Juan Albaladejo

• Doctor of Chemical Sciences
• Professor at CSIC Spain

“The Form of Confession by Agustín de Quintana: A tessera of translation history in Spanish America”. Religious orders played an essential role in the cultural history of the New World. They studied and learned the indigenous languages, wrote grammar books, developed writing systems and compiled information about the cultural heritage of the Amerin...

Soils play a major role in the global carbon cycle and are crucial to the management of climate change. Changes in plant cover derived from different agricultural practices induce variations in the quality of plant residue inputs and in the soil microbial community structure and activity, which may enhance the storage and protection of organic carb...

Soil degradation continues to be of the major threats for sustainable development and human well-being. Despite the advances in research, there is still a gap between research and effective conservation. To fill this gap, a change is needed in the paradigm of soil conservation research. Therefore, this paper aims to: (i) introduce the concept of Ec...

Organic amendment is a proved method of improving soil physical properties thus a}ecting runo} and soil erosion[ Urban wastes are a potential source of organic matter and their use would also be a convenient way of disposing of them[ A _eld experiment was conducted from October 0877 to September 0882 in a semiarid Mediterranean site to determine th...

Rainfall is the key factor to understand soil erosion processes, mechanisms, and rates. Most research was conducted to determine rainfall characteristics and their relationship with soil erosion (erosivity) but there is little information about how atmospheric patterns control soil losses, and this is important to enable sustainable environmental p...

The role of soil fertility in modulating plant water utilization from rainfall pulses under dryland conditions is poorly understood. Moreover, the effectiveness of soil fertilization in drylands is difficult to ensure due to immobilization of nutrients such as phosphorus and micronutrients. The use of foliar fertilization could overcome these diffi...

Soil degradation by water is a serious environmental problem worldwide, with specific climatic factors being the major causes. We investigated the relationships between synoptic atmospheric patterns (i.e. weather types, WTs) and runoff, erosion and sediment yield throughout the Mediterranean basin by analyzing a large database of natural rainfall e...

Soil degradation by water is a serious environmental problem worldwide, with specific climatic factors being the major causes. We investigated the relationships between synoptic atmospheric patterns (i.e. weather types, WTs) and runoff, erosion and sediment yield throughout the Mediterranean basin by analyzing a large database of natural rainfall e...

This contribution results from international collaborative efforts of different research groups around the Mediterranean basin focusing on soil conservation and water management. We will present the most complete database of runoff and soil erosion information and analyze the records from 68 locations, including more than 22458 detail events betwee...

Erosion processes and land degradation are recognized as one of the most significant environmental problems worldwide. In the Mediterranean region, intense erosion processes occur as a consequence of complex interactions between environmental conditions (e.g. climate, lithology) and human-related factors (e.g. history of human activity, land use ch...

Erosion processes and land degradation are recognized as one of the most significant environmental problems worldwide. In the Mediterranean region, intense erosion processes occur as a consequence of complex interactions between environmental conditions (e.g. climate, lithology) and human-related factors (e.g. history of human activity, land use ch...

Erosion processes and land degradation are recognized as one of the most significant environmental problems worldwide. In the Mediterranean region, intense erosion processes occur as a consequence of complex interactions between environmental conditions (e.g. climate, lithology) and human-related factors (e.g. history of human activity, land use ch...

We investigated the magnitude and drivers of spatial variability in soil and plant δ ¹⁵ N across the landscape in a topographically complex semiarid ecosystem. We hypothesized that large spatial heterogeneity in water availability, soil fertility and vegetation cover would be positively linked to high local‐scale variability in δ ¹⁵ N. We measured...

Changes in plant cover after afforestation induce variations in litter inputs and soil microbial community structure and activity, which may promote the accrual and physical-chemical protection of soil organic carbon (SOC) within soil aggregates. In a long-term experiment (20 years) we have studied the effects, on soil aggregation and SOC stabiliza...

Our aim was to evaluate the long-term influences of urban organic amendments on the enzymes involved in the carbon cycle under semi-arid conditions, including changes in the biomass and structure of the microbial community. A soil was restored 24 years ago with an organic amendment based on domestic organic waste. Organic amendment was applied to s...

Sustainable farming practices can be beneficial or detrimental to crop production in the short-term, which will strongly determine their appeal to farmers. We evaluated the effects of several sustainable practices on soil properties, plant nutrition and ecophysiology and crop yield in a semiarid agroecosystem. A three-year randomised experiment was...

