Geotubes vs. mulching for post-fire erosion mitigation in eucalypt vs. pine plantations in Central Portugal vs. Galicia

Author(s):  
Ana Isabel Machado ◽  
Bruna Oliveira ◽  
Dalila Serpa ◽  
Martha Santos ◽  
Fátima Jesus ◽  
...  

<p>Wildfires are well-known to negative affect forest both directly and indirectly, due to fire-enhanced runoff generation and the associated losses of wildfire ash, soil, organic matter and nutrients. In turn, post-fire runoff and erosion can, promote eutrophication and contamination of downstream surface water bodies. A variety of erosion mitigation measures have been tested in recently burnt areas, with especially mulching with straw having been applied in operational post-fire land management in the USA and Galicia. The present work, evaluates the effectiveness of a new erosion mitigation strategy, using geotubes filled with mycotechnosols and straw, and compares it to that of mulching. This was done for the two prevalent forest types in central Portugal and Galicia, i.e. an eucalypt plantation in Central Portugal and a pine plantation in Galicia that both burnt during the summer of 2019.  Both study sites were instrumented with 9 bounded erosion plots of 16m<sup>2</sup> with sediment traps at the bottom of the plots, divided over three blocks. The three treatments of doing nothing, mulching and geotubes were applied to one plot per block. In total, 4 geotubes were placed in each plot to create a barrier in the middle of the plot and at the bottom, just before the sediment deposition zone at the plot outlet. Mulching was done with chopped eucalypt bark at the eucalypt site and with pine needles at the pine site, at application rates of roughly 250 g m<sup>-2</sup>. Eroded sediments were collected on a bi-weekly to monthly basis, depending on occurrence of rain, during the first post-fire hydrological year. The results showed that the erosion rates of the control plots differed about one order of magnitude between the two sites, amounting to  an average of 11 Mg  ha<sup>-1 </sup>y-<sup>1</sup> at the pine site as opposed to 1.0 Mg ha<sup>-1</sup> y-<sup>1</sup>  at the eucalypt site. This discrepancy was probably related to soil type (derived from granite vs. schist) and stoniness. Mulching was somewhat more effective than the geotubes at the pines site, with reduction in average annual erosion rates of 84 and 77%, respectively. The opposite was true at the eucalypt site, with annual erosion reductions of on average 75 and 62%. The use of geotubes would therefore seem a further option for forest and water resources managers to decrease markedly the risks of both elevated and reduced soil (fertility) losses from recently burnt hillslopes and the associated risks for downstream values.</p>

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1991
Author(s):  
Silvia Stanchi ◽  
Odoardo Zecca ◽  
Csilla Hudek ◽  
Emanuele Pintaldi ◽  
Davide Viglietti ◽  
...  

We studied the effects of three soil management approaches (permanent grassing, chemical weeding, and buffer strips), and the additional impact of tractor passage on soil erosion in a sloping vineyard located in the inner part of Aosta Valley (N-W Italian Alps). The vineyard rows were equipped with a sediment collection system with channels and barrel tanks. A total of 12 events with sediment production were observed across 6 years, and the collected sediments were weighted and analyzed. Average erosion rates ranged from negligible (mainly in grassed rows) to 1.1 t ha−1 per event (after weeding). The most erosive event occurred in July 2015, with a total rainfall of 32.2 mm, of which 20.1 were recorded in 1 h. Despite the limited number of erosive events observed, and the low measured erosion rates, permanent grassing reduced soil erosion considerably with respect to weeding; buffering had a comparable effect to grassing. The tractor passage, independent of the soil management approaches adopted, visibly accelerated the erosion process. The collected sediments were highly enriched in organic C, total N, and fine size fractions, indicating a potential loss of fertility over time. Despite the measured erosion rates being low over the experiment’s duration, more severe events are well documented in the recent past, and the number of intense storms is likely to increase due to climate change. Thus, the potential effects of erosion in the medium and long term need to be limited to a minimum rate of soil loss. Our experiment helped to compare soil losses by erosion under different soil management practices, including permanent grassing, i.e., a nature-based erosion mitigation measure. The results of the research can provide useful indications for planners and practitioners in similar regions, for sustainable, cross-sectoral soil management, and the enhancement of soil ecosystem services.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dante Föllmi ◽  
Jantiene Baartman ◽  
João Pedro Nunes ◽  
Akli Benali

