Intercropping with native perennial plants protects soil of arable fields in semi-arid lands

verfasst von

Ayman M.A. Salah, Rüdiger Prasse, Bernd Marschner

Abstract

Surface run-off and erosion are the major contributors to soil degradation worldwide. These processes are especially severe in regions with sparse vegetation cover. A 2-year experiment was set up along an aridity gradient in Al-Khalil, Palestine, to quantify soil loss and water loss from arable fields and to test for the mitigating effect of native perennial filter strips in arable fields. Three useful native plant species were chosen as intercrops: Majorana syriaca, Salvia fruticosa and Salvia hierosolymitana. The water and soil losses were experimentally measured in all the treatments. The results showed that considerable amounts of water (223-288 m³) and soil (3.2-5.6 ton ha^-1) are lost from the fields. However, both total run-off and erosion were strongly reduced when the annual crop was intercropped with strips of native perennial plants (NPPs). The filter strips reduced the run-off by 34-89% and soil loss by 45-94%. This effect was more pronounced at the drier part of the studied sites and during the drier season. Our study implies that using filter strips of NPPs is a beneficial strategy for reducing run-off and soil erosion in the semi-arid regions of east Mediterranean.

Organisationseinheit(en)

Institut für Umweltplanung

Externe Organisation(en)

Palestine Polytechnic University (PPU)
Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Typ

Artikel

Journal

Journal of arid environments

Band

130

Seiten

1-13

Anzahl der Seiten

13

ISSN

0140-1963

Publikationsdatum

09.03.2016

Publikationsstatus

Elektronisch veröffentlicht (E-Pub)

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Ökologie, Evolution, Verhaltenswissenschaften und Systematik, Ökologie, Erdoberflächenprozesse

Elektronische Version(en)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2016.02.015 (Zugang: Geschlossen)