Leisure activities in natural areas have experienced a large increase in popularity. In Mediterranean ecosystems, research on soil erosion in agriculture and forest fire affected land has been well developed but trail erosion has not been widely studied. In this work we evaluated two trails in the eastern Iberian Peninsula to assess soil erosion rates and provide new data. The study area is located in a semi-arid Mediterranean climate (around 400 mm y-1) and in limestone terrain with scarce soil development. The average erosion rates were 24.39 Mg ha-1 y-1 and 40.40 Mg ha-1 y-1 for the "Barranc de la Cova de la Hedra" and "Casa del Racó" study trails, respectively. These are non-sustainable rates due to the shallow soils and slow soil development in Mediterranean ecosystems. We found that the depth at the centre of the trail and the maximum depth measured could quickly and easily assess soil erosion rates in the mountain trails. Measuring the width and depth in the centre of the trail can assess 91% of the total erosion and reduces the time of the survey by 80%.
Keywords: Land degradation; Mediterranean; Recreational activities; Soil sustainability; Topography.
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