Effects of soil texture and gravel content on the infiltration and soil loss of spoil heaps under simulated rainfall

The 20-100 mm portion of a yellow podzolic soil (Albaqualf) from the Ginninderra Experiment Station (A.C.T.) was used in a rainfall simulator and flume facility to elucidate the interactions between raindrop impact, overland water flow and straw cover as they affect soil erosion. A replicated factorial design compared soil loss in splash and runoff from 50 and 100 mm h-1 rainfall, the equivalent of 100 mm h-1 overland flow, and 50 and 100 mm h-1 rainfall plus the equivalent of 100 mm h-' overland flow, all at 0, 40 and 80% straw cover on a 9% slope. As rainfall intensity increased, soil loss in splash and runoff increased. Within cover levels, the effect of added overland flow was to decrease splash but to increase total soil loss. This is due to an interaction between raindrops and runoff which produces a powerful detaching and transporting mechanism within the flow known as rain-flow transportation. Airsplash is reduced, in part, because of the changes in splash characteristics which accompany changes in depths of runoff water. Rain-flow transportation accounted for at least 64% of soil transport in the experiment and airsplash accounted for no more than 25% of soil transport The effects of rainfall, overland flow and cover treatments, rather than being additive, were found to correlate with a natural log transform of the soil loss data.

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Surface and subsurface decomposition of a desiccated grass pasture biomass related to erosion and its prediction with RUSLE

Revista Brasileira de Ciência do Solo ◽

10.1590/s0100-06832003000100016 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 153-164 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

N. P. Cogo ◽

E. V. Streck

Keyword(s):

Soil Loss ◽

Crop Residue ◽

Linear Regression Analysis ◽

Residual Effect ◽

Rio Grande ◽

Power Model ◽

Simulated Rainfall ◽

Rio Grande Do Sul ◽

Surface Residue ◽

Biomass Decomposition

Erosion is deleterious because it reduces the soil's productivity capacity for growing crops and causes sedimentation and water pollution problems. Surface and buried crop residue, as well as live and dead plant roots, play an important role in erosion control. An efficient way to assess the effectiveness of such materials in erosion reduction is by means of decomposition constants as used within the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation - RUSLE's prior-land-use subfactor - PLU. This was investigated using simulated rainfall on a 0.12 m m-1 slope, sandy loam Paleudult soil, at the Agriculture Experimental Station of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, in Eldorado do Sul, State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The study area had been covered by native grass pasture for about fifteen years. By the middle of March 1996, the sod was mechanically mowed and the crop residue removed from the field. Late in April 1996, the sod was chemically desiccated with herbicide and, about one month later, the following treatments were established and evaluated for sod biomass decomposition and soil erosion, from June 1996 to May 1998, on duplicated 3.5 x 11.0 m erosion plots: (a) and (b) soil without tillage, with surface residue and dead roots; (c) soil without tillage, with dead roots only; (d) soil tilled conventionally every two-and-half months, with dead roots plus incorporated residue; and (e) soil tilled conventionally every six months, with dead roots plus incorporated residue. Simulated rainfall was applied with a rotating-boom rainfall simulator, at an intensity of 63.5 mm h-1 for 90 min, eight to nine times during the experimental period (about every two-and-half months). Surface and subsurface sod biomass amounts were measured before each rainfall test along with the erosion measurements of runoff rate, sediment concentration in runoff, soil loss rate, and total soil loss. Non-linear regression analysis was performed using an exponential and a power model. Surface sod biomass decomposition was better depicted by the exponential model, while subsurface sod biomass was by the power model. Subsurface sod biomass decomposed faster and more than surface sod biomass, with dead roots in untilled soil without residue on the surface decomposing more than dead roots in untilled soil with surface residue. Tillage type and frequency did not appreciably influence subsurface sod biomass decomposition. Soil loss rates increased greatly with both surface sod biomass decomposition and decomposition of subsurface sod biomass in the conventionally tilled soil, but they were minimally affected by subsurface sod biomass decomposition in the untilled soil. Runoff rates were little affected by the studied treatments. Dead roots plus incorporated residues were effective in reducing erosion in the conventionally tilled soil, while consolidation of the soil surface was important in no-till. The residual effect of the turned soil on erosion diminished gradually with time and ceased after two years.

