Finding and sharing solutions to

protect our soils

Europe's soil research hub

Who is RECARE-Hub for?

Farmers & Forestry

RECARE-Hub contains the latest information on preventing soil threats, and cost-benefit analysis on proven remediation techniques.

Industry

Discover innovative sustainable land management measures that can combat threats to key soil functions.

Policy makers

Find out more about land care strategies relevant to your region and our integrated assessment of existing soil related policy.

Researchers

Access a wealth of European research data on soil threats and the efficacy of land care strategies.

Teachers & environmentalists

Whether you're a teacher or a concerned environmentalist, find out why Europe's soils are under threat and what researchers are doing to help combat the problems.

Resources designed for you

 

The soil that underpins Europe's agricultural systems faces numerous threats.

If you are interested in learning about specific soil threats, you can explore the individual threats below. If you want detailed guidance for assessing soil degradation or learning about management measures to prevent and remediate against soil degradation, you might want to head straight over to RECARE's resources.

 

RESOURCES

Post fire mulching

 Post-fire mulching experiment

Case Study Experiment - Soil Erosion

Post-fire mulching in forests

Burnt areas in forests can reveal some extreme responses in runoff generation and associated sediment losses. Such responses exacerbate the direct effects of fire on vegetation and on the soil physical, chemical and biological properties, compromising their recovery from heat-induced changes. Post-fire soil erosion also represents a serious threat to off-site "values-at-risk", through flood generation and transfer of sediments, organic matter, nutrients and pollutants to downstream water bodies. Recent field trials in the Portugese case study area have clearly demonstrated that mulching with forest logging residues (widely available in the region) is highly effective in reducing erosion in recently burnt areas.  The RECARE experiment is testing the effectiveness of mulching to reduce post-fire soil (fertility) losses.  It involves mulching with eucalyptus logging slash at 2 contrasting application rates.

 Final results

FirstResults

The main results of the field experiment were the following:

  • Without treatment, total sediment losses over the first post-fire year amounted to eight times the widely recognised threshold for tolerable soil losses of 1 Mg ha-1 y-1
  • Both mulch application rates strongly reduced these total sediment losses, the reduced rate with 86 % to 1.1 Mg ha-1 y-1 and the standard rate with 96 % to 0.3 Mg ha-1 y-1
  • Both mulch application rates also strongly reduced the total organic matter losses, the reduced rate with 87 % to 0.2 Mg ha-1 y-1 and the standard rate with 96 % to 0.1 Mg ha-1 y-1
  • The two mulch application rates did not seem to have an impact on the abundance and diversity of ground-dwelling arthropods, but did appear to have a negative effect on vegetation cover, both of higher plants and of mosses.

Further details about this experiment can be found in the fact sheet HERE (PTand in the project report HERE

Scientic Articles

J.J. Keizer, M.A.S. Martins, S.A. Prats, S.R. Faria, O. González-Pelayo, A.I. Machado, M.E. Rial-Rivas, L.F. Santos, D. Serpa, M.E.T. Varela (20015) Within-in flume sediment deposition in a forested catchment following wildfire and post-fire bench terracing, north-central Portugal.  Cuadernos de Investigación Geográfica Vol 41, No. 1  doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.18172/cig.2700

A.I. Machadoa, D. Serpaa, R.V. Ferreiraa, M.L. Rodríguez-Blancob, R. Pintoa, M.I. Nunesa, M.A. Cerqueiraa, J.J. Keizera(2015) Cation export by overland flow in a recently burnt forest area in north-central Portugal Science of the Total Environment Volumes 524–525, 15 August 2015, Pages 201–212 doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.04.026

 Ferreira R.V., Serpa D., Cerqueira M.A., Keizer J.J. (2016) Short-time phosphorus losses by overland flow in burnt pine and eucalypt plantations in north-central Portugal: A study at micro-plot scale. Published in: Science of the Total Environment 551–552, 631–639 https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.02.036

Campos I., Abrantes N., Keizer J.J., Vale C., Pereira P. (2016) Major and trace elements in soils and ashes of eucalypt and pine forest plantations in Portugal following a wildfire. Published in:Science of the Total Environment 2016 Dec 1;572:1363-1376 https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.01.190

Tavares Wahren F., Julich S., Nunes J.P., Gonzalez-Pelayo O., Hawtree D., Feger K.-H., Keizer J.J. (2016) Combining digital soil mapping and hydrological modeling in a data scarce watershed in north-central Portugal. Published in: GEODERMA 264, part B, 350- 362 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2015.08.023

Further information about the case study activities in Portuguese can be found here

For more information about this experiment, please contact Jan Jacob Keizer This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 Geographical description

The study region is located in north-central Portugal. The Caramulo mountains have an Atlantic-Mediterranean climate, with prolonged, dry summers promoting wildfire ignition and high annual rainfall (≥ 1200 mm) promoting plant biomass production and, thus, fuel load accumulation. The present-day landscape is dominated by tree plantations of Maritime Pine (10 %) and especially eucalypt (40 %), which are both highly flammable species and, thus, promote the structural wildfire risk.

Caramulo


Post-fire erosion risk in the RECARE study region is comparatively high, due to the elevated rainfall erosivity and the terrain's pronounced relief, with slopes typically of 20-25o. Whilst post-fire erosion rates of ≥ 5 Mg.ha-1.y-1 are not exceptional, even rates lower than 1 Mg.ha-1.y-1 – the widely accepted threshold for "tolerable" soil loss - cannot be disregarded. The soils in the study region, like in many parts of the Mediterranean, are in general shallow (< 40 cm deep) and very stony, reflecting their long land-use history but, most importantly, it highlights their fragility. Furthermore, these sediment losses comprise a substantial organic matter component.

