................................................17 4.5 Agrochemicals ...............................................................................................................................17 4.6 Exposition.......................................................................................................................................17

REFERENCE ........................................................................................................................................18

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Pressures leading to soil degradation and desertification

Soils play a central role in the function and long-term sustainability of ecosystems, but because changes can be slow and difficult to quantify, measuring the soil quality has been largely ignored compared to air or water quality standards (German Advisory Council on Global Change, 1995). The repeated occurrence of various environmental situations such as drought, desertification, soil erosion and landslides during the last decades, has highlighted the need to develop effective monitoring tools and to foster research on the development of indicator factors. INDEX goal is to develop indicators for desertification, which are based on soil processes. Although climatic factors play a decisive role in desertification, INDEX placers its focus on soils where desertification may be seen as a final endpoint for processes of soil degradation. Several pressures leading to soil degradation have an anthropogenic origin, such as improper land use practice, soil compaction or soil contamination. Some scientists (Dregne, 1986, Sabadell et al., 1982) even regard the impact of man as the main factor for the impoverishment of soils. Natural factors like drought or irregular rainfall with heavy thunderstorms present an additional threat and may therefore accelerate soil degradation, make the soil more vulnerable to other pressures. However for the selection of testing sites INDEX has the working hypotheses that the underlying processes are not only observable under dry climatic conditions but in any place where certain pressures promote soil degradation (Goudie, 1990). Soil degradation may be defined as a decrease or loss of soil function, which is often the result of incompatibility within the interaction between natural and anthropogenic processes. (De Kimpe & Warkentin, 1998). Soil functions relevant to desertification are Biomass production This includes all soil qualities allowing the establishment of a plant cover; this soil function is an essential basis for human and animal life and is closely related to agriculture and forestry Habitat for living organisms Soil biota has a wide biodiversity that may serve as an important gene reserve Filtering, buffering, transformation Organic matter turnover and nutrient recycling in soils are important soil properties for land living organisms. These soil functions are closely interrelated. As an example a decrease of the habitat function would not only have an impact on soil biota but consequently also on the organic matter turnover and nutrient cycling. Fig. 1 displays a rough sketch how soil functions related to desertification may be linked together and how some of the links form a positive feedback loop.

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OM - recycling Mineralisation Nutrient buffer Plant cover Soil biota

management Soil use

management

Humification Water storage Soil structure

climate

Fig. 1: Linkages between soil functions relevant to desertification

Criteria for site selection

At present stage of the project sampling sites are needed for the development of indicators. Later more sites for the verification of the indicators are required. A first step in the development work is testing a variety of parameters in order to determine, which are the most sensitive to soil degradation and desertification processes. At the same time the indicators should be universally applicable and must therefore be robust to varying environmental conditions. The sampling sites must therefore present a range of different impacts and pressures that not only are likely to promote soil degradation and desertification but also represent different types of plant cover and land use, different climates, different soil types, etc. Another criteria for the site selection is that the feasibility and success of remediation measures needs to be assessed. Therefore sites had to be included, where remediation measures have taken place or may be applied. Finally some practical criteria have to be taken into consideration, such as the accessibility to the site and available information on site history.

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3 3.1

Site Location. Pressures and general characteristics in the respective regions Regional distribution of sites

Sites had to be selected across Europe in order to ensure a broad range of natural conditions and related pressures. This was regarded as one of the prerequisites in order to develop indicators, which would be universally applicable. 12 sites were therefore selected in Spain, Italy, Germany and Hungary. They are located in Murcia (Abanilla 2 sites, Carcavo, Santomera 2 sites, El Aguilucho, Tres Caminos), Tuscany (2 sites), Basilicata, Bavaria (Puch) and Gdll. 3.2 Aridity

