Variability of Surface Erosion and Particle Size Distribution in Relation to Slope Aspect and Gradient in a Semi-Arid Region in West of Zanjan

Soil erosion by surface runoff introduced as surface erosion is one of the main mechanisms of land degradation in the hill slopes. Slope characteristics including aspect and gradient can control the differences of soil properties along the hillslope. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of slope aspect and gradient on variations of some soil properties in the short slopes. Five hills including both north and south aspects with different gradients (9-10%, 13-16%, 17-22%, 29-31% and 33-37%) were considered in a semi-arid region with 30 ha in area, in the west of Zanjan, northwest of Iran. The hills were weakly covered with pasture vegetation covers. Soil samples were collected along the slopes from two depths (0-5 cm and 5-15 cm) in four positions with 2 m distance along each slope with two replications. A total of 160 soil samples were analyzed for particle size distribution (sand, silt and clay), gravel and bulk density. Surface erosion was determined based on the variation of grain size distribution and bulk density. Differences of the grain size distribution and surface erosion between the two slope aspects and among the slope gradients were analyzed using the Tukey test. No significant difference was found between slope aspects in surface soil erosion. Nevertheless, surface soil erosion was affected by slope gradient in each slope aspect (R2= 0.78, p