<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>Wildfires have become an increasing threat for Mediterranean ecosystems, due to increasing climate change induced wildfire activity and changing land management practices. Apart from the initial risk, fire can alter the soil in various ways depending on different fire severities and thus post-fire erosion processes are an important component in assessing wildfires’ negative effects. Recent post-fire erosion (modelling) studies often focus on a short time window and lack the attention for sediment dynamics at larger spatial scales. Yet, these large spatial and temporal scales are fundamental for a better understanding of catchment sediment dynamics and long-term destructive effects of multiple fires on post-fire erosion processes. In this study the landscape evolution model LAPSUS was used to simulate erosion and deposition in the 404 km<sup>2</sup> Águeda catchment in northern-central Portugal over a 41 year (1979-2020) timespan. To include variation in fire severity and its impact on the soil four burnt severity classes, represented by the difference Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR), were parameterized. Although model calibration was difficult due to lack of spatial and temporal measured data, the results show that average post-fire net erosion rates were significantly higher in the wildfire scenarios (5.95 ton ha<sup>-1</sup> yr<sup>-1</sup>) compared to those of a non-wildfire scenario (0.58 ton ha<sup>-1</sup> yr<sup>-1</sup>). Furthermore, erosion values increased with a higher level of burnt severity and multiple fires increased the overall sediment build-up in the catchment, fostering an increase in background sediment yield. Simulated erosion patterns showed great spatial variability with large deposition and erosion rates inside streams. Due to this variability, it was difficult to identify land uses that were most sensitive for post-fire erosion, because some land-uses were located in more erosion-sensitive areas (e.g. streams, gullies) or were more affected by high burnt severity levels than others. Despite these limitations, LAPSUS performed well on addressing spatial sediment processes and has the ability to contribute to pre-fire management strategies. For instance, the percentage soil loss map (i.e. comparison of erosion and soil depth maps) could identify locations at risk.</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (8) ◽  
pp. 1357-1373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darren M. Lumbroso ◽  
Natalie R. Suckall ◽  
Robert J. Nicholls ◽  
Kathleen D. White

Abstract. Recent events in the USA have highlighted a lack of resilience in the coastal population to coastal flooding, especially amongst disadvantaged and isolated communities. Some low-income countries, such as Cuba and Bangladesh, have made significant progress towards transformed societies that are more resilient to the impacts of cyclones and coastal flooding. To understand how this has come about, a systematic review of the peer-reviewed and grey literature related to resilience of communities to coastal flooding was undertaken in both countries. In both Cuba and Bangladesh the trust between national and local authorities, community leaders and civil society is high. As a consequence evacuation warnings are generally followed and communities are well prepared. As a result over the past 25 years in Bangladesh the number of deaths directly related to cyclones and coastal flooding has decreased, despite an increase of almost 50 % in the number of people exposed to these hazards. In Cuba, over the course of eight hurricanes between 2003 and 2011, the normalized number of deaths related to cyclones and coastal floods was an order of magnitude less than in the USA. In low-income countries, warning systems and effective shelter/evacuation systems, combined with high levels of disaster risk-reduction education and social cohesion, coupled with trust between government authorities and vulnerable communities can help to increase resilience to coastal hazards and tropical cyclones. In the USA, transferable lessons include improving communication and the awareness of the risk posed by coastal surges, mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into the education system and building trusted community networks to help isolated and disadvantaged communities, and improve community resilience.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 2289-2307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nolwenn Lemaitre ◽  
Hélène Planquette ◽  
Frédéric Planchon ◽  
Géraldine Sarthou ◽  
Stéphanie Jacquet ◽  
...  

