Author/Authors :
AKSAKAL, Ekrem Lütfi Atatürk Üniversitesi - Ziraat Fakültesi - Toprak Bilimi ve Bitki Besleme Bölümü, Turkey
Abstract :
Soil structure is destroyed and soil aggregates are disturbed with raindrop impact. Disturbed soil particles close soil pores and lead soil and runoff losses. The objective of this study was to evaluate effects of wheat straw surface mulching with different doses (0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100%) on reducing runoff and soil losses in laboratory conditions. A medium-textured soil sample passed through 4.76 mm sieve put into metal pans and the control and mulched samples were treated with simulated rainfall with an intensity of 25 mm h^-1 for 15 minutes at 9% slope using the Eijkelkamp Rainfall Simulator, and runoff and soil losses were measured. Results indicated that there were (p 0.01) significant differences in runoff and soil losses between the control and treated samples. The maximum runoff losses (872.5 ml m^-2 ) was obtained from the control pan, it decreased with increasing mulching rate and produced the minimum (275.0 ml m^-2) losses with 100% mulching. A significant negative linear relationship (r² = -0.923) was obtained between mulching rate and runoff losses. Similarly, the maximum soil loss (26.7 g m^-2) was also obtained from the control pan, it decreased with increasing mulching rate and the minimum soil loss (1.4 g m^-2) was obtained from 100% mulched pan. A significant negative correlation (r² = -0.982) was obtained between mulching rate and soil losses. Results clearly indicated that wheat straw mulching is an effective soil and water conservation practice and it is more effective controlling soil losses than runoff.
NaturalLanguageKeyword :
Mulching , rainfall simulator , runoff , water loss , soil loss.
