Water erosion in olive orchards under different cover crops: field experiments from tropical Brazil aproved

Abstract

The present research was carried out to investigate the relationship between the soil and water losses due to water erosion, the phytotechnical aspects in olive tree management systems, in consortium or not with cover crops in the southern region of the state of Minas Gerais; and also study different cover crops plants monitoring methods using multispectral and conventional images from digital cameras boarded in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Soil and water loss were evaluated using the standard erosion plots, and vegetation cover monitoring was evaluated using the vegetation indexes calculated from the bands of images generated by the UAVs. The results obtained show that the vegetation indices generated from the images obtained by UAV showed to be more practical and efficient, allowing the monitoring with more frequency and area coverage during the crop cycle. In addition, the total vegetation cover index presented better performance in soil loss prediction and in the determination of Factor C in the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE). The management plants consortium with olive cultivation reconciles the phytotechnical and environmental aspects of the crop in the tropical region aiming to the reduction of soil and water losses due to water erosion, especially in shallow soils with low hydraulic conductivity and slopes.