Among researchers, technicians, and managers, there were some con-
flicting comments about the benefits of ridge planting, but farmers
currently prefer to use this technique. One of the main reasons that
some farmers are interested in ridge-furrow cultivation system is that
the ridge areas direct and boost water flows into the furrow area which
then serves as an infiltration zone. As a result, it leads to efficient
rainfall use and improved crop yield (
Tian et al., 2003
;
Xiaolong et al.,
2008
;
Zhou et al., 2012
;
Gan et al., 2013
).
Perry (1996)
observed that
ridge planting improved yield in peaches and sour cherries, stating that
ridge planting can be used in orchards where the water table is high.
Hudson (2015)
reported that graded ridges will usually lead to an in-
crease in surface runoff compared to flat planting, while tied ridges will
decrease run-off and increase water storage. However, the accumulated
water in small ponds on higher ridges can be suddenly released and the
soil easily mobilized. Therefore, sufficient capacity for water storage
and higher infiltration rates reduce water erosion in most cases. Despite
the controversial situation that arises in ridge and furrow plantations,
there is a traditional use of ridges as a soil conservation practice. In fact,
farmers prefer to shape their lands in the form of scraped ridges and
relatively flat furrows in order to avoid flooding near the trunk of the
tree and the resulting fungi development, and also to increase the area
of the tree exposed to harvested rainwater (
Li et al., 2001
;
Tian et al.,
2003
). Therefore, applying the Improved Stock Unearthing Method
(ISUM), considering the level of the ridge and the graft union, would
allow determination of the micro-topographical changes occurring
within the field, which can determine water flow paths, connectivity
processes and sediment sources (
López-Vicente and Álvarez, 2018
;
Camera et al., 2018
). An update of the SUM was done by
Rodrigo-
Comino and Cerdà (2018)
in vineyards to improve the accuracy of the
method and now ISUM (Improved Stock-Unearthing Method) is widely
applied to measure long- and short-term soil erosion rates (
Rodrigo-
Comino et al., 2018a
), soil roughness changes (
Da Silva et al., 2019
),
the impact of the slope position on soil erosion (
Cerdà and Rodrigo-
Comino, 2019
) and the comparison with other methods demonstrate it
is an accurate method (
Remke et al., 2018
;
Rodrigo-Comino et al.,
2019
).
Up to now, the use of the ISUM technique has focused on vineyards.
It has not been applied to determine soil erosion in orchards where
ridge-furrow is the main tillage system. Thus, the main aim of this re-
search was to i) investigate soil erosion in persimmon orchards over
long time periods using ISUM; ii) update ISUM using powerful software
to analyze micro-topographical changes obtained from easy-to-carry-
out manual measurements; and, iii) test if ISUM can be applied to a new
kind of grafted crop (persimmon instead of vineyards) to estimate soil
erosion. This research will also supply the first long-term measurements
of soil erosion in persimmon plantations.
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