Montados Net-Zero Project releases video on soil sampling in Montado
How to sample the soil in the montado? Montados Net-Zero recently launched an explanatory and demonstrative video so that cork oak forest managers and owners know how to get to know their farm’s soil better. This natural resource, which is non-renewable on a human scale, is essential for sequestering and fixing carbon and plays a decisive role in water infiltration and storage, as well as in the resilience of the montado to climate change.
The soil also supports the life and biodiversity of the cork oak forest, enabling the existence of the trees and pastures that characterise this agro-sylvo-pastoral system. Conserving and improving the soil’s functions preserves the profitability of production and the multifunctionality of this Alentejo landscape, which covers more than a million hectares in the south of the country.
In order to better understand this resource, it is essential to carry out soil analysis in the montado, which requires correct and systematised sampling. The results can help with management by indicating pH, fertility levels, mineral composition and possible toxicities, as well as helping to manage pastures and livestock.
By monitoring this data, more precise technical recommendations can be made, aimed at increasing the system’s resilience and restoring its natural value. Options could include, for example, investing in increasing the organic matter in the soils of the cork oak forest and reducing erosion in order to preserve the vitality of the trees, which favours greater sequestration and storage ofCO2, one of the ecosystem services that the cork oak forest provides to society.
In turn, the results obtained from laboratory sampling make it possible to improve practices and adapt the management of the agro-sylvo-pastoral system to preserve this vital element.
As part of Montados Net-Zero, a soil sampling protocol was developed with the support of researcher Oscar González-Pelayo, who is part of the MED scientific team at the University of Évora. The expert also gave training to the Montados Net-Zero technicians who, in recent months, have carried out sampling in the various cork oak plots that are part of the project.
The video ‘How to sample the soil of the montado?’ summarises and demonstrates all the steps and recommendations for correctly harvesting and sampling the soil. It features Tiago Marques, a researcher at the MED at the University of Évora, who explains how to correctly collect soil samples for composite sampling and bulk density analysis at depths of 0 to 10 cm and 10 to 20 cm.
About Montados Net-Zero – Innovation networks to increase resilience and progress towards carbon neutrality in the rural areas of the South.
Soil health and the dissemination of knowledge about regenerative, productive and innovative management practices are part of the cork oak forest revitalisation strategy proposed by Montados Net-Zero, which is part of the Montado Living Lab.
Throughout the project, training and capacity-building activities will be organised by gender and age, with the aim of promoting rejuvenation and social capital in rural areas. The ambition is to sow the seeds of ideas and put together solutions that will encourage the creation of new companies in the sector, as well as more attractive business models for rural entrepreneurs, young people and women.
MED-University of Évora coordinates this project in partnership with three agroforestry SMEs in different regions (Nuts3) of the Alentejo (Herdade de Coelheiros, Ovicharol -Sociedade Agropecuária do Monte do Tojal and Sociedade Agrícola Vargas Madeira), the Extensive Grazing Competence Centre represented by ADPM, AFLOSOR, the FCUL-cE3c and FCT-NOVA CENSE R&D units and the Impactwave technological SME.