Water erosion evaluation of tepetates in relation to reclamation and productivity

ABSTRACT:

This paper reviews the effects of water in tepetates and its relationship to reclamation and productivity, how these changes in properties can cause problems in crop yield, the effects of erosion on hydraulic properties, and the relation of soil properties to productive potential of tepetates. An experiment using runoff plots was conducted to evaluate three treatments and two crops: straight row, contoured row, and check row. The crops were beans and corn. Several simple models were evaluated to show that root-zone water-storage capacity can be reduced by erosion. Losses in available water-storage capacity can result in significant reductions in crop yields. The relative productive potential in tepetates was calculated using a physical approach. In general, the method determines the relative productive potential of soil in terms of the environment the soil provides for root growth based on the soil's available water capacity (AWC).