ABSTRACT:
A study was conducted to compare soil properties of slight, moderate, and severe erosion phases and to determine the effect of past erosion on corn grain yield. The study was located on Marlette fine sandy loam fine-loamy, mixed, mesic, Glossoboric Hapludalf) near East Lansing, Michigan. Solum thickness decreased from 135 cm to 56 cm (53 to 22 inches) with increasing degrees of erosion. Clay content, bulk density, soil pH, and cation exchange capacity of the Ap horizon increased, while organic carbon decreased with increasing erosion. Corn yield averages for severely eroded plots were 21% less than those from the slightly eroded plots, averaged over the 5-year period. Yield reductions ranged from 6% in 1989 to 48% in 1988 when May and June were droughty. Corn maturity was slightly delayed by increased erosion. Stand counts of severely eroded plots were significantly less than those of the slightly eroded plots. Yield reductions probably resulted from a soil moisture shortage. The severely eroded soils were classified into a different subgroup than the slight and moderately eroded soils.
Footnotes
D. L. Mokma is a professor and M. A. Sietz was a research technologist, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 48824. Sietz is now a field representative for Seneca Foods, East Williamson, New York 14589. This paper is a contribution from the Michigan Agriculture Experiment Station.
- Copyright 1992 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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