Raúl Zornoza

• PhD
• Technical University of Cartagena

Current horticultural practices typically require high demands of fertilizers, leading to significant environmental impacts and increased production costs. Alternatives based on microbial inoculants have garnered considerable interest owing to their potential to enhance soil quality whilst reducing external inputs and costs, all without compromisin...

Este póster muestra los resultados de uno de los capítulos de mi tesis doctoral. En él utilizo varillas de erosión para conocer cómo la intensificación del uso del suelo y la adopción de prácticas de manejo sostenible, en este caso la diversificación de cultivos, afecta a las tasas de erosión laminar en agroecosistemas mediterráneos

Intercropping can favour the yield of the main crop. However, because of the potential competition among woody crops, this system is rarely used by farmers. To increase knowledge about the intercropping system, we have explored three different combinations of alley cropping in rainfed olive groves compared to conventional management (CP): (i) Crocu...

Soil microbiome is the most diverse ecosystem in the world and carries out some of the most important soil functions through nutrient cycling. Agroecosystem health and sustainability are strongly connected to understanding soil microbiome and its composition, yet unknown in many agricultural areas. In this study we compared in a rainfed almond orch...

The concern about the environmental impacts of mining waste due to its high concentrations of heavy metals is a widespread aspect worldwide, however, the presence and relationship of these metals with rare earth elements (REEs) has been little studied. In addition, the evaluation of the degree of contamination by REEs and their distribution in mini...

This study aimed to determine the transfer of metals (Cd, Pb and Zn) and As to a Mediterranean forest close to five tailings ponds in Cartagena-La Union mining district (SE Spain). In addition, the effect of the rhizosphere of two native plant species, Olea europaea (OE) and Pistacia lentiscus (PL), on soil properties and chemical speciation of met...

Including legumes in rotation systems may be regarded as a sustainable way to improve soil quality and fertility for subsequent crops. Improvements in soil quality depend on inherent soil properties, climatic conditions, adopted management practices, type of fertilization (organic, chemical, legumes or biological). Hence, the aim of this study was...

Water scarcity in arid, semiarid and dry regions is a limiting factor for the development of sustainable agriculture. As a consequence, the adoption of new strategies such as regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) to reduce water and energy consumption will be essential. Decreases in irrigation water content may also have positive effects on soil C cyc...

Several sequential extraction procedures are widely applied for metals chemical fractionation in the literature. However, their limitations to be used in different soils and metals have not been discussed in detail. This study compares two of the most commonly used extraction methods for metals chemical fractionation: Tessier and BCR. The objective...

Mining activity in Cartagena‐La Union mining district (SE Spain) dates back more than 2500 years. Consequently, large amounts of sterile materials with large metal(loid) contents (mostly Zn and Pb) have accumulated in tailings ponds. A reclamation strategy based on aided phytostabilization was carried out to reclaim one tailings pond to reduce envi...

The main objective was to evaluate the efficiency of chemical extractants to mobilise metals from contaminated samples under different land uses: industrial, agricultural and forest soils, and acidic and basic tailings ponds. Four extractants (citric, oxalic, Diethylenetriamine pentaacetate - DTPA - and Ethylenediaminetetraacetic - EDTA - acids) at...

Mine tailings have adverse chemical and physical conditions, including high concentrations of metals and salts, low organic matter content, and unbalanced rates of nutrients which limit the development of vegetation. A large scale field experiment was conducted to reclaim a tailing pond by triggering the growth of native species by spontaneous colo...

Tailings and overburdens pose high environmental and human health risks. The development of Technosols from anthropogenic materials and growth of native metal-tolerant plant species could be a sustainable strategy to minimize such risks. In this study, a 10-month pot experiment was carried out with Technosols developed from acidic tailings amended...

For phytostabilization to successfully reclaim mine tailings, an adequate soil nutrient level should be provided to promote the growth of healthy plants and plant succession. In this study, six Mediterranean shrub species (Lavandula dentata, Rosmarinus officinalis, Thymus vulgaris, Nerium oleander, Cistus albidus and Pistacia lentiscus) were grown...

Monitoring of soil organic carbon (SOC) content, SOC pools, and enzymes involved in SOC degradation and mineralization is needed to elucidate the impact of conversion from forest to agriculture on SOC and properties, and how which crop system and management practices can contribute to C sequestration, thus climate change mitigation. This study comp...