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Seasonal variability of runoff and soil loss on forest road backslopes under simulated rainfall

CATENA ◽

10.1016/j.catena.2008.03.006 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 74 (1) ◽

pp. 73-79 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

L. Martínez-Zavala ◽

A. Jordán López ◽

N. Bellinfante

Keyword(s):

Seasonal Variability ◽

Soil Loss ◽

Simulated Rainfall ◽

Forest Road ◽

Runoff And Soil Loss

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COMPARISON OF THE WATER-DROP ENERGY REQUIRED TO BREAK DOWN AGGREGATES AND SOIL LOSS CAUSED BY SIMULATED RAINFALL

Soil Science ◽

10.1097/00010694-198312000-00006 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 136 (6) ◽

pp. 367-370 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

WUSTAMIDIN ◽

L. A. DOUGLAS ◽

D. J. CUMMINGS ◽

T. I. LESLIE

Keyword(s):

Soil Loss ◽

Water Drop ◽

Simulated Rainfall

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A comparison of effects of one-pass and conventional potato hilling on water runoff and soil erosion under simulated rainfall

Canadian Journal of Soil Science ◽

10.4141/cjss10099 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 91 (2) ◽

pp. 279-290 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Zisheng Xing ◽

Lien Chow ◽

Herb W. Rees ◽

Fanrui Meng ◽

John Monteith ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Soil Erosion ◽

Cover Crop ◽

Soil Loss ◽

Canopy Cover ◽

Potato Production ◽

Water Runoff ◽

Sigmoid Function ◽

Simulated Rainfall ◽

The Mean ◽

Runoff And Soil Loss

Xing, Z., Chow, L., Rees, H. W., Meng, F., Monteith, J. and Stevens, L. 2011. A comparison of effects of one-pass and conventional potato hilling on water runoff and soil erosion under simulated rainfall. Can. J. Soil Sci. 91: 279–290. Hilling plays an important role in potato production, but is found to be inducing soil loss. An artificial rainfall simulation system was used to evaluate the differences between one-pass hilling (OPH, hilling performed when planting, or shortly after planting) and conventional hilling (CH, hilling performed approximately 35–45 d after planting) as well as their combination with a cover crop (ryegrass; _R) on runoff and soil loss. A three-replicate randomized block experimental design with constant rainfall intensity (120 mm h−1) was used in this study. No significant differences in runoff were found between different hilling methods. The soil losses, however, showed significant differences both among treatments, among canopy cover classes, and among their interaction terms (all P<0.001). The mean soil loss for CH was significantly higher than that for OPH, by 40%, and the mean soil loss for CH_R was higher than that for OPH_R by 57%. On average, the CH treatments (CH and CH_R) induced greater soil loss than the OPH treatments (OPH and OPH_R) by 47%. Further, the effects can vary with different canopy cover percentages. The OPH treatments (OPH and OPH_R) induced more soil loss than CH treatments (CH and CH_R), by 4.4 to 12.8%, in the <30% canopy cover group, while soil loss in the CH treatments was greater than that in OPH treatments for both the 30–70% and >70% canopy cover groups by 21–94%. Irrespective of treatment, soil loss before canopy forming was 2.4 to 8.9 times higher than the soil loss for the partial to full canopy period. With a cover crop, the CH and OPH treatments can reduce soil loss by 37–55%. One-pass hilling initiated runoff earlier than CH. The water runoff and soil loss with respect to the elapsed time since initialization of water runoff and soil loss could be modeled by a three-parameter Sigmoid function with r 2≥0.94. The information generated from this study could be used in landscape modeling to study the impacts of potato production on soil and stream water quality.

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