Cover crops for the sustainability of rainfed olive orchards

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dc.contributor.authorBacelar, Eunice
dc.contributor.authorCorreia, Carlos
dc.contributor.authorSantos, Dario
dc.contributor.authorMoutinho-Pereira, José
dc.contributor.authorGonçalves, Berta
dc.contributor.authorBrito, Cátia
dc.contributor.authorFerreira, Helena
dc.contributor.authorRodrigues, Ângelo
dc.date.accessioned2011-12-13T08:29:10Z
dc.date.available2011-12-13T08:29:10Z
dc.date.issued2011
dc.description.abstractOlive tree (Olea europaea L.) is present in large areas of mainland Portugal, predominantly in less-favored regions. In spite of the fact that irrigated areas are currently increasing, most of the olive orchards are still cultivated under rainfed conditions. The success of olive farming under rainfed conditions is mainly due to the high capacity of olive tree to develop anatomical, physiological and biochemical drought resistance mechanisms. Nevertheless, the productivity is low. We propose cover cropping to control soil erosion, improve soil quality and fertility of rainfed olive orchards. Cover cropping is widespread in fruit farming in temperate climates and in irrigated olive orchards, where water is not a limiting resource. The effects of cover cropping were investigated on a 14-year-old olive orchard (Olea europaea L., cv. Cobrançosa) with 240 trees ha-1, grown under rainfed conditions. The commercial orchard was located in Mirandela, in the Northeast of Portugal (41º 31' N; 7º 12' W). Four different soil management systems were compared: (i) development of natural vegetation, (ii) self-reseeding pasture species, such as subterranean clover and other annual legume species with short growing cycle grown as cover crop; (iii) white lupine cover crop; (iv) conventional tillage, included as the control treatment. We verified that self-reseeding pasture cover crop improved the photosynthetic activity of the olive trees in association with increases of stomatal conductance, the quantum effective efficiency of PSII, the photochemical quenching and the apparent electron transport rate. The total leaf soluble protein content in the leaves was higher in trees with self-reseeding pasture cover crop that may represent increased activity of antioxidant enzymes. The level of lipid peroxidation, measured in terms of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) contents, was lower in pasture cover crop and in the control treatments during the dry season. In early winter lupine cover crop and conventional tillage had higher TBARS concentrations, revealing increased peroxidative damage. At this early stage of the study, data support the use of cover crop in olive rainfed orchards, specially using self-reseeding pasture species.por
dc.description.sponsorshipFCT (Portuguese National Foundation for Science and Technology) through the project “Cover cropping: the decisive strategy for the sustainable management of the rainfed olive orchards” (PTDC/AGR-AAM/098326/2008).por
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10348/1438
dc.language.isoengpor
dc.peerreviewedyespor
dc.relation.ispartofCITAB - Centro de Investigação e de Tecnologias Agro-Ambientais e Biológicaspor
dc.rightsembargoed accesspor
dc.subjectannual legume speciespor
dc.subjectcover croppingpor
dc.subjectOlea europaea L.por
dc.subjectrainfed conditionspor
dc.subjectsustainabilitypor
dc.subjectnatural vegetationpor
dc.titleCover crops for the sustainability of rainfed olive orchardspor
dc.typeconferenceObjectpor
degois.publication.firstPage172por
degois.publication.lastPage172por
degois.publication.locationChania, Crete, Greecepor
degois.publication.titleOLIVEBIOTEQ 2011por
dspace.entity.typePublicationen
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