Main soil threat

The main soil threat in the Caramulo mountains in north-central Portugal is soil erosion by water, particularly following wildfires. Recently burnt areas can reveal some extreme responses in runoff generation and associated sediment losses. Such responses exacerbate the direct effects of fire on vegetation and on the soil physical, chemical and biological properties, compromising their recovery from heat-induced changes. Post-fire soil erosion also represents a serious threat to off-site "values-at-risk", through flood generation and transfer of sediments, organic matter, nutrients and pollutants to downstream water bodies.

In the past four decades, wildfires have become a frequent phenomenon in Portugal and have affected, on average, some 100,000 ha.y-1. Of the RECARE study region, almost 40% was burnt at least once during the period 1975-2011. This fire regime reflects climatic conditions propitious to wildfire but also past changes in land use, in particular, the widespread planting of flammable tree species in combination with land abandonment. Post-fire land management in Portugal is largely restricted to "regular" forestry operations as logging, ploughing and bench terracing. Ploughing was found to further increase soil erosion in recently burnt areas. Unlike in the USA, emergency measures for mitigating post-soil erosion have hardly been employed in Portugal and, until quite recently, were also barely supported by field experiments in the country's principal forest types.



Postfire MulchingRecent field trials have clearly demonstrated that mulching with forest logging residues (widely available in the region) is highly effective in reducing erosion in recently burnt areas. Nonetheless, there remain various knowledge gaps on post-fire erosion prevention. They include technical issues:

i) mulching's effectiveness at lower-than-hitherto-tested (and thus cheaper) application rates;ii) its effectiveness at the landscape scale, using innovative, spatially-explicit application schemes (e.g. mulch strips);
iii) effectiveness of novel measures such as PAM, possibly combined with mulching; and
iv) impacts of erosion-prevention measures on other soil functions (e.g. seed bank, carbon sequestration).

The poor adoption of post-fire erosion prevention measures by private and public stakeholders in Portugal is another fundamental topic for further research, addressing adoption constraints from financial and social, institutional and legal perspectives.

Natural Environment

Geology & Soils

The SJM-M Case Study site is part of the Hesperic Massif, one of the region’s major physiographic units, and its bedrock consists of granites and, to a somewhat lesser extent, of a complex of schists and greywackes. The granites are of Hercynian origin, whereas the schists-greywackes are of pre-Ordovician age. Overall, the slopes on granite are less steep than those on schists-greywackes. While the ESDB depicts the area as dominated by Mollic Cambisols (Figure 2.2), soils of the study region, including the SJM-M case study site, are mapped – at a scale of 1:1,000,000 – as a complex of Humic Cambisols and, to a lesser extent, Dystric Litosols (not shown). The predominant soil types are Cambisols, Litosols and Coluvisols, to a large extent mapped as complexes, whereas also zones dominated by granite outcrops occupy large areas. No soil profile descriptions or data on specific soil properties are available from the SJM-M case study site, but various studies in the wider region (e.g. Malvar et al., 2013) have reported that forest soils are typically shallow, stony, coarse-textured (sand being the dominant fraction) and rich in organic matter (5-10 % in the topsoils).

fig22

 Soil groups and materials (left) and Land Use in the Case Study site of São João do Monte and Mosteirinho (right). Source: JRC

Land Cover and Use

At present, the SJM-M case study site is predominantly covered by forest, amounting to almost 90 % of the area, with some dispersed croplands and hardly any built-up area - see below. This forest cover mainly consists of plantations of fast-growing eucalypt trees (Eucalyptus globulus Labill.), represented in the CORINE 2006 map as broad-leaved forest, mixed forest and transitional woodland-shrubland. In the Caramulo mountain range as a whole, eucalypt plantations have increasingly come to substitute plantations of maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Ait.), especially since the 1980s. In turn, the pine stands had been widely planted during the early 1900s, including for reasons of erosion control and substituting a mixed landscape of (semi-) natural oak-dominated woodlands, shrublands and pastures. The large-scale reforestation with eucalypt has supposedly been driven by the demand for eucalypt wood by the paper pulp industry in the region, and has been accelerated by wildfires, of which the large wildfires of 1986 deserves special mention for burning some 60 km2 of mainly pine plantations. Eucalypt has a much shorter production cycle than maritime pine, amounting to 10-15 years as opposed to 40-45 years. Worth mentioning is that eucalypt trees can typically be logged twice, subsequently resprouting vigorously from multiple stems, without the need for establishing a new plantation. In recent years, the establishment of new eucalypt plantations in the Caramulo mountain range has increasingly been involving the construction of bench terraces using bulldozers. In the SJM-M case study site, almost 10% of the eucalypt plantations are currently on bench terraces

fig23

Left: Present-day main land-cover classes in the case study site of SJM-M; right: Wildfire recurrence in the case study site of SJM-M since 1975

Climate

The Caramulo mountain range has an Atlantic-Mediterranean climate, with prolonged dry and warm summers that are propitious to fire occurrence, and wet winters that promote plant biomass production and, thus, fuel load accumulation. According to the Köppen system, the climate can be classified as Csb (DRA-Centro, 2001).

fig24The above figure summarizes the monthly temperature and rainfall records at various meteorological stations in the region during the period 1971-2000. Mean monthly temperatures vary between around 10oC during the winter months (December – February) and around 20oC during July and August, whereas the mean monthly rainfall ranged from over 200 mm during the November-February period to around 20 mm in July and August. 

