Search results for "RUN"
showing 10 items of 2820 documents
THE IMPACT OF FIRE ON REDISTRIBUTION OF SOIL ORGANIC MATTER ON A MEDITERRANEAN HILLSLOPE UNDER MAQUIA VEGETATION TYPE
2010
Soil organic matter (SOM) changes affect the CO2 atmospheric levels and is a key factor on soil fertility and soil erodibility. Fire affects ecosystems and the soil properties due to heating and post-fire soil erosion and degradation processes. In order to understand fire effects on soil organic carbon (SOC) balance research was undertaken on a fire-prone ecosystem: the Mediterranean maquia. The spatial distribution of SOC was measured in a Burnt site 6 months after a wildfire and in a Control site. Samples were collected at two different depths (0–3 and 3–10 cm) and SOC was determined. The results show that 41·8 per cent of the SOC stock was lost. This is due to the removal of the burnt ma…
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…
Testing infiltration run effects on the estimated water transmission properties of a sandy-loam soil
2016
Abstract Testing factors influencing determination of soil water transmission properties by an infiltrometer method helps better interpretation of the collected data and allows the development of appropriate sampling strategies for the intended use of the data. These factors include the soil water content at the start of the experiment, the height from which water is poured onto the soil surface, and the duration of the infiltration run. A sandy-loam soil was sampled with the BEST (Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters) procedure of soil hydraulic characterization and two heights of pouring of water (0.03 and 1.5 m) under three different initial soil water content, θ i (0.12 ≤ θ i …
Evaluation of disruption of sediment connectivity and herbicide transport across a slope by grass strips using a magnetic iron oxide tracer
2018
Abstract The use of cover crops has been prescribed as a mitigation measure for offsite contamination, as they reduce sediment and agrochemical loads, thus reducing the hydrological connectivity of the land. However, there is the need to quantify its effectiveness for specific agrochemicals in broader range of conditions, to validate management for its safe environmental use. The objectives of the present study were: (1) to explore the use of simulated rainfall and magnetic iron oxide to understand the impact of vegetation strips on runoff and soil losses at the plot scale and, (2) to evaluate the effectiveness of vegetation strips in buffering sediment and herbicides coming from bare soil …
Concise review of interrill erosion studies in SE Spain (Alicante and Murcia): erosion rates and progress of knowledge from the 1980s
2005
From the 1980s onward studies on interrill soil erosion were intensified in SE Spain. The main achievements of the research carried out in the field areas of Alicante and Murcia concern: first, (1) the estimation of erosion rates directly in the field under a wide range of methodologies, different scales and different environmental conditions; (2) estimations based on existing models, such as the USLE, carried out for different subcatchments of the Segura and Júcar catchments; and (3) other parametric and physical event-based models have also been calibrated and validated. Second, the progress of the knowledge in understanding erosion mechanisms. New and reviewed concepts regarding mainly h…
Hydrological effects of a layer of vegetation ash on underlying wettable and water repellent soil
2012
Abstract Hydrological processes after a wildfire may take place under soil conditions altered by heat and by the presence of ash. Soil and ash interact as a two-layer system with poorly understood hydrological properties, especially when ash covers water repellent soil. Here we quantify the effect of an ash layer (0, 5, 15 and 30 mm depth) covering wettable and water repellent soil on (i) the hydrological response and the mechanism of runoff generation and (ii) the water repellency dynamics, for a rainfall event followed by different drying periods and a second rainfall event. Laboratory rainfall simulation experiments (82.5 mm h − 1 during 40 min) at small plot-scale (0.09 m 2 ) were perfo…
Quick and Slow Components of the Hydrologic Response at the Hillslope Scale
2016
It is widely recognized that the Hortonian mechanism of runoff generation occurs in arid and semi-arid regions, generally characterized by high rainfall intensity on soils exhibiting low infiltrabilities. Differently, in steeply sloping forested watersheds in humid climates, by infiltrating through a highly permeable upper soil horizon, water moves beneath the soil surface determining a slow response. However, in most real cases, for example when in arid regions mountain forested areas take place, both (quick and slow) runoff generation processes coexist and together contribute to the hydrologic hillslope response. In this paper, based on analytical solutions of the hydrologic response, ins…
Predicting unit plot soil loss in Sicily, south Italy
2008
Predicting soil loss is necessary to establish soil conservation measures. Variability of soil and hydrological parameters complicates mathematical simulation of soil erosion processes. Methods for predicting unit plot soil loss in Sicily were developed by using 5 years of data from replicated plots. At first, the variability of the soil water content, runoff, and unit plot soil loss values collected at fixed dates or after an erosive event was investigated. The applicability of the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) was then tested. Finally, a method to predict event soil loss was developed. Measurement variability decreased as the mean increased above a threshold value but it was low als…
Length Slope Factors for applying the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation at Basin Scale in Southern Italy
2000
In this paper, for a basin divided into morphological units, a distributed model based on the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE), with different expressions for the topographic factors, and on the sediment delivery ratio of each morphological unit is used. At first, the caesium-137 data available from a Sicilian basin are calibrated with two different models [the Proportional Method (PM), the Simplified Mass Balance (SMB) model] to provide net soil loss data for each morphological unit. Then, for a selected expression of the topographic factor, the slope length exponent is calculated for each morphological unit, equating the calculated sediment yield with the net soil loss. The an…