干旱区生态环境知识资源中心(Arid): Restoration and revegetation of road slopes in semiarid Mediterranean environments: edaphic processes determining success

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	Restoration and revegetation of road slopes in semiarid Mediterranean environments: edaphic processes determining success
	Tormo, J.; Bochet, E.; Garcia-Fayos, P.
通讯作者	Tormo, J
来源期刊	ECOSISTEMAS
ISSN	1697-2473
出版年	2009
卷号	18 期号:2 页码:79-90
英文摘要	Road construction and other public works produce severe environmental impacts that affect ecosystem properties. The slopes produced by these impacts present low vegetation cover as a result of slow spontaneous vegetation establishment and poor results of artificial revegetation. The study of the factors that limit vegetation establishment in these degraded areas will help us to improve the revegetation techniques. As in other environments, road slope colonization is limited to a certain extent by seed dispersal, so road slopes are mainly colonized by species from near areas and species able to disperse to long distances. Although many seeds are able to reach the slopes from nearby areas, plant establishment is not always successful due to edaphic limitations. The slope type (roadcut or roadfill) and aspect play a major role in plant colonization and plant cover increases in the following direction: South roadcuts, North roadcuts, South roadfills and North roadfills. Generally, the physical and chemical properties of degraded zones are not suitable for vegetation establishment, because of low soil fertility (low nutrient and organic matter contents), unbalanced textures and heavy stoniness. In roadcuts, edaphic conditions are even more unfavourable for plant establishment with compaction levels as high as 1500 MPa which exceed the threshold plant roots are unable to penetrate. But the main factor that limits and modulates colonization in road slopes of semi-arid environments is water stress. The soil tends to dry more quickly in roadcuts and south faces than in roadfills and north faces, following the same pattern as the vegetation cover. These hydric differences may explain differences in plant cover between slope types and aspects. To this respect, the species able to colonize successfully the road slopes proved to be able to germinate at lower water potentials and more quickly than species unable to colonize them, which allows them to take advantage of the short periods of water availability produced by the rain events. Moreover, steep road slopes with low vegetation cover undergo serious erosion problems, with an inverse trend to that described for the vegetation cover. This could indicate that erosion prevents colonization by removing seeds downslope. However, although erosion has a negative influence on seed loss by runoff, the absence of difference in soil seed density between roadcuts and roadfills indicates that erosion mainly limits plant colonization on slopes by the deterioration of edaphic properties ( decreasing fertility or increasing hydric deficit). Treatments as the addition of topsoil or mulches can mitigate limiting soil conditions and accelerate vegetation establishment. Moreover, in roadcuts, promising results have been obtained using treatments that decrease compaction, locally improve soil conditions and allow root penetration. Knowledge of the limiting factors to plant establishment in the different types of road slopes and of the role of some treatments in plant establishment success will allow us to optimise the use of the resources according to the needs of each zone to recover and, consequently, to elaborate revegetation plans with success guarantees.
类型	Article
语种	西班牙语
收录类别	ESCI
WOS记录号	WOS:000415315300009
WOS类目	Ecology
WOS研究方向	Environmental Sciences & Ecology
资源类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.177/qdio/handle/2XILL650/329282
作者单位	[Tormo, J.; Bochet, E.; Garcia-Fayos, P.] CSIC UV GV, Ctr Invest Desertificac, Cami Marjal S-N, E-46470 Valencia, Spain; [Tormo, J.] Fdn CEAM, Ctr Estudios Ambientales Mediterraneo, Paterna 46980, Valencia, Spain
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Tormo, J.,Bochet, E.,Garcia-Fayos, P.. Restoration and revegetation of road slopes in semiarid Mediterranean environments: edaphic processes determining success[J],2009,18(2):79-90.
APA	Tormo, J.,Bochet, E.,&Garcia-Fayos, P..(2009).Restoration and revegetation of road slopes in semiarid Mediterranean environments: edaphic processes determining success.ECOSISTEMAS,18(2),79-90.
MLA	Tormo, J.,et al."Restoration and revegetation of road slopes in semiarid Mediterranean environments: edaphic processes determining success".ECOSISTEMAS 18.2(2009):79-90.