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ARS Home » Midwest Area » West Lafayette, Indiana » National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #156570
Title: SOIL DEGRADATION AS A RESULT OF WATER EROSION

Author
item Norton, Lloyd
item VENTURA, E - UNIV. QUERETARO MEXICO
item DONTSOVA, K - PURDUE UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: Terra Journal
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/1/2002
Publication Date: 2/1/2003
Citation: Norton, L.D., Ventura, E., Dontsova, K. Soil Degradation as a result of water erosion. TERRA Journal. 2003. 21(2):259-265.

Interpretive Summary: The problem of soil erosion is typically associated only with the on-site loss of topsoil. This is a very important problem, especially when low productivity subsurface layers are exposed to erosive forces, which further exasperate the off-site affects associated with erosion such as sedimentation, pollution of water bodies and flooding. Through a combination of studies from the very molecular level to field scale, we studied the basic interaction of rainwater and soil. We found that we could control erosion in the field scale while improving crop yields with low cost methods that farmers can easily adopt in their farming practices. The impact of this research is that both on-site and off-site consequences of soil erosion can be reduced at low cost, improve yields and increase on-farm profitability.

Technical Abstract: The loss of topsoil is often thought of as the only ramification of soil erosion by water. However, there are other important degradational aspects of the interaction of water and soil at the very earth surface. Low electrolyte rain water, when impinged upon either bare or covered soil, tends to react chemically causing dispersion of clays. This phenomena leads to a lowering of the infiltration capacity of the soil to the extent that runoff will occur and thus transporting the disperse clays, soil particles, pesticides and nutrients off-site. The process causes considerable off-site effects such as siltation of waterways and contamination of waterbodies with chemicals as well as the on-site degradation and loss of productivity. The process is particularly problematic on marginal soils where subsoils having lesser productivity and increased runoff and erosion potential are exposed. The objective of this paper is to summarize the various soil degradational processes occurring due to water erosion and discuss various ways that the knowledge of these processes can be used to develop low cost, effective methods to control erosion thereby preventing the soil degradation. The information here presented is the result of several years of both field and laboratory experimentation conducted by the authors and other personnel at the United States Department of Agriculture and Purdue University's National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory at West Lafayette, Indiana, USA.