Public Funding

This study reports the soil–plant relationships within a protected landscape in semiarid SE Spain that includes salt
marshes and temporary streams and that is affected by agricultural water leaching. The main objective was to establish
a conceptual model in order to use vegetation as bioindicator of soil conditions.With this model, environmental
changes – based on the observation of vegetation – could be detectable, allowing the prevention of
environmental impacts and the improvement of the environmentalmanagement of the studied area. Eight sampling

The following tasks are carried out:

1. Physical-chemical characterization of municipal solid waste (MSW) from the Municipal Solid Urban Waste Plant of El Gorguel.

2. Physical-chemical characterization of the degraded soils in order to determine the different restoration options.

3. To asses optimal dosage of MSW for the improvement of soil prperties.

4. To install on-site plots in the soils to restore, to asess the suitablity of different combinations of plants and MWR for the restoration.

The specific objectives were:

* Identification and characterization of environmental units, in order to diagnose the state of conservation, quality and fragility of environmental resources, mainly soil, flora and plant communities.

* To study the structure and dynamics of the pine wood forest, analyzing its foreseeable evolution and establishing the potential situation to be reached, identifying and planning the actions to be developed.

1) Fieldwork:

1.a.- To characterize water inputs flowing to the target wetland (quantitatively, loads, and qualitatively, nutrient contents).

1.b.- To asses nutrient contents in soils and the chemical/mineral forms in which they appear.

1.c.- To asses nutrient contents in tissues of the most representative plant species, as well as in the soil litter.

1.d.- To asses nutrient contents in soil pore-water.

2) Experimental work:

The project focus on the evolution of soil and vegetation in two mediterranean salt marshes of SE of Spain. In previous studies (1991-1993) we identified plant zonation and edaphic gradients in these salt marhes. Now, the objectives are as follow: 1.- to identify the evolution of soils (salinity, water regime and nutrients) and vegetation (cover and species diversity) in the last 10 years, and to relate these changes with human activities (agriculture practices and others) in nearby areas.

The presence of mining wastes in semiarid areas of Southeast Spain is considered an important environmental concern due to the risk of metal transfer to the biota and human population. The revegetation or phytostabilization of these areas has been proposed as an effective measure to avoid

According to the research priorities within the actual Spanish National Programmes, a detailed study about the soil-water-plant interactions in areas with high biodiversity is proposed. The research will be developed in two salt-marshes located in the coastal area of the Mar Menor (SE Spain). These sites are characterised by soils polluted by metal mine wastes and by eutrophicated water flowing across them.

To achieve these objectives, a field work stage and a pot experiment were performed. The first field survey was focused on the description of the edaphic and ecological gradients along a transect from a control non-polluted site to the mine tailings. The edaphic patch distribution was found to be determining for the selective establishment of spontaneous vegetation.