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Main lines of research
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Runoff is a key component of the water balance of any rainfed crop, especially in Mediterranean type of climate. Unfortunately long term field measurements are limited, especially for olive orchards. Quantification of the runoff component is key also to increase our understanding of the processes leading to the high erosion rates observed in Mediterranean areas. My research in these area is based in plot and basin studies where we measure runoff, nutrient and soil losses under different soil management, correlating those observation to soil, cover, management and rainfall characteristics. among the tools used in these studies are rainfall simulators of different design. You can see a short clip of an small raindall simualtor. We are also initiating a line of research on the use of innovative erosion tracers, magnetic and rare earth oxides, to evaluate erosion and sediment transfer within the landscape with more flexibility than the allowed by traditional techniques.
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Cover crops are a key element in designing soil conservation strategies in orchards, particularly in semiarid areas like those where olives and vineyards are grown. Some of my research is devoted to understand how its use modifies runoff and soil losses at hillslope and catchment scale. Also to understand the agronomical response of different cover crops under varied conditions, helping to develop varieties better adapted to the conditions on olive groves. Expansion of tis technique it is hampered by the uncertainties on the impact on soil water balance, specially regarding in competition with the olive tree for soil water, but also for the uncertainties about the development of the cover crops in different soil and climate conditions. For that reason we have been working in developing a water balance model or orchards that can help to understand the distribution of the different components when we change the soil management or when the spoil or climate conditions change.
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One important component of the carbon budget in soils are losses in runoff and sediment. In my laboratory we work in measuring those losses at hillslope and catchment scale, trying to understand its impact on soil carbon content using a combination of soil sampling and model analysis, to incorporate the effect of topography . |
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Simulation models are an useful tool to analyze existing data that can be limited and sparse, provide indications for further research, and make predictions. My work on water erosion modelling have been focused on olive orchards in Southern Spain using two widely know models, RUSLE and WEPP. It is directed to quantify the impact of different alternatives of soil management under different conditions. My research is now moving at small basin scale. At this scale I have used to date simple long-term models as USPED or WATEM but is moving in the direction of using more sophisticated models like AGNPS and Kineros. My work on runoff generation in orchards have consisted mainly in the development of a physically-based model that takes into account the spatial variability of soil properties within the olive orchard due to management, an its impact on runoff generation and the spatial variablility of infiltrated water, and the calibration of the empirical CN model to olive orchards based on a combination of simulation and experimental results..
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Soil management can be a powerful tool to optimize the crop water balance while reducing erosion risk. This can be made trough the modification of key soil characteristics as infiltration rate, bulk density, organic matter or soil aggregate stability. My work tries to quantify these differences among different soil management in order to understand the differences in runoff and soil lossess, mostly through simulation models. In the last years I have been interested in the development of indexes that allow an evaluation of soil degradation status in olive orchards due to different soil management..
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Gully erosion has become a major problem in agricultural areas in Southern Spain. Part of our research is oriented to evaluate the magnitude of this problem, but especially to improve our understanding of the phenomena to provide guidance to find better, and more economical, solutions to farmers.
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Projects |
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