Erosion rates on bare loamy sand soils in east Shropshire, UK

Abstract

Abstract. Results from over seven years of monitoring of erosion rates on bare arable loamy sand soils at the Hilton experimental site, Shropshire, UK, are reported. On bare plots, rates are very variable; erosion during one summer convectional storm exceeded that recorded during six individual years of plot measurement. Exposure of erodible arable soils to convectional storms puts them at risk of excessive erosion. Plot erosion rates were frequently high, with rates up to 67.4 t/ha occurring during an individual storm. Rates were influenced by rainfall erosivity, slope steepness and soil organic content. Mean soil organic content on the bare plots decreased over five years by 0.08%/yr.

A pilot project on the potential contribution of palm‐mat geotextiles to soil conservation

“…Furthermore, besides offering a source of organic matter to bind soil particles, the dense network of grass roots aids the retention of topsoil structure and aggregate stability, and so reduces overland flow by encouraging infiltration. Previous long-term work on the protective benefits of permanent grasslands at Hilton has demonstrated relatively little runoff and insignificant amounts of sediment, with erosion rates of <0·1 t ha −1 a −1 , and double ring flooding infiltrometer measurements indicating infiltration capacities >300 mm h −1 (Fullen, 1985(Fullen, , 1991(Fullen, , 1992(Fullen, , 1998. One of the factors that appears to influence the ability of geotextiles to reduce runoff is that their retention capacity may be influenced by the manufacturing process (Palmeira et al, 1996), which may have been an influence in this study.…”

Quantifying soil erosion by water in the UK: a review of monitoring and modelling approaches

“…Plots established on the loamy sands of the Bridgnorth series, in Shropshire (Fullen, 1992) show average soil erosion rates of 11.3 t ha 21 yr 21 and maximum erosion rates of 34.2 t ha 21 yr 21 over a seven year period (see Table 1). These data were obtained from bare soils but also, because of the aforementioned issues, should probably be viewed as describing worst-case erosion scenarios.…”

Rethinking the Contribution of Drained and Undrained Grasslands to Sediment‐Related Water Quality Problems

“…It is understandable that the focus of erosion work has been on land‐use types that were considered to be more susceptible and where, for example, on‐site soil erosion was removing significant quantities of topsoil and threatening agricultural productivity. Evidence from numerous small‐scale laboratory experiments (e.g., De Baets et al, 2006; Pan and Shangguan, 2006; Pearce et al, 1997) and small‐scale field plot experiments (e.g., Davies et al, 2006; Fullen, 1992; Fullen et al, 2006) suggested that the type of vegetation cover found in grasslands would prevent significant on‐site losses of soil through soil erosion because the process is retarded where swards intercept raindrop energy, slow overland flow, trap particulates, and stabilize the soil structure (hence the use of grass vegetation in buffer strips). More recently, a shift in emphasis from preventing on‐site soil losses to increase agricultural productivity toward more sustainable agriculture and the need to preserve water quality (Neal and Jarvie, 2005) necessitates that we reassess the contributions of all land surfaces to the loads of suspended solids in catchment surface waters.…”