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Nomographic estimation and evaluation of soil erodibility under simulated and natural rainfall conditions
Author(s) -
Singh M. J.,
Khera K. L.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
land degradation and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.403
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1099-145X
pISSN - 1085-3278
DOI - 10.1002/ldr.923
Subject(s) - grassland , environmental science , soil water , soil loss , soil science , hydrology (agriculture) , soil test , natural forest , erosion , ecology , geology , biology , agroforestry , geotechnical engineering , paleontology
To evaluate soil erodibility under different land uses and to study the applicability of nomograph for estimation of soil erodibility a field experiment was conducted under both natural and simulated rainfall conditions under four land uses viz . barren, cultivated, grassland, and forest in the sub‐mountainous tract of Punjab (India). Measured soil erodibility ( K ) values varied from 0·33 to 0·67 under natural rainfall conditions and from 0·23 to 0·40 under simulated rainfall conditions. Among different land uses, measured K was in the order of barren > cultivated > grassland > forest soils. The values of the K estimated by nomograph were very low as compared to the observed values. The trends were also in contrast to these observed values of K under simulated and natural rainfall conditions. To modify nomograph equation, different ranges of aggregate sizes were correlated with soil loss. It was observed that water stable aggregates (WSA) <2 mm size had a significant correlation with soil loss under both natural ( r = 0·88) and simulated ( r = 0·76) rainfall conditions. So the nomograph equation was modified to include the M parameter based on WSA <2 mm size. The value of K estimated from the modified nomograph had a significant correlation with measured values of K under both the natural and simulated rainfall conditions. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.