Abstract. The remineralisation of sinking particles by prokaryotic heterotrophic activity is important for controlling oceanic carbon sequestration. Here, we report mesopelagic particulate organic carbon (POC) remineralisation fluxes in the North Atlantic along the GEOTRACES-GA01 section (GEOVIDE cruise; May–June 2014) using the particulate biogenic barium (excess barium; Baxs) proxy. Important mesopelagic (100–1000 m) Baxs differences were observed along the transect depending on the intensity of past blooms, the phytoplankton community structure, and the physical forcing, including downwelling. The subpolar province was characterized by the highest mesopelagic Baxs content (up to 727 pmol L−1), which was attributed to an intense bloom averaging 6 mg chl a m−3 between January and June 2014 and by an intense 1500 m deep convection in the central Labrador Sea during the winter preceding the sampling. This downwelling could have promoted a deepening of the prokaryotic heterotrophic activity, increasing the Baxs content. In comparison, the temperate province, characterized by the lowest Baxs content (391 pmol L−1), was sampled during the bloom period and phytoplankton appear to be dominated by small and calcifying species, such as coccolithophorids. The Baxs content, related to oxygen consumption, was converted into a remineralisation flux using an updated relationship, proposed for the first time in the North Atlantic. The estimated fluxes were of the same order of magnitude as other fluxes obtained using independent methods (moored sediment traps, incubations) in the North Atlantic. Interestingly, in the subpolar and subtropical provinces, mesopelagic POC remineralisation fluxes (up to 13 and 4.6 mmol C m−2 d−1, respectively) were equalling and occasionally even exceeding upper-ocean POC export fluxes, deduced using the 234Th method. These results highlight the important impact of the mesopelagic remineralisation on the biological carbon pump of the studied area with a near-zero, deep (> 1000 m) carbon sequestration efficiency in spring 2014.


1974 ◽  
Vol 1 (14) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
V.F. Motta ◽  
J.V. Bandeira

The total annual volume of littoral drift on either side of the mouth of Sergipe estuary, in the Northeast of Brazil, has been de_ termined by applying Caldwell's, Castanho's and Bijker's methods to the wave characteristics that had been recorded at a twenty-metre depth of water, over a whole year, for the design of an offshore oil terminal. The three computation methods yielded the same order of maj> nitude which was found to amount to about 80000Om^/year. The dominant drift is s outhwes tward, and its predicted amount is 660000m-*/year. It was also found that although the three methods lead to total re suits of the same order of magnitude, they do not agree as to the vari^ ation of littoral drift over the year for the s ame waves. An eight-metre deep shipping channe 1 has been dredgedaccross the bar. The channel was surveyed in December 1971, August and Decem ber 1972, and a cubature of the deposits was made after the littoraldrift computations had been carried out. As the latter had been per formed on a monthly basis, a comparison became possible between pre dieted and actual volumes of deposits for the same lengths of time. The predicted volumes for the whole year were found to be from 34 to 46% greater than the actual results. However, for the time interval August-December 1972 a remarkable agreement was found be^ tween predicted and actual results.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1047-1092 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Attal ◽  
S. M. Mudd ◽  
M. D. Hurst ◽  
B. Weinman ◽  
K. Yoo ◽  
...  

