Regional

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 specific objectives were:

1. Establish if the capacity of the coastal wetlands of the Mar Menor to reduce the contents of nitrogen and phosphorus in the waters that flow along them decreases due to the construction of ponds and channels.

2.- To establish if liming in wetlands affected by mining wastes can be a suitable management option to improve chemical and physical soil properties and if these improvements could contribute to the growth of plants.

Mine tailings are one of the main environmental problems associated to mine activity. The phytomanagement of abandoned mine tailings has been proposed as a suitable tool to effect their surface stabilisation and thus, decreases their environmental risks. The project consisted of determining the edaphic and ecophysiological factors which conditions the phytomanagement of mine tailings under semiarid climate.

The project will provide scientific and technical solutions fo rrestoring mining wastes in the Sierra of Cartagena-La Unión. This semiarid area is epsecially sensistive to climate change. The project will include the evaluation of the ecotoxicological risks associated to metal(loid)s. The main goal of the project was to evaluate the effect of the biochar and/or organic municipal waste on the behaviour of native tree species.

The project contains a experimental part in the lab and in situ samplings.

Field part