Drivers and pressures

Like many parts of Portugal, the SJM-M Case Study site has repeatedly been affected by wildfires since 1975 (see above). This map indicates a total of seven wildfires, occurring in 1984, 1985, 1986, 1990, 1991, 1995 and 2013, with the latter having particularly large dimensions. Around 75% of the forest area in the SJM-M Case Study site was burnt at least once during the last three decades, whereas 35 and 2% was burnt twice and thrice, respectively, over the same period. Worth stressing is that crucial information for estimating wildfire impacts on soil properties and functions is (currently) missing for these past wildfires, including the most recent one. Examples of such crucial information are wildfire severity as well as rainfall conditions, vegetation recovery and land management operations after the wildfires. Likewise, no information is available on the causes of ignition of these specific wildfires. In general, wildfire ignition in Portugal is mainly due to human activities and, in particular, negligence. Also the underlying causes of the present-days fire regime in Portugal are better established for the country as a whole than for a specific location such as the SJM-M Case Study site. Key socio-economic and policy-related factors behind the intensified fire regime of the past three decades are widely held to include/relate to a rural exodus and associated land abandonment starting in the 1950s, and to the above-mentioned widespread planting of fire-prone tree species as maritime pine and eucalypt. The large-scale migration from rural to urban areas in Portugal after the 1950s also took place in the SJM-M Case Study site, with a reduction in resident population of around 50% over the past five decades. At present, the resident population amounts to 1079 persons (see below) and corresponds to an extremely low population density of 16.6 inhabitants per km2. The exodus also had a marked influence on the age structure of the resident population, with roughly 30% being older than 64 years. Besides demographic processes, also land ownership structure is generally held to play an important role in the tendency towards decrease in forest management activities such as wood and fodder collection for domestic use, grazing and fuel load reduction. The facts that around 90% of the Portuguese forest area is privately owned and that the bulk of these private properties is small, at least in north and central Portugal, represents a seriously constraint to the management options that are feasible, especially also from an economic point of view (Valente et al., 2013). These same facts also help explain why post-fire land management is typically limited to logging and reforestation with eucalypts (Ribeiro et al., 2010). The role of policy-related factors is perhaps best illustrated by the Law 1971 from 5 June 1938, prohibiting grazing and burning and, thereby, leading to the accumulation of highly combustible fuels on forest floors and an increase in fire risk.

Status of soil threat

Since the late 1980s, several field studies have been performed in the wider study region on runoff and sediment losses following wildfire and post-fire land management, including measures to control soil erosion. None of these studies, however, actually took place in the SJM-M case study site. Some examples are Shakesby et al. (1994, 1996), Ferreira et al. (2005), Malvar et al. (2011), Prats et al. (2012, 2014) and Martins et al. (2013). Overall, these studies have shown that: (i) sediment losses during the first one to two years after a wildfire vary markedly, from (well) below the rate of 1 Mg ha–1 y–1 that Verheijen et al. (2009) proposed as threshold for tolerable soil loss till 10 times that threshold figure; (ii) high-impact forestry operations in recently burnt areas can lead to sediment losses as high as 14 Mg ha–1 y–1 following bench terracing (Martins et al., 2013) and 37 Mg ha–1 y–1 following rip-ploughing in downslope direction (Shakesby et al., 2002); (iii) elevated post-fire sediment losses can be markedly reduced by soil conservation measures, with hydro-mulching and mulching with forest residues reducing overall losses by 80-90% (Shakesby et al., 1996; Prats et al., 2012, 2013, 2014). It is worth mentioning that sediment losses both without and with forest residue mulching could be predicted to a satisfactory extent using the Morgan-Morgan-Finney model (Vieira et al., 2014). Nonetheless, major knowledge gaps with respect to the hydro-geomorphological effects of wildfires and post-fire land management in the study region exist. These include the role of past land use (supposedly, contributing markedly to the strong variation in observed erosion rates), key aspects of fire regime (fire severity and recurrence), specific forestry operations (especially logging) as well as the effects beyond the scale of plots and in terms of soil fertility losses (organic matter/carbon, nutrients, cations) as well as mobilization of pollutants (polycyclic hydrocarbons (PAHs), metals). In a nutshell, the current state of knowledge would appear too limited for a reliable reconstruction of the cumulative sediment losses caused by the wildfires that have occurred in the SJM-M Case Study site since 1975. Therefore, an expert-based approach will be used for a first assessment of the state of soil degradation, using fire recurrence, high-impact forestry operations and terrain characteristics as principal factors.

Wocat Maps

Maps on the current state of land use, soil degradation and soil conservation in the case study area have been produced using the WOCAT (World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies) methodology 

The steps of this process are as follows:

1) The area to be mapped is divided into distinctive land use systems (LUS). 2) The team gathers the necessary data on soil degradation and conservation for each LUS using a standardised questionnaire, in close consultation with local land users, and supported where possible by remote sensing or field data. 3) For each LUS, the soil degradation type, extent, degree, impact on ecosystem services, direct and indirect causes of degradation, as well as all soil conservation practices, are determined. 4) Once collected, the data is entered in the on-line WOCAT-QM Mapping Database from which various maps can be generated.

Following the principles of all WOCAT questionnaires, the collected data are largely qualitative, based on expert opinion and consultation of land users. This allows a rapid and broad spatial assessment of soil degradation and conservation/SLM, including information on the causes and impacts of degradation and soil conservation on ecosystem services.

More details about the methodology used to produce these maps and their interpretation can be found here.

Land Use (click on maps to expand)

Portugal Caramulo land use types Portugal Caramulo area trend land use system Portugal Caramulo trend in land use intensity

Degradation

The degree of degradation reflects the intensity of the degradation process, whilst the rate of degradation indicates the trend of degradation over a recent period of time (approximately 10 years).

