Variability of Splash Erosion from Slope Gradient and Soil Properties

Soils in arid and semi-arid regions are strongly affected by the accumulation of salts especially carbonates and gypsum. The soils are inherently low in organic matter content and in consequence unstable in the structure which declines the soil’s resistance to water erosion processes. Moreover, the soils are weakly covered with natural vegetation cover which exposes surface soil to erosive factors particularly raindrop impact. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the splash erosion rate in relation to slope gradient in the in soils with different properties. Toward this, twelve soil texture classes were exposed to simulated rainfalls with 40 mm h-1 in intensity for 10-min in four slope gradients (0, 10, 20, and 30%). A total of 144 experimental soil boxes with 25 cm ×35 cm in dimensions were investigated using the completely randomized block design. The results of this study showed that significant difference was found among the soils in splash erosion (P