The role of plant species on runoff and soil erosion in a Mediterranean shrubland.

Shrubland is a Mediterranean biome characterized by densely growing evergreen shrubs adapted to fire events. To date, scientific research has focused on the impact of vegetation on soil erosion mainly through the control that plant biomass or plant cover exerts on sediment delivery and runoff discharge, being the individual plant species influence on hydrological and erosional processes not achieved in detail. The objective of this research is to determine: i) runoff and soil losses in a shrubland-covered rangeland at Sierra de Enguera, Spain; and ii) how four plant species affect soil and water losses. We measured soil cover, soil properties, runoff discharge and sediment yield under natural rainfall for five years (2010-2014) in a typical shrubland burnt in 1999. Four plant species were selected with 4 plots each: Ulex parviflorus Pourr., Pistacia lentiscus L., Quercus coccifera L. and Rosmarinus officinalis L. Despite that the soil properties and plant cover did not exhibit statistically significant differences among plant species, the runoff discharge was lower on Q. coccifera (4.87%, SE 0.24) and P. lentiscus (6.24%, SE 0.51) than on U. parviflorus (13.41%, SE 0.58) and R. officinalis (13.84%, SE 1.23). Sediment concentrations were, respectively, 3.91, 4.33, 4.31 and 4.88 g l

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Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.