Effects of cropland abandonment and afforestation on soil redistribution in a small Mediterranean mountain catchment

In slopes of Mediterranean mid-mountain areas, land use and land cover changes linked to the aban-donment of cropland activity affect soil quality and degradation and soil redistribution; however, limited attention has been paid to this issue at catchment scale. This paper evaluates the effects of cropland abandonment and post-land abandonment management (through natural revegetation and afforesta-tion) on soil redistribution rates using fallout Cs-137 measurements in the Araguas catchment (0.45 km(2), Central Spanish Pyrenees). A total of 52 soil core samples, distributed in a regular grid, from the first 30-40 cm and 9 sectioned reference samples were collected across the catchment and soil properties were analysed. Fallout Cs-137 was measured in a 5 cm sectioned references samples and in bulk grid samples. Cs-137 inventories were used to estimate soil erosion and deposition rates across the catchment. Results show that the highest erosion rates were recorded under sparsely vegetated sites in the badland area, while the lowest rates were found in the afforested area, but no significant differences were observed between the different uses and covers in soil redistribution rates likely due to a long history of human intervention through cultivation in steep slopes and afforestation practices. However, the recovery of the soil organic matter in afforested areas suggest that afforestation can reduce soil degradation at long-term scale. The information gained achieve a better understanding of soil redistribution dynamics and provide knowledge for effective land management after cropland abandonment of agroecosystems in Mediter-ranean mountain areas. (c) 2022 International Research and Training Center on Erosion and Sedimentation, China Water and Power Press, and China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY -NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

This study evaluates the effects of cropland abandonment and post-land abandonment management on soil redistribution rates in the Mediterranean mid-mountain areas. It found that afforested areas had the lowest soil erosion rates, indicating the potential of afforestation in reducing soil degradation. However, there were no significant differences in soil redistribution rates among different land uses and covers.