Soil Management and Climate Change: Effects on Organic Carbon, Nitrogen Dynamics, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions provides a state of the art overview of recent findings and future research challenges regarding physical, chemical and biological processes controlling soil carbon, nitrogen dynamic and greenhouse gas emissions from soils. This book is fo...

Creation of Technosols in combination with phytostabilization may be a sustainable strategy to minimize the environmental and human health hazards derived from mine tailings. Bioaugmentation can facilitate plant establishment and growth for efficient phytostabilization. In order to assess if bioaugmentation can increase soil quality and fertility,...

Creation of Technosols by use of different materials can be a sustainable strategy to reclaim mine tailings spread on the environment. A proper selection of materials is critical to efficiently contribute to soil creation, with development of soil structure, organic matter stabilization and stimulation of microbial growth. For this purpose, a 90 da...

Effects of pepper crop residues as amendment and their optimal application rates on an agricultural soil have been sparsely studied. A comparative study of the development of a broccoli crop has been conducted using chemical fertilizers (CF) and fresh pepper crop residues (CR) at different application rates during two crop cycles. We measured soil...

The response of soil microbial communities from soils with different soil organic matter (SOM) content to organic inputs with different stability is still poorly understood. Thus, an incubation experiment was designed to study how the addition of pig slurry (PS), its manure (M) and its biochar (BC) affect soil microbial community and activity in th...

Abandoned tailings ponds produce environmental and human health hazards due to the transfer of heavy metals through wind and water erosion or leaching. To reduce these hazards, a reclamation strategy has been developed on a tailings pond based on aided phytostabilization. In 2011 marble mud and pig slurry were applied to the surface of a tailings p...

Abandoned tailings ponds produce environmental and human health hazards due to the transfer of heavy metals through wind and water erosion or leaching. To reduce these hazards, a reclamation strategy has been developed on a tailings pond based on aided phytostabilization. In 2011 marble mud and pig slurry were applied to the surface of a tailings p...

Creation of Technosols with the use of different materials is a sustainable strategy to reclaim mine tailings and reduce metal mobility. For this purpose, a short-term incubation experiment was designed with biochars derived from pig manure (PM), crop residues (CR) and municipal solid waste (MSW) added to tailings alone or in combination with marbl...

Mine residues dumped on the environment as overburden or tailings ponds show environmental and human health hazards by the transfer of heavy metals through erosion or leaching. The objective of this study was to assess the potential use of different Mediterranean plant species for phytostabilization or phytoextraction of cadmium in acidic mine resi...

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The effects of biochar addition in improving soil physical properties are not clearly understood in mining tailings. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of three different types of biochars, in addition to marble mud (MM) and their mixtures, on the structural stability and water retention of mine wastes in Cartagena, Spain. Bio...

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining activities in Apolobamba area, northwest of La Paz, Bolivia, may produce serious environmental concern and great risk to human health. The current methods used to extract gold through the amalgamation process result in metal contamination of soil and water, as well as a negative effect on health of miners and i...

Camelid populations are located at the Andean Plateau and produce essential incomes for native human population in Bolivia. Vicuna (Vicugna vicugna) is a wild endangered species which share territory and resources with other domestic camelids like alpaca (Lama pacos) in the National Apolobamba Integrated Area. Apolobamba is one of the poorest zones...

The intensive pig production has been causing huge amounts of pig slurry with high content of potential pollutants. However, there is a lack of information on the efficiency of combined techniques applied to pig slurry purification. The objective of this research was to assess the pollutant removal efficiency and pathogenic microorganism decrease u...

The high grasslands at Bolivian Andes provide a natural habitat for a high number of wild and domestic South American camelids such as vicuna (Vicugna vicugna) and alpaca (Lama pacos). Because of the importance of the camelid raising for the Andean inhabitants economy and the sustainable biodiversity, it is fundamental to determine the natural reso...

A greenhouse pot experiment was conducted to evaluate the potential use of Nerium oleander, Cistus albidus and Pistacia lentiscus for phytostabilization of acidic mine soils. The selected species were grown in mine tailing soil, unamended (TS) and amended with calcium carbonate and pig manure (ATS), and in a reference unpolluted substrate for contr...

The fate and turnover of microbial carbon (C) in an arable soil following crop residue addition likely depends on the quality of both native soil organic matter (SOM) and residues. We labeled the microbial biomass with 13C-glucose and followed the microbial 13C turnover into different SOM pools under the influence of three plant amendments (mature...

