Plant Soil Environ., 2015, 61(3):109-115 | DOI: 10.17221/903/2014-PSE

Determining the protective effect of agricultural crops on the soil erosion process using a field rainfall simulatorOriginal Paper

T. Davidová1, T. Dostál1, V. David1, P. Strauss2
1 Department of Irrigation, Drainage and Landscape Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
2 Institute for Land and Water Management Research, Federal Agency for Water

In this paper the data measured by application of the MDS NZ2 field rainfall simulator have been used to demonstrate the effect of vegetation cover on surface runoff generation and soil loss. The results of 15 experiments for two crops (oats and wheat) are presented. Canopy cover and the leaf area index are used to describe the vegetation development. Measured soil loss decreased with growing vegetation significantly from the maximum values 74.7 g/min for oats (38.4 g/min for wheat) to 0.4 g/min (1.5 g/min respectively) from the experimental plot of 16 m2. Thus, this work clearly demonstrates the positive effect of canopy development on soil loss. However, the effect of the developing cover on the surface runoff generation was not significant.

Keywords: water erosion; soil detachment; soil loss ration; vegetative cover; LAI

Published: March 31, 2015  Show citation

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Davidová T, Dostál T, David V, Strauss P. Determining the protective effect of agricultural crops on the soil erosion process using a field rainfall simulator. Plant Soil Environ. 2015;61(3):109-115. doi: 10.17221/903/2014-PSE.
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