Herbicide use strips soil from olive groves faster than cover crops
Pantazis C, Solomos S, Nastos P, Maneas G, Kairis O
Soil Health
If you grow olive trees or fruit trees on a slope, what you do to the bare ground between them, spray it bare, mow it, or let it green up, determines how much topsoil washes away in the next hard rain.
Researchers planted test plots in olive orchards on hillsides in Greece and tried different ways of managing the ground beneath the trees: spraying herbicide to keep it bare, mowing the wild plants that grow there, or planting cover crops. The bare, herbicide-treated ground lost way more soil to erosion than the plots with mowed weeds or cover crops. They also found that watering olive trees at different times changed the oil's chemistry, with unwatered trees making oil that was less acidic but oxidized faster.
Key Findings
All first-year olive oil samples met EU extra virgin olive oil standards regardless of treatment
Herbicide-treated plots lost significantly more soil to erosion than plots with cover crops or mowed natural vegetation
Rainfed (unirrigated) olive trees produced oil with lower acidity but higher peroxide values than irrigated trees, indicating faster oxidation
chevron_right Technical Summary
A field study in Greece found that spraying herbicides between olive tree rows causes far more soil erosion than mowing or planting cover crops, while irrigation timing shifts the balance between oil acidity and freshness. Sustainable groundcover choices could protect Mediterranean olive farms from worsening drought and erosion.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Insights into the effects of climate variability and agricultural practices on olive orchards in Messenia, Greece: A field experiment study.
Agriculture in the Mediterranean region faces increasing challenges from climate change, including drought, soil erosion, and water scarcity. This study examines the sustainability of intensive oli...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
Species Mentioned
Was this useful?
Want to tell us more? (optional)
Thanks for the note!
Something went wrong — please try again.
Too many submissions. Try again in an hour.
Targeted knockout of a host peroxisomal peptidase confers field resistance to...
The corn in your grocery store and the staple food keeping millions of East African families fed is under serious threat from a viral disease that can wipe o...
The olive is a species of subtropical evergreen tree in the family Oleaceae. Originating in Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean Basin, with wild subspecies in Africa and western Asia; modern cultivars are traced primarily to the Near East, Aegean Sea, and Strait of Gibraltar. ...