Portugal Caramulo dominant types of soil degradation Portugal Caramulo degree of degradation Portugal Caramulo rate of degradation

Conservation measures

The "effectiveness" of conservation is defined in terms of how much it reduces the degree of degradation, or how well it is preventing degradation.  The Effectiveness trend indicates whether over time a technology has increased in effectiveness.

Portugal Caramulo dominant conservation measures Portugal Caramulo effectiveness of conservation measures Portugal Caramulo conservation effectiveness trend

 RECARE data repository

Data collected from the case study area for the project are held in a repository on the European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC) website hosted by Joint Research Centre (JRC).  Below is a list of the data held.

  • General info
  • Precipitation
  • Temperature
  • Soil Parameters
  • Soil Erodibility
  • K-Stoniness
  • Organic carbon content
  • Rainfall Erosivity
  • PESERA
  • Topsoil Organic Carbon
  • Wind Erodible Fraction

To access the data click HERE (currently only accessbile with  EUECAS login details)

 Effect of soil threat on soil functions

Table below provides a summary description as well as a ranking of the effects of post-fire runoff and erosion on the seven widely-recognized soil functions for the SJM-M Case Study site and the Caramulo mountain range in general.

Functions of soilExplanationEffect
Biomass production Reduction of the soil stock and especially the loss of the nutrient- and organic matter-rich topsoil negatively affect biomass production, especially where soils are already shallow. M
Environmental interactions Reduction of the soil stock and removal of the topsoil negatively affects soil water storage capacity, organic matter and nutrients, its resistance to the impact of raindrops and overland flow, and its capacity to buffer rainfall from extreme events. H
Gene reservoir/ Biodiversity pool Overland flow can transport organism dwelling on or near the soil surface (including soil seed bank) and removal of topsoil can negatively affect soil habitat quality and diversity. L
Physical medium Runoff and soil erosion can cause damage to off-site infrastructures such as bridges, roads, houses (especially in flood zones) and reservoir dams. L
Source of raw materials Soils in the study site/region are not used as source of raw materials. U
Carbon pool Reduction of the soil stock and especially removal of the topsoil can negatively affect the soil carbon pool. M
Cultural heritage U

 

Administrative and socio-economic setting

The administrative unit of Caramulo pertains to the municipality of Tondela of the Viseu District. Two parishes constituting one local administrative unit – i.e. the “União de freguesias” of São João do Monte and Mosteirinho (SJM-M) - are selected as primary Case Study site. At present, the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF), pertaining to the Ministry of Agriculture and Sea, is the high authority for forest management in Portugal. Its mission is to propose, accompany and assure the execution of the policies for nature and forest conservation. ICNF comprises the Central Services as well as Decentralized Services, in each of the five regions (North, Centre, Lisbon and Tagus Valley, Alentejo, Algarve). In addition, at the municipal level, Forest Technical Offices (GTFs) are responsible for supporting the implementation of forest policies, including the definition of the Municipal Plan for Forest Protection against Fires (PMDFCI). Furthermore, nowadays many regional and even local organizations of private forest producers exist, reflecting the fact that around 90% of the forest area in Portugal is privately owned and that most properties are less than 10 ha, in particular in the North and Central Region. The forest sector in Portugal, however, also includes some large companies, in particular the international consortium Soporcel-Portucel with 120,000 ha of forest holdings and the European company ALTRI managing 84,000 ha of forest.

The National Forest Strategy and the Regional Plans for Forest Management and Planning provide the general guidelines for the Portuguese forest sector. While specific policies on post-fire management do not exist, the legal framework for the Plan for Forest Protection against Fires does integrate a line of action on ecosystem rehabilitation and restoration. Furthermore, the Rural Development Program (PRODER) includes a sub-action that is directed towards the application of so-called post-fire emergency stabilization measures (i.e. sub-action 2.3.2.1 “Planning and recovery of forest plantations for emergency stabilization”). In fact, the “união de freguesias” of SJM-M was one of various “freguesias” in the study region that recently applied to PRODER funding under this sub-action, after three wildfires had burnt over 90 km2 of the Caramulo mountain region between August 20 and September 2 2013. 

 

fig25

Population in Caramulo (left) and GDP per capita trends for Portugal and the Euro Area (right)

 

Management Options

Post-fire land management in Portugal is typically restricted to standard forestry practices such as logging and (re-)planting, often following ground preparation operations and, in particular, rip-ploughing or bench terracing. Logging, rip ploughing and bench terracing in recently burnt areas can all produce marked increases in soil erosion by water (Fernández et al., 2007; Martins et al., 2013; Shakesby et al., 1994). Soil conservation measures aiming to mitigate post-fire erosion, however, have hardly been employed in Portugal. Nonetheless, recent field trials have clearly demonstrated that especially mulching with forest logging residues (widely available in the region) is highly effective in reducing overland flow generation and especially erosion in recently burnt pine and eucalypt plantations (Prats et al., 2012, 2014).

During the last century, the Portuguese central administration has been changing and multiplying the number of planning, legislative, regulatory and financial tools to create a suitable framework for the forest sector (Mendes, 2008). This instability has contributed to the fact that the level of implementation of these forest policies is rather limited. For the case of fire management, there is a strong focus, including in budgetary terms, on fire suppression at the expense of fire prevention as well as post-fire management (Moreira et al., 2012).

