8,131 research outputs found

    Runoff at the micro-plot and slope scale following wildfire, central Portugal

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    Through their effects on soil properties and vegetation/litter cover, wildfires can strongly enhance overland flow generation and accelerate soil erosion [1] and, thereby, negatively affect land-use sustainability as well as downstream aquatic and flood zones. Wildfires are a common phenomenon in present-day Portugal, devastating in an average year some 100.000 ha of forest and woodlands and in an exceptional year like 2003 over 400.000 ha. There therefore exists a clear need in Portugal for a tool that can provide guidance to post-fire land management by predicting soil erosion risk, on the one hand, and, on the other, the mitigation effectiveness of soil conservation measures. Such a tool has recently been developed for the Western U.S.A. [3: ERMiT] but its suitability for Portuguese forests will need to be corroborated by field observations. Testing the suitability of existing erosion models in recently burned forest areas in Portugal is, in a nutshell, the aim of the EROSFIRE projects. In the first EROSFIRE project the emphasis was on the prediction of erosion at the scale of individual hill slopes. In the ongoing EROSFIRE-II project the spatial scope is extended to include the catchment scale, so that also the connectivity between hill slopes as well as channel and road processes are being addressed. Besides ERMiT, the principal models under evaluation for slope-scale erosion prediction are: (i) the variant of USLE [4] applied by the Portuguese Water Institute after the wildfires of 2003; (ii) the Morgan–Morgan–Finney model (MMF) [5]; (iii) MEFIDIS [6]. From these models, MEFIDIS and perhaps MMF will, after successful calibration at the slope scale, also be applied for predicting catchment-scale sediment yields of extreme events

    Runoff and erosion at the micro-plot and slope scale in a small burnt catchment, central Portugal

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    Wildfires can have important impacts on hydrological processes and soil erosion in forest catchments, due to the destruction of vegetation cover and changes to soil properties. However, the processes involved are non-linear and not fully understood. This has severely limited the understanding on the impacts of wildfires, especially in the up-scaling from hillslopes to catchments; in consequence, current models are poorly adapted for burnt forest conditions. The objective of this presentation is to give an overview of the hydrological response and sediment yield from the micro-plot to slope scale, in the first year following a wildfire (2008/2009) that burnt an entire catchment nearby the Colmeal village, central Portugal. The overview will focus on three slopes inside the catchment, with samples including: • Runoff at micro-plot scale (12 bounded plots) and slope scale (12 open plots); • Sediments and Organic Matter loss at micro-plot scale (12 bounded plots) and slope scale (12 open plots plus 3 Sediment fences); • Rainfall and Soil moisture data; • Soil Water Repellency and Ground Cover data. The analysis of the first year following the wildfire clearly shows the complexity of runoff generation and the associated sediment transport in recently burnt areas, with pronounced differences between hillslopes and across spatial scales as well as with marked variations through time. This work was performed in the framework of the EROSFIRE-II project (PTDC/AGR-CFL/70968/2006) which has as overall aim to predict soil erosion risk in recently burnt forest areas, including common post-fire forest management practices; the project focuses on the simultaneous measurement of runoff and soil erosion at multiple spatial scales.The results to be presented in this session are expected to show how sediment is generated, transported and exported in the Colmeal watershed; and contribute to understand and simulate erosion processes in burnt catchments, including for model development and evaluation

    Efeito de semeadora com haste sulcadora para ação profunda em solo manejado com plantio direto.

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    A adoção do plantio direto na região subtropical úmida do Brasil, fundamentada apenas em dois preceitos da agricultura conservacionista - mobilização de solo restrita à linha de semeadura e manutenção de resíduos culturais na superfície do solo -, tem induzido à estratificação de atributos químicos do solo na camada de 0-20 cm profundidade e degradação física da camada subsuperficial (entre aproximadamente 5-20 cm de profundidade), que podem contribuir para frustrações de safras agrícolas, quando da ocorrência de estiagens. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o efeito residual de uma semeadora/adubadora, equipada com elemento rompedor de solo tipo haste sulcadora, atuando em quatro profundidades para a semeadura de milho (Zea mays L.), na mitigação de problemas de ordem física e química, em um Latossolo Vermelho distrófico húmico, manejado em plantio direto há mais de 10 anos. Os tratamentos avaliados foram: T1 = hastes sulcadoras atuando até 5 cm de profundidade; T2 = hastes sulcadoras atuando até 10 cm de profundidade; T3 = hastes sulcadoras atuando até 15 cm de profundidade; e T4 = hastes sulcadoras atuando até 17 cm de profundidade. O efeito desses tratamentos sobre os atributos físicos do solo foi avaliado pela técnica do perfil cultural associada à determinação da densidade, porosidade total, macroporosidade e resistência do solo à penetração, aos oito e 12 meses, após a semeadura da cultura de milho. Sobre os atributos químicos, esses efeitos foram avaliados pela determinação de pH em H2O, P e K disponíveis, Ca, Mg e Al trocáveis, acidez potencial e matéria orgânica, em amostras de solo coletadas em camadas de 2,5 cm de espessura, de 0-22,5 cm de profundidade. A utilização da semeadora/adubadora, equipada com elemento (1) Recebido para publicação em 11 de junho de 2013 e aprovado em 10 de janeiro de 2014
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