The hydrology of semiarid areas is characterized by irregular and sporadic events and a tremendous spatio-temporal variability of control factors. In 1997, experimental watersheds were installed in Sierra del Picarcho (Cieza, Murcia) to identify the factors controlling runoff generation at different study scales, to study the spatial and temporal v...

Pressure on land resources has increased during recent years despite international goals to improve their management. The fourth Global Environment Outlook (UNEP) highlighted the unprecedented land-use changes created by a burgeoning population, economic development and global markets. The outcome of those drivers continues to cause resource deplet...

Purpose Most dryland ecosystems show high landscape heterogeneity that can influence soil fertility, although the underlying processes are still poorly understood. Furthermore, our understanding of the same could be affected by the scale dependency of the landscape representation. Here, we study the relationships between soil and landscape attribut...

Purpose The sensitivity of soil organic carbon to global change drivers, according to the depth profile, is receiving increasing attention because of its importance in the global carbon cycle and its potential feedback to climate change. A better knowledge of the vertical distribution of SOC and its controlling factors—the aim of this study—will he...

The results of an experiment to evaluate the effect of rainfall characteristics on organic carbon (OC) losses and on the type of particles mobilised by erosion under natural rainfall and under different land uses (non-disturbed forested area, and a non-irrigated olive cropland) at plot scale are presented. Labile (particulate organic carbon, POC) a...

Total belowground C allocation (TBCA) accounts for a large fraction of gross primary production, it may overtake aboveground net primary production, and contributes to the primary source of detrital C in the mineral soil. Here, we measure soil respiration, water erosion, litterfall and estimate annual changes in C stored in mineral soil, litter and...

Reforestation with Pinus halepensis has been the most frequently used method for restoring supposedly degraded lands in Mediterranean semiarid areas, a key objective of which is to improve soil conditions to trigger succession. In this paper we study the effect of a 30 year-old reforestation on lands formerly dedicated to two different uses: shrubl...

The effect of changing land uses on the organic soil carbon (C) stock and the soil C transported by water erosion and buried in depositional wedges behind check-dams was estimated in a Mediterranean catchment in SE Spain. The 57 % decrease in agricultural areas and 1.5-fold increase of the total forest cover between 1956 and 1997 induced an accumul...

Semi-arid South-east Spain presents probably the most visible problems of land degradation in Europe, including sheet erosion, rills and gullies, piping and tunnelling, salinity and sodicity, as well as collapse of conservation structures and damage to infrastructure such as roads and dams. Within the Mula basin, Province of Murcia, a field, partic...

Catchments behave as sources or sinks of soil carbon, depending on the magnitude and type of land use changes within their drainage area, on the intensity of erosion processes and on the fate of eroded sediments. The effect of changing land uses on the organic soil carbon (C) stock and the soil C transported by water erosion and buried in depositio...

Catchments can behave globally as sources or sinks of soil carbon depending on the magnitude and type of land use changes within their drainage area, on the intensity of erosion processes and, on the destiny of eroded sediments. The effect of changing land uses on the organic soil carbon stock and the soil carbon transported by water erosion and bu...

The soil organic carbon (SOC) pool represents a dynamic equilibrium of gains and losses. Conversion of forest ecosystems into croplands causes depletion of the SOC pool by as much as 60% in soils of temperate regions. Alterations in the size of the soil C pool at a specific location are determined by the relative changes in the inputs (aboveground...

Restoration of degraded lands could be a way to reverse soil degradation and desertification in semiarid areas and mitigate greenhouse gases (GHG). Our objective was to evaluate the long-term effects of a single addition of organic refuse on soil physical properties and measure its carbon sequestration potential. In 1988, a set of five plots (87 m(...

An experiment to evaluate the impact of water erosion and cultivation on the soil carbon dynamic and carbon stock in a semiarid area of South-East Spain was carried out. The study was performed under three different land use scenarios: (1) forest; (2) abandoned agricultural field; and (3) non-irrigated olive grove. Experimental erosion plots (in ol...

The Mar Menor is a coastal lagoon increasingly threatened by urban and agricultural pressures. The main watercourse draining into the lagoon is the Rambla del Albujón. A fortnightly campaign carried out over one annual cycle enabled us to characterize the treated urban sewage effluents and agricultural sources which contribute to the nutrient fluxe...

