Plot scale
In the plots where were implemented WSC techniques, two types of land use are considered:
- Annual cultivations
- Grazing pastures
Two types of processes are responsible of land degradation:
- Overland flow
- Gullies
Two kinds of intervention:
- In a cereal plot, Mulching, followed by minimum tillage, for the reconstitution of the biological mechanisms in the soil,
- In a gullied area, plantation of Atriplex to restore the land and prevent extension of the gullies.
Two modes of monitoring:
- In the cultivated plot, soil and vegetation measurements
- In the gullied area, micro‐topography follow up and vegetation measurements
Monitoring the plot with mulch and minimum tillage
- Permanent installation of sets of TDR at 5, 15 and 30 cm depth to monitor the soil
- Repeated measurements of the crops during the vegetative cycle
- Measuring the yield in and outside the mulch field
- Observations on the soil behaviour after rains
Monitoring the effects of the Atriplex plantation
- Follow‐up of the surface and of the vegetation cover (the Atriplex, the herbs, the soil surface) by comparison between the planted field and the other gullies
- Micro‐topographic monitoring of two gullies, one in the planted field and the other outside.