Climatic phenomena, which are closest related to the desertification process, are aridity and erosive action of rain. Aridity is determined by the simultaneous scarcity of rain and high evaporation that removes moisture from the soil. Aridity may be characterised by an aridity index, which compares the incoming moisture flow (rainfall) with the potential outflow (evaporation) (Sciortino, 2001). Drylands have a ratio between 0.05 0.65 (Reich et. al, 2001). Regions with an aridity index of such magnitude may be found in the Mediterranean countries, mainly in Spain (Fig. 3). Thomas and Middleton (1994) made the observation that drylands are one of the most fragile ecosystems and thus highly susceptible to land degradation. Obvious soil related processes are shrinking, crusting and a destabilisation of soil aggregates. Shrinking processes are mostly not reversible. Soil crusting (Fig. 2) reduces water infiltration and therefore promotes runoff and soil erosion. Poorly aggregated soils are more susceptible to soil loss as non aggregated soil particles are easily transported by runoff.

Fig. 2: Soil crusting (Soil from Murcia used for cultivation of citrus)

A characteristic feature of rain in the Mediterranean is that it comes in a few storms of high intensity. Regional climatic variations even accentuate the storm intensities (Yassoglou &
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Kosmas, 2000). In addition to that soil formation in the Mediterranean dry climate is very slow. Any soil loss of more than 1 t ha-1 yr-1 can be considered as irreversible within a time span of 50-100 years (Grimm et. al, 2002). According to the aridity index map produced by DISMED (UNCCD, 2002) the Murcia sites are located in a region with semi arid conditions, where the potential evapotranspiration is 2 to 5 times higher than the precipitation. Basilicata has a sub humid climate, the rest of the sites have a humid climate (Fig. 3). INDEX sites therefore cover a broad range of climatic conditions.

Gdll Puch Tuscany 2 sites

Basilicata Murcia 7 sites

Aridity index 0 - 0.05 (hyper arid) 0.05 - 0.2 (arid) 0.2 - 0.5 (semi-arid) 0.5 - 0.65 (sub-humid) > 0.65 (humid) No Data

Fig. 3:

Aridity Index for Europe and preliminary sites selected for INDEX. Aridity Index = P (Yearly mean rainfall) / PET (Yearly mean potential evapotranspiration).

3.3

Plant cover

Since vegetation is the most important source of organic material for soil, a reduced organic carbon content is a natural consequence of a sparse or lacking plant cover. Another effect on soil properties may be expected through higher soil temperatures as no or little shadow is provided. Furthermore dense plant cover provides protection against soil loss by erosion. Without plant cover the impact of rain drops destroys the soil aggregates, and single soil particles may be easily washed away by the runoff. A plant cover reduces the speed of the runoff (or the wind) and therefore its transporting capacity for soil particles. A higher share of the runoff water infiltrates due to the reduced speed (Morgan, 1999; Schwertmann et al., 1987). A lack of plant cover may therefore not only be considered a consequence but also one of the causes of soil degradation and desertification.

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Density of plant cover shows a broad range across the regions with their respective sampling sites. The map in Fig. 4 is part of a pan European soil erosion assessment, (van der Knijff, 2000). It displays the plant cover factor (C factor) of the Universal Soil Loss equation. It is defined as the ratio of soil loss from land cropped under specific conditions to the corresponding loss from clean-tilled, continuous fallow (Wischmeier & Smith, 1978). Therefore high values of C indicate a high soil loss, where 1 stands for no plant cover at all. Low values indicate a dense plant cover, which provides a high degree of protection. In the region of Murcia values of 0.5 to 0.7 prevail followed by Basilicata with C values around 0.4. Tuscany has C-values of 0.01 (forest) to 0.36 (agriculture), Gdll 0.23 and Puch between 0.01 and 0.23 (normal agricultural cultivation). Similarly to the aridity index, highest pressures may be expected in Spain followed by Italy, Hungary and Germany.

Puch Gdll

# S

# S

Tuscany

# S # S # S

S # Sites Vegetation factor 0 - 0.1 0.1 - 0.25 0.25 - 0.35 0.35 - 0.5 0.5 - 0.75 0.75 - 1 No Data

Basilicata
# # S S # S

Murcia 7 sites

900

900

1800 Kilometers

Fig. 4: Density of plant cover (USLE C-factor calculated for Europe by van der Knijff, 2000). Green colours indicate a dense, brown colours a sparse plant cover.

