Use of conceptual water balance model to explore the impact of different soil management on water availability in olives and vineyards under under different climate conditions.

Abstract

Olive tree s and vines are two of the major tree crops in the Mediterranean region. Both crops present severe soil degradation problems due to accelerated water erosion associated with cultivation on sloping areas, sporadic but intense rainfall events, and management based on bare soil to prevent competition for soil water with the main crop (Gómez et al., 2011). In the last few decades the major soil conservation efforts for both crops have been or iented towards the use of temporary cover crops in the lanes between the tree rows that are mowed or sprayed in the early spring to balance soil conservation with an adequate soil water balance for the major crop. Th us, water balance is a key element for success of soil conservation under semi-arid conditions. Recently several models have been developed to allow evaluation of these two crops under different soil management and climate conditions, including the WABOL model (Figure 1) for olives (Abazi et al., 2012) and the VERDI model for vineyards (Ripoche et al., 2011).