Comparison the size effect of aluminum and silicon oxides on runoff and soil loss

Soil conservation and erosion control is one of the important priority in agriculture and natural resources. There is different methods for soil reclamation and erosion control. Application of amendments in soil is one of the methods for improving the soil physical properties and prevent the soil erosion in last years. Regard to unique characteristics of nano particles such as high specific area, they can be used for soil reclamation and erosion control. Therefore, the aim of this research was to compare the effect of nano silicon oxide (nSio2), nano Aluminum oxide (nAl2o3), silicon oxide (Sio2) and, Aluminum oxide (Al2o3) on runoff and soil loss.
In order to investigate the effect of aluminum silicon oxides, and nano size scale of this materials on runoff and soil loss a silt loam was selected. The studied soil was collected from Agricultural Research Center of Khorasan Razavi province, was air dried, and passed through 4.0-mm sieve. The experiment was conducted as a completely randomized design with 9 treatments and 3 replications. The studied treatments include control (without any amendment) nano aluminum oxide (0.002 and 0.005%), nano silicon oxide (0.002 and 0.005%), aluminum oxide (0.002 and 0.005%) and silicon oxide (0.002 and 0.005%). After addition the different treatments to soil in boxes of 6 Kg, they were incubated for 4 months at moisture range from field capacity (FC) to 50% of FC at 18-25oC in greenhouse condition. The experiments was performed in slope of 2.5% using rainfall simulation with rainfall intensity of 45 mm h-1 for 20 min and after then runoff volume , soil loss, runoff coefficient and mean weight diameter of wet aggregates (MWDwet) were measured. Statistical analysis by one way analysis and comparison of means at P The results showed that application of both type of amendments had a significant effect on runoff, soil loss and runoff coefficient. The minimum values of runoff, soil loss and runoff coefficient were obtained by application of 0.005 % of nano silicon and -aluminum oxides and they had the significant difference with other treatments. Also, the highest values of runoff, soil loss and runoff coefficient were noted in control treatment. There was no significant difference between the similar concentrations of nano silicon oxide and nano aluminum oxide. The different concentrations of both amendments increased significantly the mean weight diameter of wet aggregates compared to the control.
The results of this research demonstrated the positive effects of aluminum and silicon oxides in decreasing the runoff, soil loss and runoff coefficient, and nano materials was better than coarse oxides for decreasing the runoff and soil loss.