Controlling factors of sheet erosion under degraded grasslands in the sloping lands of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

P. Dlamini, C. Orchard, G. Jewitt, S. Lorentz, L. Titshall and V. Chaplot

Agricultural Water Management, 2011, vol. 98, issue 11, 1711-1718

Abstract: The current increase in the global demand for food and fresh water and the associated land use changes or misuses exacerbate water erosion which has become a major threat to the sustainability of the soil and water resources. Soil erosion by rainfall and runoff is a natural and geologic phenomenon, and one of the most important components of the global geochemical cycle. Despite numerous studies on crop lands, there is still a need to quantify soil sheet erosion (an erosion form that uniformly removes fertile upper soil horizons) under grasslands and to assess the factors of the environment that control its spatial variation. For that purpose, fifteen 1 m2 micro-plots installed within a 23 ha catchment under pasture in the sloping lands of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) were monitored during the 2007-2008 rainy season to evaluate runoff (R) and sediment losses (SL). Soil losses computed from the 37 rainfall events with soil erosion averaged 6.45 ton ha-1 year-1with values from 3 to 13 ton ha-1 year-1. SL were significantly correlated with the proportion of soil surface coverage by the vegetation (PÂ

Keywords: Sheet; erosion; Sloping; lands; Factors; of; control; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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