The PRODER sub-action 2.3.2.1 “Planning and recovery of forest plantations for emergency stabilization” has been operational since 2008. However, a systematic evaluation of its performance has not been carried out, neither in terms of the selection process of the potential emergency stabilization measures nor in terms of the effectiveness of the implemented measures. Operational aspects would also deserve special attention as wildfires typically occur at the end of the summer season while the first autumn rains often include extreme events.

Long-term post-fire management should include the implementation of measures for the restoration of heavily degraded ecosystems affected by, e.g., multiple wildfires, post-fire drought conditions hampering vegetation recovery or particularly intense erosion processes. More in general, long-term management will require the development of an integrated strategy, combining fire prevention (e.g. through prescribed fires), fire suppression and post-fire management. Such a strategy will require the active involvement of the full range of forest stakeholders in Portugal, not only for defining the strategy but also for implementing it, possibly through Forest Intervention Areas (Valente et al., 2013) or other management models.

Stakeholder involvement

Relevant end-users and local stakeholder groups include:

• Private forestry land owners and associations thereof such as the Baixo Vouga Forestry Association
• Public forest management committees of common lands and municipal Technical Forestry Offices, especially of Águeda, Albergaria-a-Velha, Sever do Vouga
• RAIZ – Research Institute for Forestry and Paper
• Paper and pulp industry such as the Soporcel-Portucel Consortium (manages 120,000 ha of private forest lands)
• Companies providing water-related services such as the "Associação de Municípios do Carvoeiro" (drinking water supply) and Greenvouga (hydric energy supply).

The aim is for the above-mentioned institutional stakeholders to be actively involved throughout the entire process of defining, implementing, monitoring and evaluating the prevention/remediation measures, and of setting-up the demonstration sites. The involvement of local stakeholders will be sought immediately following the selection of a burnt area during the summer of 2014. In the initial phase of stakeholder involvement, full stock will be taken of the team's ongoing field trials.

Gender and stakeholder workshops

Both men and women stakeholders are invited to the study site workshops. Most of the participants are men representing landowners, land managers and the private sector. Both men and women represent research, governmental and non-governmental organizations. All participants said they would greatly benefit from changes in SLM.

 This web page is authored by:

J.J. Keizer, S. Prats, S. Valente, M. Rial and C. Ribeiro from University of Aveiro, Portugal

With contributions from: Ioannis K. Tsanis and Ioannis N. Daliakopoulos (Deliverable 3.1) and Godert van Lynden, Zhanguo Bai, Thomas Caspari (Deliverable 3.2).

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Martins, M.A.S., Machado, A. I., Serpa, D., Prats, S.A., Faria, S.R., Varela, M.E.T., Gonzalez-Pelayo, O., Keizer, J.J., 2013. Runoff and inter-rill erosion in a Maritime Pine and a eucalypt plantation following wildfire and terracing in north-central Portugal. Journal of Hydrology and Hydromechanics 61, 4, 261-269.


Matsuda, T., Turschak, G., Brehme, C. Rochester, C., Mitrovich, M., Fisher, R., 2011. Effects of large-scale wildfires on ground foraging ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Southern California. Environmental Entomology 40, 2, 204-216.


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Moody, J.A., Shakesby, R.A., Robichaud, P.R., Cannon, S.H., Martin, D.A., 2013. Current research issues related to post-wildfire runoff and erosion processes. Earth-Science Reviews 122 (2013) 10–37.


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Nyman, P., Sheridan, G.J., Lane, P.N.J., 2013. Hydro-geomorphic response models for burned areas and their applications in land management. Progress in Physical Geography 37, 6, 787-812.


Pausas, J.C., Llovet, J, Rodrigo, A., Vallejo, R., 2008. Are wildfires a disaster in the Mediterranean basin? - a review. International Journal of Wildland Fire 17, 713–723.


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Prats, S.A., MacDonald, L.H., Monteiro, M., Ferreira, A.J.D., Coelho, C.O.A., & Keizer, J.J., 2012. Effectiveness of forest residue mulching in reducing post-fire runoff and erosion in a pine and a eucalypt plantation in north-central Portugal. Geoderma, 191, 115–124. doi:10.1016/j.geoderma.2012.02.009


Prats, Sérgio A., Malvar, M. C., Vieira, D.C.S., MacDonald, L., & Keizer, J.J., 2013. Effectiveness of hydromulching to reduce runoff and erosion in a recently burnt pine plantation in central portugal. Land Degradation & Development doi:10.1002/ldr.2236


Prats, Sergio A., Martins, M. A. S., Malvar, M. C., Ben-Hur, M., & Keizer, J. J., 2014. Polyacrylamide application versus forest residue mulching for reducing post-fire runoff and soil erosion. The Science of the total environment, 468-469, 464–74.


Ribeiro, C., Figueiredo, E., Coelho, C., Valente, S., Carvalho, T., 2010. Uma árvore não faz a floresta? Análise da percepção dos proprietários florestais face aos incêndios e sua actuação. In: E. Figueiredo, E. Kastenholz, M.C. Eusébio, M.C. Gomes, M.J. Carneiro, P. Batista and S. Valente (Org.), IV Congresso de Estudos Rurais – Mundos Rurais em Portugal: Múltiplos Olhares, Múltiplos Futuros. Aveiro: Universidade de Aveiro, 4-6 February, pp. 172-173.


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Shakesby, R.A., Boakes, D., Coelho, C.O.A., Gonçalves, A.J.B., & Walsh, R.P.D., 1996. Limiting the soil degradation impacts of wildfire in Pine and Eucalyptus forest in Portugal. Applied Geography, 16, 337–355.


