Determining soil erosion rates on semi-arid watersheds using radioisotope-derived sedimentation chronology

Kinematic runoff and erosion model efficiency assessment for hydrological simulation of semi-arid watersheds

Hydrologic modeling of semi-arid watersheds is imperative for the development of appropriate water and soil conservation plans. In the current study, the efficiency of Kinematic Runoff and Erosion model-version 2 (K2) model was used to evaluate water discharge and sediment load simulation of Bar watershed, located in the north-eastern part of Iran. The K2 model relies on the kinematic wave appr...

Effects of stubble and mulching on soil erosion by wind in semi-arid China

Soil erosion is a growing challenge for agricultural production in Northern China. To explore the effect of variation in stubble height and mulching biomass on soil erosion caused by wind, we conducted a field experiment using a quadratic rotation combination design. Results showed that the quantity of straw mulch was the dominant factor affecting soil erosion, and stubble height was of seconda...

Wind and Water Erosion in Semi-arid Ecosystems

Soil erosion is an important process in dryland ecosystems, yet measurements and comparisons of wind and water erosion within and among such ecosystems are lacking. Here we compare wind erosion and transport field measurements with water erosion and transport from rainfall-simulation for three different semi-arid ecosystems: a shrubland near Carlsbad, New Mexico; a grassland near Denver, Colora...

Climate change, flooding in arid environments, and erosion rates

Although regional climates throughout much of the world appear to have become more arid in late Cenozoic time, sedimentation rates, and therefore presumably erosion rates, have increased. For sustained erosion of elevated terrain, at least where glaciers are not the major erosive agent, rivers must incise. Therefore bed-load transport by rivers should be a rate-limiting process in erosion. Theo...

Controls on Patterns of Soil Moisture in Arid and Semi-arid Systems