RT Journal Article
T1 Soil landscape evolution due to soil redistribution bytillage: a new conceptual model of soil catenaevolution in agricultural landscapes
A1 Alba Alonso, Saturnino de
A1 Lindström, Mikael
A1 Schumacher, T.E.
A1 Malo, D.D.
AB This paper focuses on analysing tillage as a mechanism for the transformation of soil spatialvariability, soil morphology, superficial soil properties and development of soil–landscaperelationships in agricultural lands. A new theoretical two-dimensional model of soil catenaevolution due to soil redistribution by tillage is presented. Soil profile truncation occurs through lossof soil mass on convexities and in the upper areas of the cultivated hillslopes; while the oppositeeffect takes place in concavities and the lower areas of the field where the original soil profilebecomes buried. At sectors of rectilinear morphology in the hillslope (backslope positions), a nullbalance of soil translocation takes place, independent of the slope gradient and of the rate ofdownslope soil translocation. As a result, in those backslope areas, a substitution of soil material inthe surface horizon with material coming from upslope areas takes place. This substituted materialcan produce an inversion of soil horizons in the original soil profile and sometimes, the formation of‘‘false truncated soil’’. In the Skogstad agricultural field (Cyrus, MN) spatial patterns of soilproperties (soil calcium carbonate content) in the surface soil horizons and soil morphology alongseveral slope transects were analyzed. These spatial patterns are compared with those estimated forsoil redistribution (areas of erosion and deposition) due to tillage using the Soil Redistribution byTillage (SORET) model and water erosion using the models Water Erosion Prediction Project(WEPP) and Universal Soil Loss Equation (Usle2D). Results show that tillage was the predominantprocess of soil redistribution in the studied agricultural field. Finally, some practical implications ofthe proposed model of soil landscape modification by tillage are discussed. Nomographs to calculated the intensity of the expansion process of the eroded soil units by tillage are proposed forthree different patterns of tillage.
PB Elsevier B.V.
SN 0341-8162
YR 2004
FD 2004
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/51086
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/51086
LA eng
DS Docta Complutense
RD 6 may 2024