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Case Study Experiment - Soil Erosion

Small dams between ploughing furrows 

In Switzerland, the RECARE researchers tested the effectiveness of reducing soil erosion by using a Dyker to produce small dams between ploughing furrows in potato fields. Attached to the rear end of the planting machine, the Dyker digs holes into the bottom of the furrows between the potato dams.
Dams1 Dams3
Dams2 Dams4

 

Final results

DykerResultsFurrows treated with the Dyker (lower photos) show less signs of erosion and soil accumulation compared to untreated furrows (upper photos).

Water infiltration: Dye tracer experiments showed that in treated furrows, water infiltrates the compacted subsoil below the ploughed horizon, while in untreated furrows hardly any water infiltrates deeper than 20 cm below the surface.

Soil erosion: More surface runoff in untreated furrows led to higher rates of soil erosion. In a steep section of a field, the average cross-sectional area of untreated furrows increased by almost 45% until the potato plant reached maximum vegetation cover while the changes during the same period were much smaller for treated furrows (24%).

Waterlogging: In addition, a series of drone photographs showed that less surface runoff also reduces the amount of stagnant water in depressions: while in treated furrows rainwater was evenly retained in small holes and infiltrated the soil locally, in untreated furrows it drained to the lowest point of the plot. In depressions, collected water caused saturation excess and anaerobic conditions, and resulted in crop failure.

results

Further details about this experiment can be found in the fact sheet HERE and in the project report HERE

Further information about the case study activities in German can be found HERE

Below are links to national media articles about the experiment:

For more information about this experiment, please contact Felicitas Bachmaan  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

Geographical description

The map below shows the Case Study area of Frienisberg. It is located about 20 km NW of Berne in the Swiss Midlands, with altitude ranging from 475 to 720 m above sea level (a.s.l.). It includes 3 neighbouring communes (Seedorf, Grossaffoltern, Schüpfen), covering approx. 56 km2. There are 189 farms managing in total 2,632 ha of arable fields. The area is characterized by moderate hill slopes. In a recent study, Prasuhn (2011) investigated 203 arable fields in the region with a total area of 265 ha. On these fields, a mean slope of 6.5% (range 1-25%) and a mean slope length of 68 m (range 15-210 m) were identified.

DEM map

Location and Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the Frienisberg (Source: SRTM)

Main soil threat and drivers

The main soil threat in the Frienisberg area is soil erosion by water. Sheet, rill and gully erosion in mixed crop-livestock farming systems are causing on-site damages (e.g. loss of the soil resource from agricultural areas) as well as off-site damages related to the deposition of eroded material downslope (e.g. water contamination and damages on public and private infrastructure). An agricultural field may be damaged by erosion occurring on itself or damaged by run-on from adjacent upslope areas or roads (Prasuhn, 2011). The effect of these damages involves economic and ecological costs for society (Ledermann et al., 2010). It is estimated that the costs of soil erosion are about 64-774 SFr. (or 61-741 €) per ha/year, and 70-80% of the costs occur off-site and have to be paid by the society. Main drivers include rough topography and agricultural practices that promote erosion.

Other soil threats
Due to the mechanized agriculture and tillage practices, soil compaction is also a serious problem, which has an impact on many soil properties and processes. Additionally, large amounts of eroded soil which deposit off-site, often related to slope depressions, are considered muddy floods and are frequently observed in Switzerland (Ledermann et al., 2010).
 

Natural Environment

Most soil in the Case Study area are quite permeable Cambisols and Luvisols over ground moraine; they are mostly sandy loams which have been rated as having moderate erodibility (Prasuhn and Grünig, 2001)

fig12

 Left: Land use; right: Soil map (Source: JRC)

Land Use

The area is dominated by arable land, a typical land use of the Swiss Midlands (see picture below). The predominant family farms apply mixed farming methods of growing crops and keeping livestock. Crop rotations are versatile and mostly have a high proportion of temporary grass-clover mixtures. 40% of the 203 arable fields investigated by Prasuhn (2012) are planted with cereals and rape seed, 37% with root and tuber crops, and 20% with temporary leys (grass-clover mixtures). Winter intercrops are widespread; 90% of the arable land is covered with either intercrops or regular crops over winter. There are no further observations, but it is assumed that this land use is representative for the whole area.

 

fig13

Frienisberg agricultural area (Photo: V. Prasuhn)

Climate

The Frienisberg area lies in the moderate climate zone with an annual average temperature of approximately 8.5 °C and an annual precipitation from 1,035 to 1,150 mm. During the winter months there is usually some snow, which contributes to erosion after melting.

fig14

Left: average annual; right: mean monthly precipitation and temperature at Frienisberg

Hydrogeology

The Case Study includes a small wetland with a 1.73 ha lake, called Lobsigensee, which is primary fed by precipitation. The lake used to face eutrophication problems due to manure and fertilizer inputs but it is currently surrounded by a small nature reserve. According to law, surrounding stream banks are hedged by approximately 3 m wide grass strips, in order to be protected from phosphorus and nitrogen loads by leaching, surface runoff and erosion. Nevertheless, during summer heavy thunderstorm events, some of these streams cause floods on agricultural land and in settlements.

 

Drivers and Pressures

The main driver of soil erosion in the study area is the rugged topography with a large proportion of steep slopes. Many of these slopes are under forest and grassland and thus well protected from soil losses. However, mixed farming including animal and crop production is the most frequent farm type in the area. Especially winter wheat, potatoes, fallow, maize and sugar beet show high on-site soil erosion (Prasuhn, 2012). There are several reasons why these crops are widely produced in the region: Maize is mostly used as fodder and there is a good market for winter wheat, potatoes and sugar beet. Moreover processing of sugar beet is easy due to a sugar beet factory located in the nearby town of Aarberg. Prevention of soil erosion thus remains a challenge on cropland with intense soil tillage on steep slopes.
 

