Effect of dolomite fertilization on nutritional status of seedlings and soil properties in forest nursery

<p>Regenerative agriculture (RA) is gaining increasing recognition as a plausible solution to restore degraded agroecosystems. In Mediterranean drylands, RA has been limitedly adopted by farmers due to its initial state of development and lack of empirical evidence on its impacts. To support its large-scale adoption, we carried out a participatory monitoring and evaluation project in the high steppe plateau of Southeast Spain, involving local farmers applying RA in their almond farms. To assess the effect of RA, we studied 9 farms and selected in each farm one field with regenerative management and one nearby field with conventional management based on frequent tillage (CT). We clustered fields under regenerative management based on the different RA practices being applied and distinguished 4 types of RA treatments: 1) reduced tillage with green manure (GM), 2) reduced tillage with organic amendments (OA), 3) reduced tillage with green manure and organic amendments (GM&OA), and 4) no tillage with permanent natural covers and organic amendments (NT&OA). We used physical (bulk density and aggregate stability), chemical (pH, salinity, total N, P, K, available P, and exchangeable cations) and biological (SOC, POC, PON, microbial activity)&#160; soil propertoes and the nutritional status of almond trees (leaf N, P and K) to evaluate the impacts of RA compared to CT. We found that GM treatment improved physical soil properties, presenting regenerative fields higher soil aggregate stability. Our results showed that OA improved most soil chemical and biological soil properties, however physical properties remained similar. RA treatments combining ground covers and organic amendments (GM&OA and NT&OA) exhibited greater overall soil quality restoration than individual practices, improving physical, chemical and biological soil properties. NT&OA stood out for presenting the highest soil quality improvements. All RA treatments maintained similar crop nutritional status compared to CT. We conclude that RA has strong potential to restore the physical, chemical and biological quality of soils of woody agroecosystems in Mediterranean drylands without compromising their nutritional status, thereby enhancing their resilience to climate change and long term sustainability.</p>

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Nutritional status and its interaction with soil properties and trace elements in six Mediterranean shrub species grown in reclaimed pyritic tailings

Ecological Engineering ◽

10.1016/j.ecoleng.2017.08.027 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 109 ◽

pp. 25-34 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

A. Parra ◽

R. Zornoza ◽

E. Conesa ◽

A. Faz ◽

M.D. Gómez-López

Keyword(s):

Trace Elements ◽

Nutritional Status ◽

Soil Properties ◽

Shrub Species ◽

Mediterranean Shrub

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An Integrated Approach to Assessing the Soil Quality and Nutritional Status of Large and Long-Term Cultivated Rice Agro-Ecosystems

Agriculture ◽

10.3390/agriculture9040080 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 80 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Vassilis Aschonitis ◽

Christos G. Karydas ◽

Miltos Iatrou ◽

Spiros Mourelatos ◽

Irini Metaxa ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Organic Matter ◽

Nutritional Status ◽

Soil Properties ◽

Multiple Regression ◽

Soil Quality ◽

Integrated Approach ◽

Soil Parameters ◽

Critical Thresholds ◽

Cold Spots

The aim of this study is to develop an integrated approach to soil quality and fertility assessment in high-yielding rice agro-ecosystems threatened due to overexploitation of soil resources by intensive agriculture. The proposed approach is implemented considering representative pilot fields allocated throughout a study area based on the assumption that soils of similar general properties present a similar nutritional status due to common long-term management practices. The analysis includes (a) object-based image analysis for land zonation, (b) hot-spot analysis for sampling scheme evaluation, (c) setting of critical thresholds in soil parameters for detecting nutrient deficiencies and soil quality problems, and (d) Redundancy Analysis, TITAN analysis, and multiple regression for identifying individual or combined effects of general soil properties (e.g., organic matter, soil texture, pH, salinity) or non-soil parameters (e.g., topographic parameters) on soil nutrients. The approach was applied using as a case study the large rice agro-ecosystem of Thessaloniki plain in Greece considering some site specificities (e.g., high rice yields, calcareous soils) when setting the critical thresholds in soil parameters. The results showed that (a) 62.5% of the pilot fields’ coverage has a simultaneous deficiency in Zn, Mn, and B, (b) organic matter (OM) was the most significant descriptor of nutrients’ variance, and its cold spots (clustered regions of low OM values) showed important overlapping with the cold spots of K, Mg, Zn, Mn, Cu, and B, (c) a higher rate of availability increase in P, K, Mg, Mn, Zn, Fe, Cu, and B was observed when the OM ranged between 2 and 3%, and (d) the multiple regression models that assess K and P concentrations based on general soil properties showed an adequate performance, allowing their use for general assessment of their soil concentrations in the fields of the whole agro-ecosystem.

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