Tillage Impacts on Initial Soil Erosion in Wheat and Sainfoin Fields under Simulated Extreme Rainfall Treatments

Tugrul Yakupoglu, Recep Gundogan, Turgay Dindaroglu, Kadir Kusvuran, Veysel Gokmen, Jesus Rodrigo-Comino, Yeboah Gyasi-Agyei and Artemi Cerdà
Additional contact information
Tugrul Yakupoglu: Department of Soil Science & Plant Nutrition, Faculty of Agriculture, Yozgat Bozok University, Yozgat 66900, Turkey
Recep Gundogan: Department of Soil Science & Plant Nutrition, Faculty of Agriculture, Harran University, Sanliurfa 63290, Turkey
Turgay Dindaroglu: Department of Forest Engineering, Faculty of Forestry, Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University, Kahramanmaras 46100, Turkey
Kadir Kusvuran: Alata Horticultural Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Mersin 33740, Turkey
Veysel Gokmen: Department of Soil Science & Plant Nutrition, Faculty of Agriculture, Harran University, Sanliurfa 63290, Turkey
Jesus Rodrigo-Comino: Department of Physical Geography, University of Trier, 54296 Trier, Germany
Yeboah Gyasi-Agyei: School of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD 4111, Australia
Artemi Cerdà: Soil Erosion and Degradation Research Group, Department of Geography, Valencia University, Blasco Ibàñez 28, 46010 Valencia, Spain

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 2, 1-17

Abstract: The main aim of this research was to determine the potential effects of different tillage systems (TT: traditional tillage and RT: reduced tillage) on runoff and erosion at two different locations (Kahramanmaras and Tarsus, Southern Turkey) under (i) fallow, (ii) wheat ( Triticumaestivum L.), and (iii) sainfoin ( Onobrychissativa L.) crops. Rainfall simulations with intensity of 120 mm h −1 and 30-min duration, representing a typical extreme thunderstorm in this area, were used. We quantified the elapsed time to runoff generation (ET), total runoff volume (R), soil loss (SL), sediment concentration (SC), and runoff coefficient (RC). At both locations, the fallow plots indicated the first runoff response ranging between 1.2 and 3.1 min, while the range was between 9.4 and 8.9 min for the sainfoin plots. The highest runoff coefficient was recorded for the fallow parcel in Tarsus (57.7%), and the lowest runoff coefficient was recorded for the sainfoin parcel in Kahramanmaras (4%). For both study sites, the fallow plots showed higher soil erosion rates (871 and 29.21 g m −2 ) compared with the wheat plots (307 and 11.25 g m −2 ), while sainfoin recorded the lowest soil losses (93.68 and 3.45 g m −2 ), for Tarsus and Kahramanmaras, respectively. Runoff and sediment yield generated from sainfoin and wheat parcels under the RT system were less than under the TT system at the Kahramanmaras location. At the Tarsus location, the effect of soil tillage on soil and water losses was insignificant on the sainfoin planted plots. The reduced tillage system was successful in reducing sediment yield and runoff generated from parcels growing wheat and sainfoin compared to traditional tillage in Tarsus location, but runoff and soil loss were found to be very high compared to parcels constructed in the Kahramanmaras location.

Keywords: rainfall simulation; extreme rainfall events; reduced tillage; runoff; soil erosion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/2/789/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/2/789/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:2:p:789-:d:480711

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().