Reclamation on bare tailing ponds has the potential to represent soil genesis in Technosols favoring the understanding of the changes of microbial communities and function. In this study we used phytostabilization aided with calcium carbonate and pig slurry/manure to reclaim an acidic bare tailing pond with the aim of investigating the effect of am...

Soil quality (SQ) assessment has long been a challenging issue, since soils present high variability in properties and functions. This paper aims to increase the understanding of SQ through the review of SQ assessments in different scenarios providing evidence about the interrelationship between SQ, land use and human health. There is a general con...

Degraded, unrehabilitated mining areas cause a problem of great relevance throughout the world because mining waste is a source of contamination for both the population and the different links in the food chain due to its high content of heavy metals and oxyhydroxides. of Fe and sulfides. These mining areas are also affected by wind dispersion and...

The application of pig slurry as soil amendment is a common agronomic practice, but to avoid environmental hazards the doses are regulated. This article evaluates the N dynamic in two calcareous soils amended with legislated (170 kg N, D1) and high doses (1700 kg N, D2) of pig slurry and incubated for 300 days. Nitrification increased at the end of...

The omni-presence of Zygophyllum fabago L. (Syrian bean-caper) natural colonies in post mining areas prompted us to investigate its contributions to reclamation of mine wastes deposits in southeast Spain. Select plant-related (edaphic) characteristics and bio- and water soluble-Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn in rhizosphere of Z. fabago were compared to deposits...

This study aims to evaluate the environmental risk of three reclaimed mining ponds using geophysics and geochemical techniques. The reclamation works were based in the use of some materials for covering the tailing layer in order to reduce its erosion and transport. Samples from dumped materials and tailing layers were analyzed for their properties...

Spiking is a useful approach to improve the accuracy of regional or national calibrations when they are used to predict at local scales. To do this, a small subset of local samples (spiking subset) is added to recalibrate the initial calibration. If the spiking subset is small in comparison with the size of the initial calibration set, then it coul...

The objective of this study was to assess the short-term changes in soil organic C (SOC) and N pools after incubation of three different soil types (Regosol, Luvisol, and Kastanozem) treated with three amendments differing in organic matter stability (raw pig slurry (PS), manure, and biochar (BC). Both SOC and recalcitrant C (RC) contents increased...

Agricultural practices have proven to be unsuitable in many cases, causing considerable reductions in soil quality. Land management practices can provide solutions to this problem and contribute to get a sustainable agriculture model. The main objective of this work was to assess the effect of different agricultural management practices on soil mic...

We conducted a two-year experiment to evaluate the effects of fresh pepper residues (CR treatment) on soil properties and broccoli yield compared with the application of chemical fertilizers (CF treatment). Soil-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (13C NMR) spectroscopy was used to characterize the organic composition of added residues and surface...

Topsoil and subsoil samples located adjacent and distant from the mining operations sites were collected. Most total metals showed no significant differences between topsoil and subsoil or proximity, suggesting that they derive from endogenous parent material. There was an increment in Hg in topsoils adjacent to the mining operation sites, indicati...

Tailing ponds pose environmental hazards, such as toxic metals reaching water sources through wind and water erosion and leaching. These abandoned mine sites contain materials with high contents of Fe- oxyhydroxides, sulfides, and heavy metals. As a consequence, soils have null vegetation and low soil organic matter. In this study, various physicoc...

The Apolobamba area in the Andean Plateau has extensive grasslands that support threatened species such as vicuna (Vicugna vicugna). Knowledge of the organic matter dynamics is fundamental to the understanding of the impacts of animal grazing on the C reservoirs and soil fertility that are essential to the maintenance of biodiversity in high altitu...

Although forest fires must be considered as a natural factor in Mediterranean ecosystems, the modification of its natural regime during last five decades has thansformed them in an environmental problem. In the Valencia region (E Spain) 1994 was the worst year in the history affecting more than 120,000 hectares. I started my Ph.D that year by study...

Wildfires are one of the most serious environmental problems in the Mediterranean region. The loss of vegetation and the progressive incapability of soils to appropriately regenerate the vegetative cover have led to severe degradation. Therefore, the establishment of soil quality indices is needed at sites affected by forest fires in order to evalu...

The need for the development of sensitive and efficient methodologies for soil quality evaluation is increasing. The ability to assess soil quality and identify key soil properties that serve as indicators of soil function is complicated by the multiplicity of physical, chemical and biological factors that control soil processes. In the mountain re...

