Rainfall erosion is a major cause of inducing soil degradation, and rainfall patterns have a significant influence on the process of sediment yield and nutrient loss. The mathematical models developed in this study were used to simulate the sediment and nutrient loss in surface runoff. Four rainfall patterns, each with a different rainfall intensity variation, were applied during the simulated ...

Field and laboratory studies have indicated that rock fragments in the topsoil may have a large impact on soil properties, soil quality, hydraulic, hydrological and erosion processes. In most studies, the investigated rock fragments still remain visible at the soil surface and only properties of these visible rock fragments are used for predicting runoff and soil loss. However, there are indica...

This study examines the effects of land use and slope angle on runoff, soil loss and nitrogen loss from hillslopes of the Loess Plateau in China. Farmland, wasteland and four forest treatments (sea buckthornþ poplar, immature sea buckthorn, mature sea buckthorn, and immature Chinese pine) were the types of land use that were compared. The results showed that July was the critical period for run...

Unpaved roads are believed to be the primary source of terrigenous sediments being delivered to marine ecosystems around the island of St John in the eastern Caribbean. The objectives of this study were to: (1) measure runoff and suspended sediment yields from a road segment; (2) develop and test two event-based runoff and sediment prediction models; and (3) compare the predicted sediment yield...

Biological soil crusts (BSCs, or biocrusts) have important positive ecological functions such as erosion control and soil fertility improvement, and they may also have negative effects on soil moisture in some cases. Simultaneous discussions of the two-sided impacts of BSCs are key to the rational use of this resource. This study focused on the contribution of BSCs while combining with specific...

Scale effects exist in the whole process of rainfall―runoff―soil erosion―sediment transport in river basins. The differences of hydrographs and sediment graphs in different positions in a river basin are treated as basic scale effects, which are more complex in the gullied Loess Plateau, a region notorious for high intensity soil erosion and hyper-concentrated sediment-laden flow. The up-scalin...

Post-fire hillslope stabilization treatments aim to reduce runoff-erosion risks following forest fires by counteracting the impact of fire on key soil and hillslope properties. Here we evaluate the effectiveness of wood shred mulch, long-leaved pine needle mulch, and polyacrylamide (PAM) in reducing post-fire runoff and erosion in two volcanic soil types of contrasting wettability using rainfal...