Landscape around the study site
View from North to south. Extensive gullying in the Hannanet catchment (some of these Gullies are stabilized with Atriplex.
At the plot scale, the normal land use type in this area corresponds to wheat or barley cultivation; only some limited slopes have other cover; one small plot on the western side conserved the matorral and the original thick soil; another plot is planted by grapes; a third one is planted with eucalyptus; some plots are abandoned to long term fallow because their state of degradation (loss of their soil in certain cases, or development of gullies in others).
In the annual cultivations, the soil is ploughed by animal traction or mechanically. Grazing during summer consumes the whole residues. In September, the soil is completely bare. Sheet erosion and gully erosion export important amounts of material.
