Anti-Erosion Effectiveness of Selected Crops in Sustainable Mountain Agriculture in a Warming Climate

Joanna Puła, Kazimierz Klima, Angelika Kliszcz () and Andrzej Lepiarczyk
Additional contact information
Joanna Puła: Department of Agroecology and Crop Production, Faculty of Agriculture and Economics, University of Agriculture, Mickiewicz 21 Ave, 31-120 Krakow, Poland
Kazimierz Klima: Department of Agroecology and Crop Production, Faculty of Agriculture and Economics, University of Agriculture, Mickiewicz 21 Ave, 31-120 Krakow, Poland
Angelika Kliszcz: Department of Agroecology and Crop Production, Faculty of Agriculture and Economics, University of Agriculture, Mickiewicz 21 Ave, 31-120 Krakow, Poland
Andrzej Lepiarczyk: Department of Agroecology and Crop Production, Faculty of Agriculture and Economics, University of Agriculture, Mickiewicz 21 Ave, 31-120 Krakow, Poland

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 18, 1-15

Abstract: Mountain ecosystems are among the most difficult areas for plant cultivation due to water erosion occurring on the slopes. Growing plants in these areas may lead to a weakening of ecosystem functions and in degradation of these areas and threatens sustainability. In this experiment, the anti-erosion effectiveness of maize, oat and spring vetch were assessed through the measuring of LAI and sheet wash from a slope where cultivation had occurred. Averaged values from the six years field experiment (2017–2022) reveal that maize achieved maximum soil protection between the 115th and 128th day of vegetation (14 days), when the LAI value equals to 3.8–4.0. The corresponding values for oats were 63–81 days of vegetation (19 days; LAI 2.4–2.7). The longest period of maximum soil protection was achieved from the cultivation of spring vetch compared to maize and oats (between the 49th and 82nd day of its vegetation, i.e., 34 days), when the LAI value was in the range of 2.2–3.0. Soil cover at their maximum development is conservative compared to mountain ecosystems, and in the case of the studied plants, the protection time varied. These relationships were quantified by simple regression equations. Additionally, taking into account the compiled climate data, the average air temperature in the years of research (2017–2022) was higher than the multi-year average (1961–2000) by 2.15 °C, which may confirm the fact that the climate is warming in the region of Southern Poland.

Keywords: sloping farmland; sustainable practices; sheet wash; LAI; climate change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/18/8212/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/18/8212/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:18:p:8212-:d:1482386

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().