Abstract. The characteristics of the sediment transported by rivers (e.g., sediment flux, grain size distribution – GSD –) dictate whether rivers aggrade or erode their substrate. They also condition the architecture and properties of sedimentary successions in basins. In this study, we investigate the relationship between landscape steepness and the grain size of hillslope and fluvial sediments. The study area is located within the Feather River Basin in Northern California, and studied basins are underlain exclusively by tonalite lithology. Erosion rates in the study area vary over an order of magnitude, from > 250 mm ka−1 in the Feather River canyon to < 15 mm ka−1 on an adjacent low relief plateau. We find that the coarseness of hillslope sediment increases with increasing hillslope steepness and erosion rates. We hypothesize that, in our soil samples, the measured ten-fold increase in D50 and doubling of the amount of fragments larger than 1 mm when slope increases from 0.38 to 0.83 m m−1 is due to a decrease in the residence time of rock fragments, causing particles to be exposed for shorter periods of time to processes that can reduce grain size. For slopes in excess of 0.7 m m−1, landslides and scree cones supply much coarser sediment to rivers, with D50 and D84 more than one order of magnitude larger than in soils. In the tributary basins of the Feather River, a prominent break in slope developed in response to the rapid incision of the Feather River. Downstream of the break in slope, fluvial sediment grain size increases, due to an increase in flow competence (mostly driven by channel steepening) but also by a change in sediment source and in sediment dynamics: on the plateau upstream of the break in slope, rivers transport easily mobilised fine-grained sediment derived exclusively from soils. Downstream of the break in slope, mass wasting processes supply a wide range of grain sizes that rivers entrain selectively, depending on the competence of their flow. Our results also suggest that in this study site, hillslopes respond rapidly to an increase in the rate of base-level lowering compared to rivers.


2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 1375-1386 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. J. Guan ◽  
C. J. Westbrook ◽  
C. Spence

Abstract. Soil moisture and ground thaw state are both indicative of a hillslope's ability to transfer water. In cold regions, in particular, it is widely known that the depth of the active layer and wetness of surface soils are important for runoff generation, but the diversity of interactions between ground thaw and surface soil moisture themselves has not been studied. To fill this knowledge gap, detailed shallow soil moisture and thaw depth surveys were conducted along systematic grids at the Baker Creek Basin, Northwest Territories. Multiple hillslopes were studied to determine how the interactions differed along a spectrum of topological, typological and topographic situations across the landscape. Overall results did not show a simple link between soil moisture and ground thaw as was expected. Instead, correlation was a function of wetness. The interaction between soil moisture and ground thaw was more dependent at wetter sites. This indicates that interactive soil moisture and thaw depth behaviour on hillslopes in cold regions changes with location and cannot necessarily be lumped together in hydrological models. To explore further why these differences arise, a companion paper (Guan et al., 2010) will examine how the hydrological and energy fluxes influenced the patterns of moisture and thaw among the study sites.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Weninger ◽  
Simon Scheper ◽  
Nathan King ◽  
Karl Gartner ◽  
Barbara Kitzler ◽  
...  

&lt;p&gt;Wind erosion of arable soil is considered a risk factor for Austrian fields, but direct measurements of soil loss are not available until now. Despite this uncertainty, vegetated windbreaks have been established to minimize adverse wind impacts on arable land. The study addresses these questions: i) How relevant is wind erosion as a factor of soil degradation? ii) How important is the protective effect of vegetated windbreaks? iii) Are systematic patterns of spatial and temporal variability of wind erosion rates detectable in response to weather conditions?&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Two experimental fields adjacent to windbreaks were equipped with sediment traps, soil moisture sensors, and meteorological measurement equipment for microclimatic patterns. Sediment traps were arranged in high spatial resolution from next to the windbreak to a distance of ten times the windbreak height. Beginning in January 2020, the amount of trapped sediment was analyzed every three weeks. The highest wind erosion rates on bare soil were observed in June and July. For unprotected fields with bare soil, upscaled annual erosion rates were as high as 0.8 tons per hectare, and sediment trapped increased in a linear fashion with distance from the windbreak. Soil water content near the surface (5 cm depth) was three percent higher at a distance of two times the height of the windbreak than at a distance of six times the height. For the same respective distances from the windbreak, we observed 29 days of soil water contents below the wilting point compared with 60 days.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The preliminary outcomes confirmed the expected effects of windbreaks on soil erosion and microclimate in agricultural fields. Prospective results from multiple vegetation periods will be used in an upscaling approach to gain informations for the whole basin. That is meant to be done by a combination with a soil wind erosion model which was so far used for regional modelling of wind erosion susceptibility.&lt;/p&gt;


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donovan P. Dennis ◽  
Dirk Scherler ◽  
Samuel Niedermann ◽  
Kristina Hippe ◽  
Hella Wittmann ◽  
...  

