Author(s)

E. Chirino, J.R. Sánchez, A. Bonet & J. Bellot

Abstract

Effects of afforestation and vegetation dynamics on soil erosion in a semi-arid environment (SE Spain) E. Chirmo*, J.R. Sanchez^, A. Bonet^ & J, Department of Soil Science, Agrarian University of Havana, Cuba. * Department of Ecology, University of Alicante, Spain. Abstract Management policies in Mediterranean areas have traditionally encouraged the establishment of tree cover, in order to increase the complexity of the vegetation structure. To evaluate the effectiveness of these management policies, we studied the role of six vegetation cover types over 4 hydrological years (1995/96-1998/99) in 22 hydrological plots (8x2 nf). In the Ventos-Agost catchment (Alicante, Spain). Each of the six types represented different stages of successional pathways and afforestation actions that had been found in semi- arid Spain: bare land (£), dry grassland (Dg), shrubland (5), afforested dry grassland with Aleppo pine (Ag), afforested shrubland with Aleppo pine (As) and Alpha grass stepp

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