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THE EFFECT OF CROP ROTATION AND SOIL MANAGEMENT ON THE REDUCTION SOIL EROSION RISK BY SURFACE RUNOFF
Abstract
Soil erosion by water is a type of physical degradation of the soil that is causing significant losses of topsoil worldwide. The susceptibility of the specific area to water erosion can be assessed by taking into account the effect of the specific erosion factors such as rainfall erosivity, soil erodibility, properties of the topography (mainly slope length and gradient), vegetation cover and erosion control practices. It is obvious that not all factors can be controlled by human to the same extent. This contribution investigates the effect of growing crops in strips rather than in direct rows along the slope considering the increasing sediment transport capacity along the slope with accumulating surface runoff. As an example, the effect of protective cover under six different rotation designs including corn and alfalfa at the uniform slope with the same soil properties and rainfall pattern was evaluated. Alfalfa (generalized C factor equal to 0.02) due to its dense cover generally protects the soil against water erosion much better than corn (with generalized C factor equal to 0.55). If these crops are to be grown on the same slope proportionally in the direction of surface runoff, the mean crop and management factor would be 0.285. However, there would be a significant risk of water erosion in the corn part of the field especially in the spring months when the corn cover is less developed. As the transport capacity of concentrated surface runoff increases with the slope length, the protective efficiency of the grown crop further from the beginning of the slope has higher importance. When corn would be grown in the first half of the slope and alfalfa in the other half, further from the beginning – such design would result in 63% reduction of erosion risk if only corn was grown. At the same time, such crop management would mean 54% lower risk compared to growing alfalfa in the upper part of the slope and corn at the bottom of the slope. These results also show the importance of strip cropping that utilizes the vegetation cover of different crops and their residues in different parts of the slope and during different parts of the year.
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References8
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