Stephen Edem

Insitu Erosion Variability Measurement Under Vetiver Hedges in Alfisol: Assessment of Management Control on Soil Loss and Runoff in the Field with Multi-slot Device Stephen Edem

The importance of erosion in relation to variability of water and soil losses from a parcel of land can be revealed in the measurements of the sediment yield and runoff under a comparable collection tanks within the land. This experiment is aimed at assessing the variability of runoff and soil loss within and among runoff plots. This study involved three plots of measurement out of six plots (40 m × 3 m each) randomly distributed over a land area of 0.072 ha. The study was conducted on a 7% slope experimental plot,during the 2007 raining season. Runoff and soil loss were measured after every rainstorm that caused runoff. The volume of the runoff water and soil loss in the collecting tanks were determined. Several studies have demonstrated and reported differences in runoff and soil loss measurements on seemingly similar soils due to surface and profile heterogeneities in physical properties . As a result of this, extrapolation of measurements made from similar soil types in different agro-ecological settings is misleading. Therefore, this book provides realistic measurement of erosion in a field using multi-slot devices to quantify the variability of erosion within a given soil