&lt;p&gt;The erosion of cold bedrock hillslopes in alpine environments depends not only on rates of frost weathering and accumulated rock damage, but additionally on the removal of the weathered material from the bedrock surface. In the Mont Blanc massif, steep bedrock faces with exposure ages sometimes much older than 50,000 years sit in close proximity to actively-eroding rockwalls, suggesting a more complex relationship between temperature and erosion rates than encompassed by the proposed &amp;#8220;frost-cracking window.&amp;#8221; Stochastic events like rockfalls and rock avalanches, despite their rarity, contribute a non-trivial proportion of the total sediment budget in alpine permafrost regions, adding to the contribution from background &amp;#8220;steady-state&amp;#8221; erosion. Employing a methodology based on the combination of in-situ cosmogenic nuclides &lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt;He -&lt;sup&gt;10&lt;/sup&gt;Be-&lt;sup&gt;14&lt;/sup&gt;C, we test the temperature-dependence of high-alpine erosion while taking into account erosional stochasticity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;From cosmogenic &lt;sup&gt;10&lt;/sup&gt;Be concentrations of amalgamated samples collected on the Aiguille du Midi (3842 m a.s.l.) in the Mont Blanc massif, we find an order of magnitude difference in erosion rate across the peak&amp;#8217;s surface. Our preliminary measured erosion rates, ranging between appx. 0.03 mm yr&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt; and 1.0 mm yr&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;, correlate neither with modern temperature measurements from borehole thermistors, nor with our current estimates of bedrock cosmogenic &lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt;He-derived paleotemperatures. The corresponding cosmogenic &lt;sup&gt;14&lt;/sup&gt;C/&lt;sup&gt;10&lt;/sup&gt;Be ratios (between 1.70 and 4.0) for these erosion rates indicate that our measurements are not biased by recent stochastic rockfall events. Our current results therefore suggest that on geomorphic timescales, bedrock hillslope erosion rates are not set solely by rates of frost-cracking, but rather by the combined effects of frost-cracking and permafrost thaw-induced rockfalls. These insights are relevant both for short-term monitoring of alpine permafrost and associated geohazards under a warming climate, as well as studies of proposed &amp;#8220;buzzsaws&amp;#8221; operating on glacial-interglacial timescales.&lt;/p&gt;


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dalila Serpa ◽  
Ana Machado ◽  
Martha Santos ◽  
Isabel Campos ◽  
Fátima Jesus ◽  
...  

&lt;p&gt;Wildfires constitute a diffuse source of contamination to aquatic ecosystems. In burnt hillslopes, ash and sediments transported by overland flow are a source of potentially hazardous substances, like metals, posing a risk for downstream water bodies. In the present study, post-fire metal mobilization by overland flow was evaluated in 16 m&lt;sup&gt;2 &lt;/sup&gt;bounded plots at a eucalypt stand in Albergaria-a-Velha (Aveiro district, North-Central Portugal) that burnt with moderate severity in September 2019. Overland flow samples were collected on a weekly to bi-weekly basis, depending on the occurrence of rain, during the first 6 months after fire. Aside from overland flow samples collected at slope scale, water and sediment samples were also collected in a fire-affected stream within the Albergaria burned catchment, to assess the contamination risk posed by the fire. Samples were collected at three sites along the stream: one upstream, one within and another downstream from the burnt area, after major rainfall events. The metals analysed in this study included, vanadium (V), chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb). Results showed that most metals exhibited a peak in exports immediately after the first significant post-fire rainfall event likely due to the wash-off of the ash layer and high sediment losses, but for some elements like Zn and Cu, exports were more or less constant over time. The fire seems to have had a low impact on the water quality of the affected stream, since metal concentrations were similar between the three study sites. The quality of stream sediments, on the other hand, was clearly affected by the fire, especially after the rainy season. As fire severity and frequency is forecasted to increase in the near future due to climate changes, the results of this work reinforce the importance of water managers to define adaptative strategies to effectively protect freshwater bodies.&lt;/p&gt;


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