Another assessment of plant cover as related to desertification was developed within the DISMED project (UNCCD, 2002). The DISMED Vegetation Sensitivity Index does not only consider erosion protection the ground cover (which is assessed by the map in Fig. 4, too) but also the plants resistance against drought and fire. The index is mainly based on information gathered from the CORINE Land Cover Classification (1992). Values range from 0 to 19, only Mediterranean countries are covered (Fig. 5). The INDEX sites are located in areas with comparatively high values, which indicate a high vegetation sensitivity for desertification and which cover most of the map. Low values only occur on small spots, which do not show up at the scale used in Fig. 5. For the sites around Murcia values of 14 are displayed, Basilicata and the southern Tuscany (agriculture) site have 18 to 19 and the northern Tuscany site (forest) 13.
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Tuscany

# Sites Vegetation sensitivity map Sea 4 5 8 10 11 13 14 15 18 19

#

Basilicata
# # #

Murcia 7 sites

900

900

1800 Kilometers

Fig. 5: Vegetation Sensitivity for Desertification (as assessed by DISMED; UNCCD, 2002)); higher values indicate a higher sensitivity for desertification

3.4

Soil loss by water erosion

Soil loss is one of the main causes for soil degradation. In Europe soil erosion is a serious problem in many areas, affecting all countries to some extent. According to the EEA (2003) about 115 million hectares (12% of the total European land area) are suffering from water erosion. Highest rates of erosion occur in the Mediterranean region. This is because it is subject to long dry periods followed by heavy bursts of erosive rainfall, falling on steep slopes with fragile soils, resulting in considerable amounts of erosion (van der Knijff et al. 2000). Losses of 20 to 40 t ha-1 yr-1 in individual storms, that may happen once every two or three years, are measured regularly but losses of more than 100 t ha-1 in extreme events are also possible in the south of Europe (Morgan, 1992). Van der Knijffs (2000) assessment of soil loss by water erosion estimates high values for the region of Murcia (Fig.6). Soil loss exceeds 10 t ha-1 yr-1 in 20% of the agricultural area of that province and 3% have values even higher than 25 t ha-1 yr-1 (Kuderna, in press). A local soil erosion study, which was carried out for the Province of Murcia (Bermdez, 2002) came up with even higher values. 33% of the agricultural land had a soil loss above 10 t ha-1 yr-1, 15% above 25 t ha-1 yr-1. The region of Murcia may therefore be considered of one with the highest rates of soil loss due to

Fig. 6: Strongly eroded landscape in Murcia 8/19

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water erosion within Europe (Fig. 6). Tolerable soil loss, as derived from soil depth, is exceeded by several times in many parts of that province (Kuderna, in press). The northern Tuscany site is also situated in region with quite high values, which go up to 8.5 t ha-1 yr-1. The other Italian sites have very low values because they are situated in relatively flat areas. The same holds true for the German site. Around Gdll the European Erosion map predicts values of up to 4 t ha-1 yr-1. Soil erosion is therefore a considerable threat in that region.

Puch Gdll

Tuscany

Basilicata Murcia 7 sites

Fig. 7:

Soil loss by water erosion, assessed by the Universal Soil Loss Equation. (Van der Knijff, 2000).

3.5

Organic carbon content

Low organic carbon contents in the soil may be the result of desertification processes, where causes like soil erosion or a lack of plant cover play a role (see chapter 0 and 3.4). At the same time a low organic carbon content makes the soil more vulnerable to further soil degradation; the stability of the soil aggregates is reduced, making the soil more susceptible to erosion; the soil function of nutrient buffering is impaired and therefore another critical soil function: biomass production is reduced (see Fig. 1). The Pedo Transfer Rules Database of the European Soil Map at 1 : 1.000.000 (ESB, 1998) derived the organic carbon content of the top soil layer (0-25 cm) using the FAO soil name, the topsoil textural class, the regrouped land use class, and the accumulated mean temperature.
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The accordant map (Fig. 8) displays medium organic carbon contents for the zone around Puch, low values around Gdll and low to very low values for the Italian and Spanish sites. This corresponds roughly to the pressures described in the previous chapters (3.2 to 3.4), where higher impacts, like on the soil organic carbon content, may be expected in southern countries.

