Departamento de Geografía, Universidad de Málaga, Campus de Teatinos s/n, 29071, Málaga, Spain; Instituto de Geomorfología y Suelos, Universidad de Málaga, Ampliación Campus de Teatinos, 29071, Málaga, Spain.
Departamento de Geografía, Universidad de La Habana, Calle L No. 353 e/ 21 y 23, Vedado, La Habana, Cuba.
Environ Res. 2020 Apr;183:109160. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109160. Epub 2020 Jan 21.
Mediterranean mountains are facing great environmental and socioeconomic challenges in the current framework of Global Change. One of these is soil degradation, which is one of the major threats in those territories. Soil degradation is more dramatic where eco-geomorphology and land uses with less vegetation cover promote soil erosion. Soil erosion is influenced by soil erodibility, which can be assessed by different methodologies, e.g. RUSLE K factor and aggregate stability of soils. This study deals with the validation of RUSLE K factor by means of soil aggregate stability analysed in two-contrasted watersheds from one Mediterranean mountainous region in South of Spain, under sub-humid and semiarid climatic conditions. In both of them, landscape dynamic from 1956 to 2016 was analysed in order to characterize the modifications in land uses. A total of 361-soil samples was also taken covering all land uses for analysing aggregate stability of soils as well as those soil properties needed to calculate the RUSLE K factor. The results indicated that: i) landscape dynamic was influenced by changes in land uses contributing mainly to an increment in vegetation cover in the rainiest watershed; ii) the analysed soil properties showed very few significant differences between watersheds and between land uses, especially regarding organic matter content; and iii) the validation of K Factor using aggregate stability was better in the rainiest watershed and, within this one, in the natural land uses and irrigated cultivations, meaning where the biotic factors were more influential. These results implicated more researches are necessary, principally, focussed on the validation of the RUSLE K parameter using different fractions of aggregates as well as considering other eco-geomorphological parameters.
在地中海山区，在当前全球变化框架下，面临着巨大的环境和社会经济挑战。其中之一是土壤退化，这是这些地区的主要威胁之一。在生态地貌学和植被覆盖较少的土地利用促进土壤侵蚀的地方，土壤退化更为严重。土壤侵蚀受到土壤可蚀性的影响，可通过不同的方法评估，例如 RUSLE K 因子和土壤团聚体稳定性。本研究通过在西班牙南部一个地中海山区的两个对比流域中分析土壤团聚体稳定性，验证了 RUSLE K 因子。在这两个流域中，分析了 1956 年至 2016 年的景观动态，以描述土地利用的变化。总共采集了 361 个土壤样本，涵盖了所有土地利用类型，用于分析土壤团聚体稳定性以及计算 RUSLE K 因子所需的土壤性质。结果表明：i）景观动态受土地利用变化的影响，主要导致降雨量较大的流域中植被覆盖增加；ii）分析的土壤性质在流域之间和土地利用之间差异很小，特别是有机质含量；iii）使用团聚体稳定性验证 K 因子在降雨量较大的流域中效果更好，在该流域中，自然土地利用和灌溉耕作效果更好，这意味着生物因素的影响更大。这些结果表明需要进行更多的研究，主要是集中于使用不同的团聚体分数验证 RUSLE K 参数，并考虑其他生态地貌学参数。