The fragile soils at the transition between semiarid and arid areas are continuously threatened by human activity, which frequently involves the elimination of plant cover. We studied the impact of vegetation removal on soil characteristics in senmiarid Mediterranean Spain using two plots (15 m ± 5 m), installed on a north facing slope of 23%. Vege...

An understanding of the sources of variation in the use of erosion plots and of their feasibility to meet the objectives of each specific research project is key to improving future field designs, selecting data for modelling purposes and furthering knowledge of soil erosion processes. Our own field experiences from ongoing research on soil erosion...

Soil erosion plots of different types and sizes are widely used to investigate the geomorphological processes related to soil erosion. This field method has provided a variety of results, depending on the characteristics of the plots, on their suitability to reflect the ecosystem's characteristics and on the objectives of each particular research....

From the 1980s onward studies on interrill soil erosion were intensified in SE Spain. The main achievements of the research carried out in the field areas of Alicante and Murcia concern: first, (1) the estimation of erosion rates directly in the field under a wide range of methodologies, different scales and different environmental conditions; (2)...

A 5-year study of the reforestation of a semiarid Mediterranean ecosystem with Pinus halepensis is presented. Reforestation of Mediterranean semiarid ecosystems is challenging as a result of harsh environmental conditions and historical human exploitation leading to degradation. New techniques have to be developed in order to increase survivorship...

Organo-mineral particle-size fractions play a major role in soil structure. However, our knowledge of these size fractions must increase if we are to optimise the physical regeneration of degraded soils in semiarid areas. Twenty soils (sieved <2 mm) used for two contrasting purposes (agriculture and forestry) in southeastern Spain were fractionated...

Se estudian los efectos de distintos tratamientos de preparación del suelo y planta sobre la supervivencia y desarrollo de una repoblación de pino carrasco a medio plazo (5 años). Se ensayaron 60 tratamientos como resultado de la combinación de 12 tratamientos de suelo y 5 de planta. Las técnicas de preparación de suelo mostraron mayor influencia e...

A reduction in plant cover can lead to an increase in the erosionprocesses that diminish soil quality. Any rise in temperature resulting frompredicted climate changes may aggravate this effect, particularly in semiaridMediterranean areas. Bearing this in mind, the capacity of a soil to preserveorganic matter becomes very important if the soil is to...

Erosion and sediment characteristics were measured using simulated rainfall on two cultivated soils of contrasting lithology (Quaternary calcareous colluvium and Tertiary marls) in a semiarid Mediterranean area of SE Spain. Two rainfall intensities, high (56.0±2.4 mm h⁻¹) and medium (31.4±1.4 mm h⁻¹), were used in order to know the mechanisms invol...

The factors which control soil moisture patterns in a semiarid area are determined in two different locations: a burnt zone with little vegetation and an unburnt zone with a greater vegetal cover. In the burnt area, the factors affecting the spatial variability of the soil water content are those considered as local controls such as soil texture an...

An afforestation experiment with the drought resistant species Pinus halepensis Miller was conducted in a degraded semiarid rangeland of southeastern Spain to evaluate the influence of site preparation on soil moisture and seedling performance. Three different land preparation treatments were tested: manual terracing, mechanical terracing and mecha...

Organic refuse application to soil may improve soil structure and thus soil quality and productivity. Two semiarid, structureless soils with <10 g kg-1 organic C (OC), differing in clay mineralogy, were amended annually at rates of 30 g kg-1 fresh or composted refuse to a total of 60 g kg-1 in a greenhouse experiment lasting 2 yr. Fresh refuse addi...

A better knowledge of soil erosion by water is essential for planning effective soil and water conservation practices in semi-arid Mediterranean environments. The special climatic and hydrological characteristics of these areas, however, make accurate soil loss predictions difficult, particularly in the absence of minimal data. Two zero-order exper...

Se presenta el diseño de una experiencia realizada en campo con lluvia simulada para el estudio de los cambios que se producen durante la tormenta en ciertas propiedades superficiales (rugosidad y resistencia mecánica) y físicas (densidad aparente, conductividad hidráulica saturada, porosidad) del suelo. La experiencia se desarrolla en una zona agr...

Revegetation of arid regions is primarily water-limited. To test the impact of several afforestation site preparation methods on the physical properties and the moisture content of the soil, a factorial experiment was conducted in a degraded semiarid rangeland of southeastern Spain. The land preparation treatments evaluated were terracing (mechanic...

