Effect of Standard Disk Plough on Soil Translocation in Sloping Sicilian Vineyards

Agata Novara, Amelia Novara, Antonio Comparetti, Antonino Santoro, Artemi Cerdà, Jesús Rodrigo-Comino and Luciano Gristina
Additional contact information
Agata Novara: Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Forestali, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Building 4, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Amelia Novara: Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Forestali, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Building 4, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Antonio Comparetti: Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Forestali, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Building 4, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Antonino Santoro: Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Forestali, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Building 4, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Artemi Cerdà: Soil Erosion and Degradation Research Group, Department of Geography, University of Valencia, Blasco Ibàñez, 28, 46010 Valencia, Spain
Jesús Rodrigo-Comino: Departamento de Análisis Geográfico Regional y Geografía Física, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Campus Universitario de Cartuja, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain
Luciano Gristina: Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Forestali, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Building 4, 90128 Palermo, Italy

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 2, 1-10

Abstract: Tillage is the main force of soil redistribution in agricultural land use and has been seen as more critical than water erosion. This study aims to evaluate the effect of tillage with standard disk in vineyards. A representative study area with grapevines was selected, and 39 inter-rows were selected to test the effect of slope and forward speed. In each inter-row, a strip of soil was collected, and mixed with 2 kg of coloured sand used as a tracer, then replaced in the strip, and shallow soil tillage was performed by means of a standard disk plough. Three soil subsamples were collected along the slope every 0.30 m from the coloured strip and the sand tracer was separated from the soil and weighed. The results show that the mean soil translocation distance ranged from 0.73 to 1.14 m along the upslope direction, and from 0.32 to 0.84 m along the downslope direction. The net translocation was −0.33 ± 0.12 m which indicate an upslope soil movement. Mean translocation distance was not significantly affected by the considered forward speeds. These results demonstrate that tillage can reallocate soil upslope and open new insights into the use of disk plough as sustainable management in vineyards.

Keywords: soil degradation; tillage erosion; tillage implements; soil movement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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