Utilizing palm-leaf geotextiles to control soil erosion on roadside slopes in Lithuania

摘要

Soil erosion is a global environmental problem. There are many potential soil conservationudmeasures suitable for arable soils in Lithuania. However, specific strategies are required on industrialudslopes, where plant cover is often destroyed by machinery, and soil truncation mayudoccur. Problems may arise due to exposure of deeper soils deficient in soil organic matter, whichudare especially vulnerable to water and wind erosion. Geotextiles are one of the methods identifiedudsuitable for soil stabilization on such engineered industrial slopes.udGeotextiles are potentially excellent biodegradable and environmentally-friendly materialsuduseful for soil conservation. The application of geotextile mats, constructed from the palmudleaves of Borassus aethiopum (Borassus) and Mauritia flexuosa (Buriti), has been investigated atudthe Kaltinenai Research Station of the Lithuanian Institute of Agriculture which is participatingudin the EU-funded BORASSUS Project. Field studies on a steep (21–25°) roadside slope demonstrateudthat cover of Borassus and Buriti mats improved the germination and growth of sownudperennial grasses. The biomass of perennial grasses significantly increased (by 52–63%) underudcover of Borassus mats and by 19–28% under cover of Buriti mats. The geotextiles (Borassusudand Buruti, respectively) decreased soil losses from bare fallow soil by 91 and 82% and fromudplots covered by perennial grasses by 88 and 79%, respectively. This illustrates that geotextilesudhave a notable potential as a biotechnical soil conservation method for slope stabilization andudprotection from water erosion on steep industrial slopes and may be integrated with the use ofudperennial grasses to optimize protection from water erosion