Puch Gdll

# Sites organic carbon content High Medium Low Very low

Tuscany

# # #

Basilicata
# # #

Murcia 7 sites

900

900

1800 Kilometers

Fig. 8: Organic carbon content of the top soil layer (0-25 cm). (ESB, 1998)

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3.6

Desertification vulnerability

The DISMED project developed a desertification sensitivity map, which combines various pressures into an unique Desertification Sensitivity Index: the Aridity Index (as in Fig. 3), the Vegetation Sensitivity Index (as in Fig. 5) and a Soil Quality Index. The latter uses the following data from the European Soil Data Base at 1 : 1.000.000: the soil parent material as well as soil depth, texture, and slope. In the Vegetation Sensitivity Index only the Mediterranean is covered by this DISMED map (UNCCD, 2002). The Soil Quality Index is grouped from very low to very high into 5 classes. A low sensitivity, as indicated for the northern Tuscany sites, indicates areas threatened by desertification under significant climate change, if a particular combination of land use is implemented or where offsite impacts will produce severe problems. This would also include abandoned land which is not properly managed. A medium sensitivity, as at the southern Tuscany sites, Basilicata and part of the Murcia sites stands for areas in which any change in the delicate balance between natural and human activity is likely to bring about desertification. And a high sensitivity, as indicated for the rest of the Murcia sites, indicates areas already highly degraded through past misuse, presenting a threat to the environment of the surrounding areas.

# Sites Desertification Sensitivity Index

very low
N

low medium high very high

#

Tuscany

Basilicata
# # # #

Murcia 7 sites

900

900

1800 Kilometers

Fig. 9: Desertification sensitivity as rated by DISMED (UNCCD, 2002)

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4 4.1

Local variation of pressures Type of selected sites - an overwiew

All selected sites present a local variation of pressures additionally to the variation which can be found at the European scale and which has been outlined in Chapter 3. This local variation may be due to the particular location of a site in the landscape or to different management or experimental treatments. Based on the cause of this local variation selected sites may be grouped onto three different types: Type 1 Catenas. Pressures and soil degradation change along a gradient, for example along a slope with differing steepness or along a landscape with a sequence of plant cover. The selected catenas imply a variation of pressures which is mainly of natural origin. Samples are taken from different locations along the catenas. Type 2 Long term experimental sites/variation of management. Different types of treatments have been applied to plots at the same site some time ago. These treatments may either represent an anthropogenic pressure, which promotes soil degradation or a remediation action, from which lasting effects may be expected. Type 2 also contains adjacent sites under different agricultural and forest management, where for instance organic farming may be compared to common farming practice or fenced off forest areas may be compared to the rest of the forest with a high animal population density . Type 3 Short term experimental site. Different treatments have been applied to plots at a site at the beginning of the INDEX project and changes of soil properties are being monitored during the project. Table 1 gives an overview of pressures and treatments that are either affected by their geographical location, by different treatments at the sites, or by the location along a catena. More details are given in the following chapters.

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Table 1 Pressures and treatments at the sites

Long term Experiment/ Management Variation Puch, Tuscany forest, El Aguilucho, Santomera, Abanilla, Tuscany forest Puch Abanilla, Carcavo, Santomera, Gdll Abanilla; El Aguilucho, Santomera; Tuscany forest Abanilla, El Aguilucho, Tuscany forest, Tuscany agriculture, Basilicata Tuscany agriculture, Basilicata Carcavo Tres Caminos

Pressure/treatment plant cover

Catena Abanilla, Carcavo, Santomera

Short term Experiment Tres Caminos

animal pressure Tillage erosion/ erosion control

organic matter addition/depletion

agrochemicals

Exposition

4.2

Plant cover and related pressures (tillage, animal pressures)