Status of soil threat

For a period of 10 years, the visible erosion features on 203 arable fields in the area were continuously mapped and quantified by Prasuhn (2011; 2012) (see picture on left). The graph on the right gives an overview of the soil loss measurements. Within this period a third of the fields showed signs of erosion. Although the average soil loss was relatively low (0.75 t ha-1 yr-1), the maximal annual erosion in a single field was 96 t. About 52% of the total erosion took place in the summer half-year. Linear erosion accounted for 75%, while inter-rill erosion took place only in 25% of the cases (Prasuhn, 2011).

fig15

 Left: erosion damage mapping in the Frienisberg area (Photo: V. Prasuhn); right: Total annual soil loss for the investigated fields in the Frienisberg area (Prasuhn, 2012)

Winter wheat ranks first with regard to soil loss and number of fields with erosion. Soil erosion is worse if the previous crop to winter wheat was potato, maize or sugar beet, due to intense soil tillage and little soil cover (Prasuhn, 2012). An important trigger of erosion was run-on from adjacent upslope areas. 50% of the soil was deposited in the field of origin, whereas 20% of the soil was transported into water bodies, thus contributing to their contamination (Prasuhn, 2011).
 

WOCAT Maps

Maps on the current state of land use, soil degradation and soil conservation in the case study area have been produced using the WOCAT (World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies) methodology 

The steps of this process are as follows:

1) The area to be mapped is divided into distinctive land use systems (LUS).
2) The team gathers the necessary data on soil degradation and conservation for each LUS using a standardised questionnaire, in close consultation with local land users, and supported where possible by remote sensing or field data.
3) For each LUS, the soil degradation type, extent, degree, impact on ecosystem services, direct and indirect causes of degradation, as well as all soil conservation practices, are determined.
4) Once collected, the data is entered in the on-line WOCAT-QM Mapping Database from which various maps can be generated.

Following the principles of all WOCAT questionnaires, the collected data are largely qualitative, based on expert opinion and consultation of land users. This allows a rapid and broad spatial assessment of soil degradation and conservation/SLM, including information on the causes and impacts of degradation and soil conservation on ecosystem services.

More details about the methodology used to produce these maps and their interpretation can be found here.

Land Use  (click on maps to expand)

Switzerland Frienisberg land use types

Switzerland Frienisberg area trend land use system

Switzerland Frienisberg trend land use intensity

 Degradation 

The degree of degradation reflects the intensity of the degradation process, whilst the rate of degradation indicates the trend of degradation over a recent period of time (approximately 10 years).

Switzerland Frienisberg dominant types of soil degradation

Switzerland Frienisberg degree of degradation

Switzerland Frienisberg rate of degradation

Conservation measures

The "effectiveness" of conservation is defined in terms of how much it reduces the degree of degradation, or how well it is preventing degradation.  The Effectiveness trend indicates whether over time a technology has increased in effectiveness.

Switzerland Frienisberg dominant conservation measures

Switzerland Frienisberg effectiveness of conservation measures

Switzerland Frienisberg conservation effectiveness trend

RECARE data repository

Data collected from the case study area for the project are held in a repository on the European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC) website hosted by Joint Research Centre (JRC).  Below is a list of the data held.

  • General info
  • Precipitation
  • Temperature
  • Soil Parameters
  • Soil Erodibility
  • K-Stoniness
  • Organic carbon content
  • Rainfall Erosivity
  • PESERA
  • Topsoil Organic Carbon
  • Wind Erodible Fraction

To access the data click HERE (currently only accessbile with  EUECAS login details)

Effects of soil threats on ecosystem services

The following table summarises and ranks the expected effects of soil erosion on soil functions in the Frienisberg area. So far, there are no measurements in the area for validation.
 

Soil function

Explanation

Effect

Biomass production

Erosion reduces biomass production through loss of fertile topsoil.

M

Storing, filtering and transforming nutrients, substances and water

Erosion and compaction leads to a reduced capacity of soils to store, filter and transform nutrients, substances and water through soil loss.

M

Gene reservoir/ Biodiversity pool

Species are losing their habitat due to soil loss.

L

Physical medium

 

N

Source of raw materials

 

N

Carbon pool

Soil conservation measures, such as no-till, do have a considerable effect on soil functions, such as the carbon sequestration

L

Cultural heritage

Indirectly, soil erosion led to an effective soil protection policy, fostering cultural landscape elements, such as fruit trees, hedgerows, etc.

M


Administrative and socio-economic setting

While agricultural and environmental policies of Switzerland have been defined autonomously with regard to Europe, basic features of the respective European and Swiss policy frameworks are rather similar (e.g. high degrees of protectionism, direct payments for ecological and other services, strong presence of public regulation) (Schneider et al., 2009). The national ordinance on direct payments contains a clause that farmers who intend to receive direct payments must take suitable protection measures against soil erosion. Subsequently, cantonal authorities, such as soil protection agencies and agricultural offices, began to develop different approaches to implementing these regulations: they devised special control systems using soil erosion risk maps and agricultural inspectors, conducted training courses, produced information leaflets, and implemented financial support programmes for no-tillage (Schneider et al., 2010). A number of direct incentives are also provided to maintain the landscape’s touristic value, e.g. a typical mix of small plots, cropland and pastures, fruit trees, hedgerows, etc. Therefore, many farmers consider themselves no more as producers but rather as landscape gardeners.