In order to bring out a functional and sustainable land use in a highly contaminated mine tailing, firstly environmental risks have to be reduced or eliminated by suitable reclamation activities. Tailing ponds pose environmental hazards, such as acidity and toxic metals reaching to waters through wind and water erosions and leaching. As a consequen...

In this study, the effects of pig slurry application on reclamation of mine soils from Cartagena-La Unión Mining District (SE Spain) were investigated in a field experiment. Exchangeable metals (Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn), total organic carbon, total nitrogen, soluble carbon, microbial biomass and three enzyme activities were periodically monitored during...

Poor soil fertility is often the biggest challenge to the establishment of vegetation in mine wastes deposits. We conducted field trials in the El Gorguel and El Lirio sites in SE Spain, two representative tailing ponds of similar properties except for pH, to understand the environmental and plant-relevant benefits of marble waste (MW) and pig slur...

Seven tailing ponds and two natural areas (soils developed on ferruginous limestone and soils developed on laminated limestone) from a Pb/Zn mining district from southeast Spain were sampled and geochemically characterized. The objectives of this study were to: 1) evaluate the degree of pollution of the area using the enrichment factor, the geo-acc...

The mining district of Cartagena-La Unión (South-East of Spain) has been among the most important mining centers in Spain in obtaining lead, silver and zinc. For more than two thousand years, different civilizations exploited mineral resources in this area. More than eighty structures of mining wastes (tailing ponds) coming from old mineral washing...

A field experiment was set up in Cartagena-La Unión Mining District, SE Spain, aimed at evaluating the short-term effects of pig slurry (PS) amendment alone and together with marble waste (MW) on organic matter mineralization, microbial activity and stabilization of heavy metals in two tailing ponds. These structures pose environmental risk owing t...

The effect of marble waste and pig slurry on the growth of native vegetation and heavy metal mobility in an abandoned Pb-Zn-Cd tailing pond (southeast Spain) has been investigated. Different treatments were carried out in four plots, (1) pig slurry, (2) marble waste, (3) marble waste + pig slurry, and (4) control. Plant cover, richness, biodiversit...

Effective application of organic residues to reclaim soils requires the optimization of the waste management to minimize CO2 emissions and optimize soil C sequestration efficiency. In this study, the short-term effects of pig slurry amendment alone and together with marble waste on organic matter mineralization in two tailing ponds from Cartagena-L...

Grasslands comprise approximately 40% of the earth's land area and play a critical role in the global carbon cycle. Apolobamba is a grazing highland located in the Andean Plateau where sustainable vicuna (Vicugna vicugna) management programme is carried out. Understanding the soil properties and the organic matter dynamics is fundamental to determi...

The high grasslands of Apolobamba provide a natural habitat for a high number of wild and domestic camelids such as vicuna (Vicugna vicugna) and alpaca (Lama pacos) in Bolivia. Because of the importance of the camelid raising for the Apolobambás inhabitant economy, it is fundamental to determine the natural resources condition and their availabilit...

This work aims to identify and characterize heavy metal contamination in a fluvial system from Cartagena–La Unión mining district (SE Spain). In order to assess the dynamics of transport and the accumulation of heavy metals, sediments, surface water and vegetation, samples along “El Avenque” stream were collected. The former direct dumps of wastes...

Tailing ponds pose environmental hazards, such as toxic metals which can contaminate the surroundings through wind and water erosions and leaching. Various chemical and biochemical properties, together with extractable and soluble metals were measured five years after reclamation of a polluted soil affected by former mining activities. This abandon...

Soil water repellency (WR) is one of the properties most affected by combustion during a forest fire. Different factors such as temperatures reached, type and amount of fuel, affect the changes observed in this property. Measurements of water repellency can be made directly in the field or in soil samples under laboratory conditions. On the other h...

Continental salt-lands have a high degree of peculiarity amongst European primary habitats and a prominent insular character. The present scientific approach establishes the degree of soil-vegetation correlation in continental slat-lands patches as a measure of habitat continuity/fragmentation and soil conservation/degradation. The use of hyperspec...

The environmental impacts of mining activities in southeast Spain include the presence of tailing ponds characterized by acidification, salinity, accumulation of metals, and null vegetation. A field trial was established in two tailing ponds, in which experimental plots were designed, using marble wastes, pig manure, and sewage sludge as amendments...