Soil amendment with organic materials prior to afforestation as well as the use of mycorrhizal inoculation, are advisable practices in afforestation of semiarid areas. In this work, the effect of both organic amendment and mycorrhizal treatment on the microbial activity of a soil afforested with Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis Miller) was studied. La...

Organic amendment is a proved method of improving soil physical properties thus affecting runoff and soil erosion. Urban wastes are a potential source of organic matter and their use would also be a convenient way of disposing of them.A field experiment was conducted from October 1988 to September 1993 in a semiarid Mediterranean site to determine...

Erosion control at low–medium radioactive waste disposal sites is an important concern. A study was carried out in El Cabril (Córdoba, Spain) on two 40 per cent anthropic steep slopes in order to test the effectiveness of hydro-seeding techniques for controlling soil erosion. Two groups of 10 m × 3 m plots were established. The treatments tested we...

The antecedent soil moisture status of a catchment is an important factor in hydrological modelling. Traditional Hortonian infiltration models assume that the initial moisture content is constant across the whole catchment, despite the fact that even in small catchments antecedent soil moisture exhibits tremendous spatial heterogeneity. Spatial pat...

Sediment samples were collected during four years from two plots, one covered by natural vegetation and the other, a “replica” of the same plot, from which the vegetation was removed manually (disturbed plot), in order to evaluate the effects of vegetal cover on sediment particle size distribution. Particle-size was measured using a Coulter LS130 l...

Soil erosion, which is a widespread problem in semiarid areas, may lead to a decline in soil productivity since the finest and most fertile soil particles are those which are generally removed. Our objective was to determine the distribution of soil organic matter, phosphorus, potassium and cation exchange capacity within the fine fractions (The da...

A factorial field experiment was conducted in a degraded semi-arid site of southeastern Spain to test the effectiveness of mycorrhization and several soil preparation techniques on afforestation with Pinus halepensis. The mycorrhizal treatments were nursery inoculation with Pisolithus arhizus and forest soil addition to the planting holes. The soil...

Revegetation of areas under semiarid conditions is difficult due to both the water shortage and the poor quality of the soils of semiarid areas. Two techniques of soil management (manually and mechanically built terraces), as well as soil amendment with organic materials were used for revegetation in a semiarid area. In this work the effect of such...

A deeper knowledge of the hydrological response of semi-arid Mediterranean watersheds would be useful in the prediction of runoff production for assessing flood risks and planning flood mitigation works. This study was conducted to identify the runoff generation mechanisms and their controlling factors at the hillslope scale in a Mediterranean semi...

A long-term field experiment was conducted in a semiarid Mediterranean site to determine the eÄect of the application of several doses (65, 13, 195 and 26 kg mˇ2) of urban solid refuse (USR) on the plant colonization, plant cover and biomass production. The plant species richness did not increase in all the treated plots with respect to the control...

When soils of semiarid areas are used for agriculture, their arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal propagules undergo a series of changes, and when agricultural land is abandoned it is very difficult for these populations and the plant cover to recover. We studied soils that have been abandoned for different lengths of time (3–45 years) in a homogeneo...

Devegetation of soils in arid areas leads to the diminution of their biological quality. In this paper the changes in the biological quality of arid soils due to devegetation have been quantified. The field experiment was carried out on soils from an arid area (southeast Spain) 7 yr after the area was devegetated; this area was contrasted with a na...

The removal of vegetation is the main cause of soil degradation in semiarid areas. We hypothesized that the changes in soil properties induced by vegetation removal modified the runoff and soil erosion response in a semiarid area of Spain. To test this, two plots (15 by 5 m) were installed on a 23% slope on a Lithic Haploxeroll. Vegetation was remo...

Structural stability of soils is one of the most important characteristics related to soil degradation in semiarid areas. Organic additions can considerably improve soil structure and prevent soil degradation. In this experiment the effectiveness was compared of four types of organic amendments on the improvement of soil structure. The four treatme...

A field experiment was carried out to evaluate the growth response of Pinus halepensis seedlings inoculated with Pisolithus arhizus and planted in a terraced rangeland amended with urban solid refuse. The application of the organic amendment mediated a significant increase in soil fertility and soil water content. Twenty seven months after planting...

