PARLAK, Mehmet Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University - Lapseki Vocational School, Turkey , ÖZASLAN PARLAK, Altıngül Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University - Faculty of Agriculture - Department of Field Crops, Turkey , TÜRKMEN, Emre Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University - Faculty of Agriculture - Department of Field Crops, Turkey

The Effect of Cover Crops to Soil Erosion in Olive Orchards

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This research work was conducted in an olive orchard (in Kilitbahir, name of a village in Eceabat Town, Canakkale) with six different plant covers namely horse bean, field pea, vetch, vetch + wheat, field pea + wheat along with a control plot. The experiments were laid out in 24 plots with 4 replications. A total of 24 rainfall simulations were performed to investigate the effects of different cover crops on soil erosion. While the differences in time to runoff values of the plots have been found significant (p=0.012), but the differences between runoff, maximum runoff and runoff coefficient of the plots were seen nonsignificant. Sediment concentration, sediment peak and total soil loss values of the plots also significantly varied. The highest sediment concentration (55.15 g lt-1) and sediment peak (81.37 g lt-1) were observed in control plot while the lowest sediment concentration (5.86 g lt-1) and sediment peak (17.46 g lt-1) have been seen in field pea + wheat plot. Sediment concentration and peak values of the other plots were in between them. Total soil loss of the control plot was almost 12 times higher than the loss in field pea + wheat plot. Further long-term studies can be conducted for properly and better understanding of the effects of cover crops on erosion process.

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Cover Crop , Erosion , Olea europaea L. , Rainfall Simulation

The Journal Of Ege University Faculty Of Agriculture

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