Search results for " soil"
showing 10 items of 774 documents
Anthropogenic processes in the evolution of a soil chronosequence on marly-limestone substrata in an Italian Mediterranean environment
2007
Due to anthropic pressure, many areas of the world are affected by a process of soil “entisolization” that leads to the formation of “anthropogenic soils”. In order to investigate Man's role in soil evolution, a survey was carried out in Southeastern Sicily (Italy), where, for years, there have been wide farming areas with anthropogenic soils. A chronosequence of anthropogenic soils in a vineyard area, cultivated for 22 years, was investigated. The first stage of the chronosequence was made by the original soils which, in the study area, had been undisturbed till the 1980's. These soils, classified as Entic Haploxerolls under the American Soil Taxonomy (ST) or Calcaric Kastanozem according …
Analysis of rill step–pool morphology and its comparison with stream case
2021
In this paper, the morphology of step–pool features is analysed using rill measurements and literature data for streams. Close-range photogrammetry was used to carry out ground measurements on rills with step–pool units, shaped on a plot having slope equal to 14, 15, 22, 24 and 26%. Data were used to compare the relationships between H/L, in which H is the step height and L is the step length, and the mean gradient of the step–pool sequence, Sm, for streams or the slope of the step–pool unit, S, for rills. The relationship of H/L against Sm is widely used to test the occurrence of the maximum flow resistance condition in streams, which is associated with the range 1 ≤ (H/L)/Sm ≤ 2. Further …
Defining minimum runoff length allows for discriminating biocrusts and rainfall events
2021
This study was started in the context of the research projects PECOS (REN2003-04570/GLO) and PREVEA (CGL2007-63258/BOS) , both funded by the Spanish National Plan for RD&I and by the European ERDF Funds (European Regional Development Fund) , and continued during the project SCIN (Soil Crust In-terNational, PRI-PIMBDV-2011-0874, European project of ERA-NET BIODIVERSA, the Spanish team being funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) . The work was finally supported and culminated by the DINCOS project (CGL2016-78075-P, Spanish State Programme for Scientific Research) and by the European ERDF Funds (Euro-pean Regional Development Fund) . Consuelo Rubio's partici-pation was…
Testing the long term applicability of USLE-M equation at a olive orchard microcatchment in Spain
2016
Abstract Universal Soil Loss Equation USLE-based erosion models have been used extensively to complement erosion measurements, to understand the interactions of the different geophysical features into erosion processes and to assess adequate alternative management practices and scenarios analyses. Despite its proved usefulness on different land-uses around the world, there is an urgent need to set up simple tools which do not require an advanced management expertise in terms of both choose of model parameters and calculation ability and which are accurate particularly at the event scale. In this paper the suitability of the Modified USLE (USLE-M) model at the event and the annual scale were…
A field assessment of the Simplified Falling Head technique to measure the saturated soil hydraulic conductivity
2012
Abstract The Simplified Falling Head (SFH) technique to measure field saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, Kfs, has received little testing or comparison with other techniques. Different experiments were carried out to i) determine the effect of ring size on the measured conductivity; ii) compare the SFH and Pressure Infiltrometer (PI) techniques in a clay loam soil; and iii) evaluate the approach used in the SFH methodology to estimate the α* parameter. Sampling a relatively large number of sites allowed to detect statistically significant relationships between the Kfs values obtained with rings differing in diameter (0.15 and 0.30 m, respectively). The ring size effect was substantial (…
Effect of plot size on measured soil loss for two Italian experimental sites
2011
The objective of this investigation was to determine empirically the plot width and length effects on runoff volume, Ve, soil loss, Ae, and sediment concentration, Ce, by using data collected, at the temporal scale of the erosive event, on bare plots differing in width (2 to 8 m) and length (11 to 22 m) for two Italian stations (Masse, Umbria; Sparacia, Sicily). Mean results differed by a maximum factor of 1.6 for Ve, 1.8 for Ae and 1.2 for Ce when plots differing in width were compared and by a maximum factor of 1.4 for Ve, 1.2 for Ae and 1.3 for Ce when comparison between plot lengths was conducted. Differences between two plot widths or two plot lengths were not statistically significant…
Analysis of soil loss data from plots of differing length for the Sparacia experimental area, Sicily, Italy
2010
Widely used models of the soil erosion process, such as the empirical universal soil loss equation (USLE) and revised USLE (RUSLE), suggest that soil loss, i.e. the mass of soil lost by water erosion per unit surface area, increases with slope length, λ, although contrasting experimental results may be found in the literature. Experiments were carried out at the Sparacia site, Sicily, to establish the influence of plot length on soil loss. This was tested using data characterised by a high number of replicated, bare plots of different lengths (0.25, 0.4, 1, 2, 5, 11, 22, 33 and 44 m), simultaneously operating in the 1999–2008 period. Event soil losses did not vary significantly with λ or ev…
Establishing a soil loss threshold for limiting rilling
2015
In this paper a frequency analysis of event soil loss measurements collected in the period 1999–2012 at the microplots and plots of the Sparacia Experimental Area in Sicily, southern Italy, was developed. The analysis was carried out using the annual maximum soil loss measurements normalized by the mean soil loss measured at a given temporal and spatial scale. The empirical frequency distribution of the normalized variable was well fitted by two Gumbel’s theoretical probability distributions discriminated by a value of the normalized variable equal to 2. This last value discriminates between the relatively low and frequent values of the normalized variable and the high and rare ones. The an…
Application and evaluation of the SWAP model for simulating water and solute transport in a cracking clay soil
2005
In Sicily, the increasing scarcity of quality water is leading to irriga- from salinization (Crescimanno et al., 2004). tion with saline water in soils having a considerable susceptibility to In Sicily, the increasing scarcity of good quality water cracking. Irrigation systems involving high application rates are used coupled with intensive use of soil under semiarid to arid in these irrigated areas, and bypass flow during irrigation is thus climatic conditions, is leading to irrigation with saline prevalent. Adoption of management practices accounting for cracking water on soils having a high shrink-swell potential and is therefore necessary to prevent salinization and land degradation. su…
Assessing soil moisture regimes with traditional and new methods
2002
Soil moisture regime classes are required by U.S. soil taxonomy and other classification systems. Soil moisture regimes are based on long-term daily data of soil water content, which are as a rule estimated by means of models. International Commitee on Soil Moisture and Temperature Regimes (ICOMMOTR) has proposed classifying pedoclimate on the basis of biweekly water potential. This study was conducted to validate the use of the Erosion-Productivity Impact Calculator (EPIC) model in assessing soil water content of experimental fields placed in different European pedoclimatic conditions, to compare the pedoclimatic classification obtained with EPIC with those produced by the traditional Bill…