Characteristics of eroded sediments from soil under wheat and maize in the North Italian Apennines

Evaluation of Erosion Intensity and Some of Its Consequences in Vineyards from Two Hilly Environments Under a Mediterranean Type of Climate, Italy

“…This also causes a relevant loss of organic carbon and nutrients from the superficial soil horizons. In areas where the vineyard is the main land use, such a level of soil degradation is a serious agricultural and environmental problem as it causes loss of the fertile topsoil and pollution of the superficial water bodies where the eroded materials sediment (Pieri et al, 2007). In this context, soil productivity and other soil functions risk to decline irreversibly (Biot & Lu, 1995;Bruce et al, 1995) if correct practices to prevent erosion are not taken into account (Hudson, 1995;Morgan, 1995;Agassi, 1996).…”

“…Here, this type of soil substrate constitutes most of the hills and plains, and mantles the Apennines chain till altitudes that in some cases reach more than 1000 m. In the hill and mountain environments the presence of this parent material has given rise to zones where different types of erosion occurred also because, since the 1950s, many hectares of these areas were deforested and reclaimed to expand agriculture. As in many of these cases soils have not carefully managed, as often happened for vineyards (Pieri, 2007), a loss of organic matter and, consequently, structure and water holding capacity occurred (Pagliai, 2008). This has led to a poorly to moderate degree of aggregation with weak aggregates that make the soils evolved from fine-textured marine sediments susceptible to severe erosion processes (Philips & Robinson, 1998).…”

Size characteristics of sediments eroded from three soils in China under natural rainfall

“…Yet, sediment particles of different sizes have rarely been quantified, as only the total amount of sediment is typically considered in erosion assessments (Meyer et al 1992;Slattery and Burt 1997). As more concern is being raised on sediment-associated nutrient transport and the resulting non-point source pollution, many researchers have started to analyze particle-size distribution because sediment-associated nutrients (e.g., nitrogen and phosphorus) tend to be bound with small particles which have large specific surface areas (Walling and Moorehead 1987;Horowitz et al 1990;Pieri et al 2009;Yang et al 2014). These data of particle size are mostly obtained after fully dispersing the sediment into primary mineral particles (Slattery and Burt 1997), which, as a traditional sizing technique, provides a consistent baseline for evaluating the spatial and temporal variability of sediment size (Droppo and Ongley 1994;Walling et al 2000).…”

Characteristics of Runoff Nutrient Loss and Particle Size Distribution of Eroded Sediment under Varied Rainfall Intensities

“…Soil erosion led to the enrichment of fine particles and chemical elements in sediments [9], which in turn caused the changes in particle size distribution (PSD) of the eroded sediments. Furthermore, Water erosion may cause a redistribution of the soil particles in the surface soil layer and, by modifying the soil texture, can significantly contribute to a deterioration of soil properties [10]. It is important to study the particle size composition of eroded sediment because the properties of sediment eroded from interrill area provides basic information on erosion process and may suggest measures for controlling the off-site effects of sediment in surface waters [11].…”