ABSTRACT:
Size characteristics of sediment eroded from 22 intensively cropped Mid-South and Midwest soils during intense simulated rainstorms were analyzed before and after dispersion. The undispersed sediment often was much coarser than the primary soil particles because of aggregation. When this sediment was dispersed, the size distributions of the primary sediment particles usually were similar to those of the dispersed soil. Soils high in silt generally had the finest undispersed sediment. High-sand soils were coarser, and high-clay soils had the coarsest sediment. Much of the sediment from soils with medium to high clay contents consisted of sand-sized aggregates. These coarse aggregates contained much of the eroding clay. Therefore, control practices that trap coarse sediment have major potential to reduce losses of nutrients and pollutants associated with clay particles.
Footnotes
L. D. Meyer is an agricultural engineer and D. E. Line and W. C. Harmon are hydraulic engineers at the National Sedimentation Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Oxford, Mississippi, 38455.
- Copyright 1992 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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