Comparing Runoff and Soil Erosion in Forest, Dry Farming and Garden Land Uses Soils Using Rainfall Simulator

AbstractLand use change, especially natural ecosystems transformation, has high effects on soil physico-chemical as well as biological characteristics and also, has effect on runoff and soil erosion. Analysis of runoff and soil erosion dynamics can be useful in improvement of management proposals and quantifying runoff and soil erosion changes. So, this research was carried out to investigate runoff and soil erosion in forest soils and to compare its results with dry farming and garden soils, which resulted from forest land use change. Also, effective quantitative soil parameters on runoff and soil erosion processes have recognized. For doing this, runoff and soil erosion were measured using simulated rainfall with 2 mm/min intensity and 15 min duration and soil samples were gathered in 15 replicates. Results showed that runoff was highest in native forest while the lowest was from garden land. Sediment yield was increased by 1.76 and 1.36 in conversion from forest to farming and garden land, respectively. Based on the results obtained from the correlation matrix, silt fraction, bulk density and antecedent soil moisture showed positive correlation with runoff and organic matter showed negative correlation with runoff. Also organic matter, clay and sand fraction reveal negative correlation with soil erosion, while antecedent soil moisture and silt fraction reveal positive correlation with erosion.