A variation of plant cover exists or has been introduced at various experimental sites (see Table 1). Abanilla (Murcia) is shown as an example, how plant cover may vary along a catena (Fig. 10). Other catenas with a variation of plant cover are situated at Carcavo and Santomera. At the long term experimental site of Puch plant cover has been intentionally modified during the last 50 years in a long term experiment, where one plot is kept bare by constant tillage while another receives regular tillage, which allows some plant cover to be established. The control plot in this case is under conventional agricultural treatment (Fig. 11). At the Tuscany forest site plant cover is reduced by a high boar population, which has a feeding place near by the sampling plot. This is compared to a fenced off control plot where plant cover is not disturbed by animals (Fig. 12). At El Aguilucho differences in plant cover are due to a reforestation experiment with pines and additional treatments such as combination with mycorhiza, exogeneous organic matter addition, and terracing. At the Santomera long term experimental site differences in vegetation are being used to assess effects on soil erosion (see Fig. 13 in chapter 4.3). At the Abanilla long term experiment site, differences in plant cover are due to an exogeneous organic matter amendment experiment, which has resulted in different degrees of a plant coverage (see chapter 4.4). At the recently established Tres Caminos short term experiment site some of the treatments are being afforested, partly in combination with micorhiza.

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Fig. 10:

Abanilla catena with a plant cover varying between 5% and 25%

Fig. 11: Variation of plant cover in the three treatments of the Puch long term experiment: agricultural use (winter wheat), green fallow with regular tillage, black fallow (soil kept bare through constant tillage)

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Fig. 12: Tuscany forest site: under story and litter removed at the sampling plot (upper left) by a dense boar population (lower photo of boars taken 50 m from the sampling plot); fenced off control plot with a dense under story and litter cover on soil (upper right)

4.3

Soil erosion

On sites with a slope the variation of plant cover is closely linked to varying degrees of soil erosion. The most drastic example for that may be found at the Abanilla catena (Fig. 10), similar but lesser effects may be observed at the Carcavo and Santomera catenas. At Gddll differences in soil erosion are not due to a variation of plant cover but only to the position along the slope (Fig. 14). At the Santomera experimental site the effect of plant cover on soil erosion was assessed in previous investigations, where two erosion measurement plots were established, one bare and one with trees (Fig. 13). At El Aguilucho differences in erosion are due to different treatments with reforestation and terracing while at the Tuscany forest plot the influence of animals removing the under story has already been mentioned in chapter 4.2. At the Abanilla experimental site differences in plant cover are due to varying amendments of organic matter (see chapter 4.4 and Fig. 15).

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Fig. 13: Santomera long term experiment site. Plots for soil erosion measurements with different degrees of plant cover.

11 %
Ap A2 B Ck Ap B Ap Ck Ck Ap 2A 3A 4A 5Ck
Fig. 14: Soil profile along the catena at the Gddll site showing the effect of soil erosion. The left soil profile at the top of the slope shows the non-eroded condition. The two profiles in the middle are eroded with the eroded soil being deposited at the bottom of the slope (right).

19 %

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4.4

Organic matter depletion / amendment

Addition of exogeneous organic matter was the treatment at the El Aguilucho and Abanilla long term experiment sites as well as at the Tres caminos short term experiment site. At El Aguilocho this has been compared to other types of treatment (terracing, reforestation, etc.). At Tres Caminos organic matter addition is also compared to reforestation, but different types of amendments are used: compost, sewage sludge and humo-enzymes. At the Abanilla experimental site the treatment variation has been the quantity of organic waste added 12 years ago (Fig. 15). At the Tuscany forest site litter and therefore a major organic matter input is lacking at the plot with high animal density (see Fig. 12). Litter is absent either by being actively removed by boars or by being washed away from the slope due to the lack of under store. At the Tuscany agricultural site and the Basilicata agricultural site green manure is added to the plots with organic farming in contrast to the conventionally managed plots.

Fig. 15: Abanilla long term experiment plots with different amounts of organic waste added. The degree of plant cover developed spontaneously after the amendments and varies according to the amounts of organic waste added.