Arylesterase activity was measured along with microbial biomass C (BC) and respiration, and H2O-soluble and NH4NO3-exchangeable trace elements (TE), in contaminated soils (TECS) from three long-term field trials. The AGIR (AG) soils were contaminated only by inorganic Cd, whereas the Ambarès (AM) and Louis Fargue (LF) soils were contaminated mainly...

Soil contamination by metals has become a widespread serious problem in many parts of the world. Two tailing ponds (Lirio and Gorguel) from an abandoned Pb–Zn mine for a future reclamation were selected, surface samples were taken and analyzed for waste properties and total, extractable by DTPA and water-soluble Pb, Cu, Zn and Cd content. Results s...

We have used geochemical, geophysical and geotechnical techniques to identify and quantify the environmental risks of the San Cristóbal and Las Moreras tailing ponds, which have been left since the closing down of Pb-Zn mining activities in a semi-arid Mediterranean area. The results show that the tailings ponds present a potential risk to nearby e...

In this study, geochemical, geophysical and geotechnical techniques have been used to identify and quantify the environmental risks of two tailing ponds from the abandonment of Pb-Zn mining activities in a semi-arid Mediterranean area. The results showed that the tailings generate a potential risk to ecosystems near to them, because they have high...

Utilization of Cartagena-La Unión Mining District (SE Spain) for more than 2500 years created deleterious effects on the environment and human health because of its chemical and physical characteristics. These effects can be ameliorated by the help of sustainable reclamation activities which can be seen as a required solution in order to return the...

Fire causes changes in soil moisture content (MC) and also in other soil properties depending on the maximum temperature reached. However, after fire, MC is partially rapidly restored due to re-equilibrium with air moisture or following rainfall, which in turn affects the near infrared (NIR) spectra of soil. The degree to which MC is restored depen...

Near infrared reflectance (NIR) spectroscopy has many advantages because it is a rapid and cost-effective technique. A needed steep is the development of soil spectral libraries and models (calibrations using multivariate techniques). The calibrations should contain the variability of the target site soils on which the models are to be used. Many t...

A field experiment was carried out in a semiarid agricultural Mediterranean area located at the “El Teularet” experimental field in the Enguera Sierra (Valencia, southeast Spain) to assess the influence of different agricultural management systems on indicators of soil biological quality and activity (microbial biomass C, basal respiration, C miner...

In SE Spain, intensive farming is very common which supposes the generation of great amounts of pig slurries. These residues cause many storage problems due to their pollution capacity. A good management of them is necessary to avoid damages to the environment. The use of this effluent as fertilizer is a usual practice that in the correct dose is a...

Soil water repellency (WR) is one of the properties most affected by combustion during a forest fire. Measurements of water repellency can be made directly in field or in soil samples under laboratory conditions. In other hand, previous laboratory findings have demonstrated that soil properties can be a key factor controlling the development of WR...

In Murcia Region, SE Spain, there are 85 tailing ponds due to intensive mining activities that occurred during last century, especially in Sierra Minera de Cartagena-La Union. Although mining activity was abandoned several decades ago, those tailing ponds with high amounts of heavy metals still remain in the area. The ponds, due to their compositio...

Fire causes changes in soil moisture content (MC) and also in other soil properties depending on the maximum temperature reached. However, after fire, MC is partially rapidly restored due to re-equilibrium with air moisture or following rainfall, which in turn affects the near infrared (NIR) spectra of soil. The degree to which MC is restored depen...

In order to bring out a functional and sustainable land use in a highly contaminated mine tailing, firstly environmental risks have to be reduced or eliminated by suitable reclamation activities, then landscape design have to be created according to the new conditions of the area. Excavation and backfilling works in these areas are not suitable for...

In semiarid ecosystems plant cover plays an important role in the improvement of physical, chemical and biochemical soil properties. With the aim of studying the influence of different plant species on soil properties, and establishing the relationships between them, 160 soil sam-ples from under four different plant species (Pinus halepensis, Querc...

Mine soils stabilization is an in situ remediation method that uses inexpensive amendments to reduce heavy metals availability and increase soil organic matter, nutrients and water retention in polluted soils. We tested the long-term effects of several amendments (pig manure, sewage sludge and marble mud) on the immobilization of heavy metals and i...

In Spain, agriculture triggers soil degradation and erosion processes. New strategies have to be developed to reduce soil losses and recover or maintain soil functionality in order to achieve a sustainable agriculture. An experiment was designed to evaluate the effect of different agricultural management on soil properties and soil erosion. Five di...

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Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. T...