Water erosion of dystrophic Red Latosols (Oxisols)
Keywords:
Water erosion modeling, no-tillage system, vegetal cover, soil management.Abstract
In their natural state, Latosols (Oxisols) present great stability and resistance to erosion, being the most abundant and used soils for farming and cattle raising activities in southern Minas Gerais State, Brazil. However, along the last one hundred years, they have been submitted to intensive cultivation and managements which favor water erosion. This study aimed to estimate the water erosion rates of dystrophic Red Latosols from the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation, compared with the soil loss tolerance limits, and assess the impact on water erosion of the managements more common in the region, by alternative conservation management simulation. Soil loss tolerance limits ranged from 8.94 Mg ha-1 year-1 to 9.99 Mg ha-1 year-1, with the study area presenting a susceptibility of soil loss of 23.86 Mg year-1, with an average rate of 8.40 Mg ha-1 year-1, corresponding to 34.80 % of the area with values above the soil loss tolerance limit. The biggest annual losses occur in areas with use and management of eucalyptus grown downhill (30.67 Mg ha-1 year-1) and pasture under continuous occupancy (11.10 Mg ha-1 year-1). However, when the average loss per type of use is considered, the areas more susceptible to water erosion are those with potato and eucalyptus crops, grown downhill, and those in bare soil. Nevertheless, in the simulated conservation management scenario, the average losses would be drastically reduced (8.40 Mg ha-1 year-1 to 2.84 Mg ha-1 year-1) and only 4.00 % of the area with soil loss would remain above the tolerance limits.
Downloads
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors will not be paid for published articles and must waive their copyright in favor of the PAT journal. On the other hand, they are solely responsible for the content of those articles, even if the Editor holds the right to adjust them to the norms of the journal. Authors are allowed to publish their articles simultaneously in their institutional repositories, as soon as the original publication at the PAT journal is mentioned.