4.5

Agrochemicals

At two sites in Italy, Tuscany and Basilicata, plots with organic farming are compared to conventionally farmed plots. Organic farming is practiced since 1999 (Tuscany) and 2000 (Basilicata) and implies amendments with green manure (see 4.4), whereas the conventionally farmed plots receive mineral fertilizers and regular pesticide applications.
4.6 Exposition

The Carcavo catena contains both a northern slope and southern slope, allowing the impact of microclimate to be investigated.
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Reference

Bermdez, F.L. (2002) Inventario Nacional de Erosin de Suelos 2002 2012. Regin de Murcia. Murcia. 2002. Direccin General de Concervacin de la Naturaleza Ministerio de Medio Ambiente. CORINE (1992) Soil Erosion Risk and Important Land Resources in the Southern Regions of the European Community, EUR 13233, Luxembourg. Desertification information system to support national action programmes in the Mediterranean - DISMED (2002). Technical workshop on thematic and sensitivity mapping on desertivication and drought. UNCCD, Portuguese Report, Tunesia Dregne, H.E. (1986). Desertification of arid lands. In: Physics of Desertification (Eds. El-Baz, F. & M.H.A. Hassan) pp. 4-34, Nijhoff, Dordrecht. EEA (European Environment Agency) (2003) Europes environment: the third assessment. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg. ESB (European Soil Bureau), 1998. European Soil Database at 1 : 1.000.000. German Advisory Council on Global Change (1995) World in transition: The threat to soils. 1994 Annual Report. Goudie, S.A. (1990) Desert Degradation. In: Techniques for desert reclamation (Ed: Goudie, S.A.) Wiley, Oxford Grimm, M. R., J.A. Jones & L. Montanarella (2002) Soil erosion risk in Europe. Institute for Environment and Sustainability EUR 19939 de Kimpe, C.R. & B.P. Warkentin (1998) Soil functions and the future of natural resources. In: Towards Sustainable Land Use: Further Cooperating between People and Institutions. Advances in GeoEcology 31 (Ed: H.-P. Blume, H. Eger, E. Fleischhauer, A. Hebel, C. Reij, K.G. Steiner) p. 3-10 van der Knijff, J.M., R.J.A. Jones & L. Montanarella (2000): Soil erosion risk assessment in Europe. EUR 19044 EN, 34pp, Luxembourg. Kuderna, M. (in press) Soil erosion risk at the European scale In: Environmental risk from agriculture. Locating environmental risk zones in Europe using agri-environmental indicators (Ed: B. Delbaere) European Centre for Nature Conservation, Tilburg. Morgan, R.P.C. (1992). Soil erosion in the northern countries of the European Community. EIW Workshop: Elaboration of a Framework of a Code of Good Agricultural Practices, Brussels, 21-22 May 1992. Morgan, R.P.C. (1999) Soil erosion and conservation. Longman, Essex, U.K. Reich, R., Eswaren, H., Kapur, S. & Akca, E. (2001) Land degradation and desertification in desert margins. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Sabadell, J.E., E.M. Risley, H.T. Jorgenson & B.S. Thornton (1982) Desertification in the United States: Status and Issues, Bureau of Land Management, Department of the

Interior, 277p.
Schwertmann, U., W. Vogl & M. Kainz (1987) Bodenerosion durch Wasser. Vorhersage des Abtrags und Bewertung von Gegenmanahmen. Ulmer. Stuttgart Sciortino, M. (2001) Desertification in the Mediterranean. 22th ISODARCO Summer Course on: Global climate change and impacts on natural resources. Candriai Italy.

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Thomas, D.S.G. & N.J. Middleton (1994). Desertification: Exploding the Myth. Wiley Chichester. Yassoglou, N.J. & C. Kosmas (2000) Desertification in the Mediterranean Europe. A case in Greece. Rala Report No. 200. Wischmeier, W.H. & Smith, D.D. (1978) Predicting rainfall erosion losses a guide for conservation planning. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Handbook 537

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