Being surrounded by EU member states, the federal government with its agricultural policy 2014-2017 is striving for a stronger market-orientation. The mix of production and protection foci forces many small farms either to give up or to move into joint ventures with other farmers.

fig16

Left: Population in Frienisberg; Right: GDP per capita trends for Switzerland and the Euro Area.

 

Management options

Alternative tillage systems have increased since 2003 and in 2008 the no-tillage practice was applied on 17% of the arable land in the region, which is above the mean of 3% applied in Switzerland (Ledermann and Schneider, 2008). The popularity of no-tillage is due to financial incentives by cantonal supporting programs, innovative contractor farmers with personal incentives and social dynamics between neighbouring farmers who adopt successful technologies. The positive effects of soil conserving tillage practices and crop rotation have been confirmed through field mappings, where the mean soil loss in minimum and no-tillage fields is more than an order of magnitude lower than that under plough tillage (Prasuhn, 2012). Similar to off-site effects and impacts on ecosystem services, upscaling remediation measures under an integrated and watershed-scale perspective remains a challenge. Therefore, the consequences of the wide application of no-tillage for the socio-ecologic system and for the potential up-scale of remediation measures remain to be explored.

 

Stakeholder involvement

Relevant end-users and local stakeholder groups include:

• Farmers and their families
• Agricultural contractors (e.g. providing no-till machinery), mechanists
• No-till association SWISS NO-TILL
• Building and other infrastructure insurances
• Representatives of the commune
• Cantonal and federal experts for soil and water conservation
• Education (farmer schools) and agricultural advisory service (Agridea).

During the RECARE project stakeholder learning platforms will be established in order to facilitate knowledge exchange and mutual learning between the different actors from local to national level, including insurance companies and scientists. Innovative prevention and remediation measures as well as regulation options will be jointly identified and investigated in an open and interactive atmosphere.

Gender and stakeholder workshops 

Both men and women are invited to the RECARE stakeholder workshops, although in practice the participation of women in the workshops is lower than the participation of men. The workshop’s content, in relation to the treatment of soil and sustainable land management, is of particular interest to the men who apparently are more likely to be farmers. In a questionnaire, all male respondents were explicit that there is no typical role for men or women. If there are women involved, they are institutional, cantonal or federal representatives, functions that are also performed by men.


This web page is authored by:

L. Bernet, K. Herweg and V. Prasuhn from University of Bern, Switzerland

With contributions from: Ioannis K. Tsanis and Ioannis N. Daliakopoulos (Deliverable 3.1) and Godert van Lynden, Zhanguo Bai, Thomas Caspari (Deliverable 3.2).

References

Ledermann, T., Herweg, K., Liniger, H.P., Schneider, F., Hurni, H., Prasuhn, V., 2010. Applying erosion damage mapping to assess and quantify off-site effects of soil erosion in Switzerland. Land Degrad. Dev. 21, 353–366. doi:10.1002/ldr.1008

Ledermann, T., Schneider, F., 2008. Die Verbreitung der Direktsaat in der Schweiz. AgrarForschung 15, 372–377.

Prasuhn, V., 2011. Soil erosion in the Swiss midlands: Results of a 10-year field survey. Geomorphology 126, 32–41. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2010.10.023

Prasuhn, V., 2012. On-farm effects of tillage and crops on soil erosion measured over 10 years in Switzerland. Soil Tillage Res. 120, 137–146. doi:10.1016/j.still.2012.01.002

Prasuhn, V., Grünig, K., 2001. Evaluation der Ökomassnahmen - Phosphorbelastung der Oberflächengewässer durch Bodenerosion. FAL-Schriftenreihe 37.

Schneider, F., Fry, P., Ledermann, T., Rist, S., 2009. Social Learning Processes in Swiss Soil Protection—The “From Farmer - To Farmer” Project. Hum. Ecol. 37, 475–489. doi:10.1007/s10745-009-9262-1

Schneider, F., Ledermann, T., Fry, P., Rist, S., 2010. Soil conservation in Swiss agriculture—Approaching abstract and symbolic meanings in farmers’ life-worlds. Land Use Policy 27, 332–339. doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2009.04.007

 

 

 

As soil degradation problems are caused by the interplay of biophysical, socio-economic and political factors, all of which vary across Europe, these problems are by definition site-specific and occur at different scales. Therefore, 17 Case Studies of soil threats are included in RECARE to study the various conditions that occur across Europe and to find appropriate responses using an innovative approach combining scientific and local knowledge.

Click on the map below or links below to find out more about the different Case Study sites.

Case Studies

 

Timbaki, Crete Aarslev, Denmark Wroclaw & Poznan, Poland Canyoles River Basin, Spain Gunnarsholt, Iceland Vansjo-Hobol catchment, Norway Myjava Catchment, Slovakia Veenweidegebied, The Broddbo, Sweden Olden Eibergen, The Netherlands Veneto region, Italy Guadiamar, Spain Copsa Mica, Romania Isle of Purbeck, United Kingdom

Case Study Sites

 Click on the map below to find out more about RECARE's case study sites
Case Studies

Project Partners

ABOUT US

RECARE was a multidisciplinary research project of 27 different organisations that assessed the threats to Europe's soils and identified innovative solutions to prevent further soil degradation.  The project ran from 2013 - 2018.

Academic Contact
Professor Coen Ritsema 
Wageningen University
E: coen.ritsema[AT]wur.nl

Media Contact
Dr Matt Reed
E: mreed[AT]glos.ac.uk

Funding

Funded by the European Commission FP7 Programme, ENV.2013.6.2-4 ‘Sustainable land care in Europe’.

EU grant agreement: 603498.

Project officer: Maria Yeroyanni.

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