Investigation of the Relationships between Rainfall Erosion Processes, Slope and Antecedent Water Content in Semi-Arid Soils

آب و خاک

Article 8, Volume 32, Issue 5 - Serial Number 61, November 2018, Pages 943-959   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/jsw.v32i5.70295

Authors

ali baliani^* ; Ali Reza Vaezi

University of Zanjan

Abstract

IntroductionRainfall erosion results from the expenditure of the energy of falling raindrops and flowing water when these two agents act either singly or together. Soil erosion by rainfall is a serious ongoing worldwide environmental issue that contributes to soil and water quality degradation. Understanding raindrop-impact-induced erosion processes are key to design and apply soil management techniques that minimize and control soil erosion risk. Water erosion and especially raindrop-impact-induced erosion is the primary agents that cause soil erosion-induced degradation and has been identified as one of the major processes contributing to the soil and water quality degradation. Soil degradation caused by rainfall raindrops impacts the soil surface disperses and splashes the soil, and displaces particles from their original position. Raindrops striking the soil surface develop a raindrop-soil particle momentum before releasing their energy in the form of the splash. Other causes of soil degradation are including compaction and penetration resistance. 
Materials and Methods: This study was conducted to investigate the raindrop-impact-induced erosion in relation to slope gradient (0, 10, 20, and 30%) and antecedent moisture content or AMC (air dried, quarter saturation, semi saturation, and saturation). Toward this, six soil texture classes were exposed to simulated rainfalls with 40 mm h-1 in intensity for 15-min in four slope gradients and four antecedent moisture contents. Rainfall was simulated using rainfall simulator from soil erosion laboratory of the University of zanjan with 3-meter height and surface of 2 m2. A total of 288 experimental soil boxes with 25 cm × 35 cm dimensions and 5-cm depth were investigated using the completely randomized block design with three replications. Data of soil erosion processes include splash erosion particles amount caused raindrop impact, soil resistance ratio after rainfall using penetrometer, and compaction percent using bulk density after and before rainfall was measured and then compared using Duncan's test among the slope steepness and antecedent moisture content
 Results and Discussion: Significant relationships were found between the splash erosion rate, soil resistance ratio and soil compaction means (P<0.01. (The results showed that silt soil carried the highest mean value in splash erosion rate with 1574.93 gm-2 h-1, soil resistance ratio with 10.53 and soil compaction with 17.43 percent, while sand soil carried the lowest mean value in splash rate with 437.37 gm-2 h-1, soil resistance ratio with 2.66 and soil compaction  with 0.25 percent. Soil erosion processes were significantly affected by slope gradient and AMC. Soil erosion processes showed a decreasing rate in 0 slope degree and increasing rate in 30 slope degree and also decreasing rate in air dried and increasing rate in semi saturation AMC. Significant correlations (P< 0.01 and 00.05) were found between soil erosion processes and sand, silt, geometric mean particle diameter, bulk density, saturated hydraulic conductivity, and calcium bicarbonate equivalent. among the physical properties of the studied soils, the sand percentage, bulk density, and  Geometric mean diameter showed a negative significant correlation with splash erosion, soil compaction, and soil resistance, and the percentage of silt and calcium carbonate content with splash erosion, soil compaction, and soil resistance were positive significant correlated. The cause of this negative and positive correlation might be dependent on particles size and more percent of coarse particles, the transfer of particles from the soil mass is reduced due to raindrops and degradation processes occur with less intensity. In addition, destruction processes with more intensity occurred with increasing silt and lime percent.
 Conclusion: Increasing the slope gradient has an incremental effect on the amount of rainfall erosion processes i.e. sediment load, penetration ratio, and soil compaction value. However, antecedent moisture content in various soil textures has the different effect on the amount of rainfall erosion processes. Among the soil chemical properties, only calcium carbonate equivalent with splash erosion, density, and soil surface resistance was positively correlated and chemical properties such as a percentage of organic matter and exchangeable sodium percent no significant correlated with soil erosion processes. In other words, the physical nature of soil-forming particles such as particle size, as well as some of the chemical properties of soil particles such as organic matter, have a more effect on soil degradation, density, and soil resistance ratio. also the role of soil physical properties such as sand percent and calcium carbonate equivalent on the rainfall processes were more than soil chemical properties. In general, increasing the percent of silt and lime in the soil, unlike sand, was increased the sensitivity of the soil to the rainfall erosion and as a result increasing the splash erosion leads to increased soil compaction and soil resistance ratio.

Keywords

Rainfall simulation; Soil compaction; Soil properties; Soil resistance; Splash Erosion

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