Abstract: Global climate change has discernible impacts on the quality of the landscapes of Hungary. Only a dynamic and spatially differentiated land evaluation methodology can properly reflect these changes. The provision level, rate of transformation and spatial distribution of ecosystem services (ESs) are fundamental properties of landscapes and have to be integral parts of an up-to-date land evaluation. For agricultural land capability assessment soil fertility is a major supporting ES, directly associated with climate change through greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration as regulationg services. Since for Hungary aridification is the most severe consequence of climate change, water-related ESs, such as water retention and storage on and below the surface as well as control of floods, water pollution and soil erosion, are of increasing importance. The productivity of agricultural crops is enhanced by more atmospheric CO2 but restricted by higher drought susceptibility. The value of floodplain landscapes, i.e. their agroecological, nature conservation, tourism (aesthetic) and other potentials, however, will be increasingly controlled by their water supply, which is characterized by hydrometeorological parameters. Case studies are presented for the estimation of the value of two water-related regulating ESs (water retention and groundwater recharge capacities) in the floodplains of the Kapos and Drava rivers, Southwest Hungary. It is predictable that in the future land evaluation techniques based on the FAO framework will be more dynamic and integrated with the monetary valuation of ESs. The latter task, however, still involves numerous methodological problems to solve.
Keywords: land evaluation, climate change, aridification, ecosystem services, floodwater retention, groundwater recharge, flood reservoirs, floodplains
Abstract: Terroir refers to the geographical origin of wines. The landscape factors (topography, parent rock, soil, microbial life, climate, natural vegetation) are coupled with cultural factors (cultivation history and technology, cultivars and rootstock) and all together define a terroir. The physical factors can be well visualized by a slope profile developed into a pedosequence showing the regular configuration of the relevant physical factors for a wine district. In the present study the generalized topographic pedosequence (or catena) and GIS spatial model of the Villány Hills, a historical wine producing region, serves for the spatial representation and characterization of terroir types. A survey of properties of Cabernet Franc grape juice allowed the comparison of 10 vineyards in the Villány Wine District, Southwest Hungary. Five grape juice properties (FAN, NH3, YAN, density and glucose + fructose content) have been found to have a moderate linear relationship (0.5 < r2 < 0.7) with the Huglin Index (HI) and aspect. Aspect, when determined on the basis of angular distance from South (180°), showed a strong correlation (r2 > 0.7) with FAN, NH3, YAN, sugar and density and moderate correlation with primary amino nitrogen (PAN). HI showed a correlation with three nitrogen related parameters FAN, NH3, YAN, density and glucose + fructose content. Elevation and slope, however, did not correlate with any of the chemical properties.
Keywords: pedosequence, GIS, terroir, soils, grape juice properties, Huglin Index
Abstract: to climatic models, weather extremities induce higher risks for both flood and drought in the Carpathian Basin. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, flood control relied on cost-intensive engineering structures, but recently ecological solutions have come to the fore. Flood hazard on major rivers could be mitigated if multiple and cumulative water retention opportunities are exploited on the upper sections of tributary catchments. Appropriate land use and landscape pattern changes can shift the infiltration to run-off ratio to the benefit of the former. In the Transdanubian Hills of Southwest Hungary three study areas with different agricultural land use types had been selected and investigated for the impact of landscape micro-features on soil moisture retention capacity with the purpose of conserving water from wet periods for the times of drought. Marked differences in moisture dynamics have been detected between arable land, grasslands and orchards. This fact underlines the need for integrated soil and water conservation. Drought risk was found to be the highest on ploughland. Favourable soil water budgets have been observed in the fields as a function of land use: less intensive types, like grazing land and orchards (particularly tree rows), were identified as places of high water retention capacity. Although serious water stress conditions were also reached in the orchard, it markedly mitigated drought conditions compared to the ploughland.
Keywords: water retention, water stress, soil moisture dynamics, ecosystem services, land use, landscape micro-features, Pannonian Basin
Abstract: A more resilient adaptation to changing climate calls for crop diversification in vineyards, too. As a contribution to the H2020 collaborative project of the European Union, called Diverfarming, and part of the agroecological experiments during 2018 and 2019, grapevine biomass growth was monitored in connection with carbon storage types in soil and in the deposits removed by soil erosion. Phenometry was carried out interpreting segmented images to follow changes in biomass. It was found that crop growth could be best described by the Richards growth function. The distinction between grapevine and intercrop growth, however, requires further refinement in image analysis. In the laboratory TOC and Ntotal were measured for both the soil and the plant organs as well as for the eroded sediments. Greenhouse gas emissions and photosynthesis were monitored. Looking at the change of Leaf Area Index (LAI) over the growing period, image analysis pointed out the role of cut shoots from pruning in the C and N cycles. Maximum leaf area (at ripening) for guyot cultivation technique was extimated at 7,840 m2 ha-1. Soil loss by erosion was established by sediment traps at the end of vinestock rows. The grain size distribution analysis led to the remarkable result that as erosion proceeded, the ratio of the sand fraction increased but remained within the range for the textural class of loam. Organic matter contents grew to 38 g kg-1. The rate of soil erosion is higher in ploughed than in grassed interrows by orders of magnitude.
Keywords: crop diversification, organic vineyard, phenometry, Leaf Area Index, C/N ratio, carbon sequestration, biomass, image analysis, soil erosion
Abstract: Complex river rehabilitation/restoration projects devote equal attention to the improvement of hydromorphological conditions and the neighbouring floodplain environment. Since land use exerts a heavy control on the hydrological cycle of floodplains, land use optimization is a central task in floodplain rehabilitation. In floodplains where large surfaces are temporarily inundated, the optimal allocation of land use classes involves the preservation of wetlands, maintenance of grasslands (meadows and pastures) and forests, and the restriction of arable land to higher ground with the lowest inundation hazard. The detailed mapping of land use against the distribution of soil types and fluvial landforms provides a solid basis for land use optimization. Rehabilitation design is presented in the paper on the example of the Kapos Valley, where inundations in the wet year of 2010 caused great damage to agricultural crops and efforts are directed to better water management (excess water reduction and floodwater retention) on the floodplain. Land use conversions, which are less expensive and easier to implement, are preferred to structural (engineering) solutions.
Keywords: floodplain rehabilitation, hydromorphology, paleochannels, peat bogs, Histosols, land use change, Kapos River
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