A field assay was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of several methods for the afforestation of a semi-arid area of southeast Spain with Pinus halepensis. The trial was designed as a two factor factorial with four soil preparation treatments as the first factor (mechanical terracing, manual terracing, manual terracing with the addition of u...

Erosion mapping is a useful tool for soil conservation planning. The possible correlation between soil type or lithology with soil erodibility has been tested with the aim of facilitating the accomplishment of erosion maps from soil or lithology maps. Soil erodibility (K factor of the universal soil loss equation [USLE]) was determined from 340 sam...

Soil structure has been destroyed over large areas of arid and semi-arid regions by soil degradation processes. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of two organic amendments, urban refuse and peat, on the improvement of soil structure and to analyse correlations between organic carbon content, fungal and bacteria populations and agg...

The constituents of urban refuse may have potential chemical benifits in reclaiming degraded soils and improving plant growth, but this may be offset by chemical problems such as increased soil salinity and the accumulation of heavy metals. A series of experiments was conducted in the Fortuna Basin in semi-arid south-east Spain on a Xeric Torriorth...

The rhizosphere of Brachypodium retusum was surveyed in eight semiarid soils from southeastern Spain. The percentages of stable aggregates, microbial populations, organic matter content, and carbohydrate contents were assessed in order to establish correlations between these parameters. The percentages of stable aggregates were highly correlated wi...

An experiment was carried out to evaluate the growth of mycorrhizal Pinus halepensis seedlings planted in a semiarid soil amended with urban refuse in southeast Spain. Three fungal species were used: Pisolithus tinctorius, Rhizopogon roseolus, and Suillus collinitus. After 8 months, inoculated seedlings grown under controlled conditions did not dif...

Environmental degradation around the Mediterranean is growing alarmingly. Short-cut methods must be sought to deal with two critical problems: the disposal of urban wastes and the rehabilitation of the severely-degraded semiarid coastal hinterlands. We report on progress to date in a major research program to use urban wastes to amend soil physical...

Experiments to assess changes in native VAM fungal populations after amendment of soil with different amounts of urban refuse (UR), were made in plots located on a highly eroded semiarid soil. Mycorrhizal populations, measured as number of spores, root colonization percentages and infective propagules decreased significantly during the first year a...

An experiment was conducted on a vertic Xerochrept, salinized by saline water irrigation, to investigate the effect of municipal solid waste (MSW) application and irrigation with normal (0.19 S m) and saline (0.42 S m) water, on the physical and chemical properties of the soil. The experiment was carried out during one tomato crop (6 months).Organi...

Plants of Hedysarum confertum Desf. and Hedysarum spinosissimum L. inoculated with five Glomus species (G. epigaeum, G. etunicatum, G. fasciculatum, G. macrocarpum and G. mosseae) were grown in a marl soil for 14 weeks. Both legumes became colonized with VAM fungi, although colonization percentages were lower than those observed in nature. For H. c...

The effectiveness of mycorrhizal symbiosis between Anthyllis cytisoides and six Glomus species in three soil types (Torripsamment (A), Xeric Torriorthent (B) and Litic Haploxeroll (C)) . In soil A, the autochthonous fungi (Glomus etunicatum, G. mosseae and Glomus sp.) were the most effective in growth improvement. G. fasciculatum and G. macrocarpum...

The studies on soil erosion and conservation began seven years ago in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of CEBAS-CSIC. The specific topic tackled during this time have been: erosion risks, experimental evaluation of soil loss, soil erosion modelling, erosion-productivity relationship, soil quality improvement and land...

Much is said but little is known of the processes and linkages of soil degradation with desertification. With particular emphasis on South-East Spain, a research design is proposed to characterize the processes, their dynamics and effect on productivity. Through detailed monitoring of plot experiments at three slope positions, changes in soil physi...

On propose une méthodologie pour la realisation de cartes de risques d'érosion. La méthode est basée sur la délimitation et classification d'unités d'érosion, avec l'objectif d'évaluer des pertes de sol dans chaque unité, moyennant la USLE. Les unités d'érosion sont définies par les charactéristiques suivantes: inclinaison et longueur de la pente d...

Soil recycling of urban wastes is revealing as a valuable alternative for its disposal. The quality of the compost from these wastes is a key aspect to reduce environmental hazards. Two composts from municipal solid wastes (MSW): a) a source separated compost from Barcelona (CB), and b) non source-separated compost from Murcia (CM), were evaluated...