The impact of soil and vegetation management on ecosystem services in European almond orchards

This study examines the use of green manure, no-tillage and compost to improve nutrient cycling and plant species richness. Therefore we conducted a full factorial design with four treatments in five almond plantations. The treatments include the business as usual management, conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT), compost (CM) and green manure (GM). Soil enzymatic activity was used as a proxy for nutrient cycling and plant richness and cover for habitat provisioning. Phosphatase activity increased with 50% in the alternative treatments, and the activity of glucosidase was twice as high in CM compared to CT. Plant species richness was highest in NT, but the vegetation cover was found to be equal in GM and NT. To conclude, implementing green manure, no-tillage and compost application on a monoculture almond farm appear to be effective strategies to improve ecosystem services provided on the farm, such as nutrient cycling and plant species conservation.