Abstract
Soil erosion leads to environmental degradation and reduces soil productivity. The use of anionic polyacrylamide (PAM) and synthesized biopolymer (BP) using lignin, corn starch, acrylamide, and acrylic acid were tested to evaluate soil erosion, water quality, and growth of Chinese cabbage (Brassica campestris L.). Each treatment of PAM and BP was applied at 200 kg ha-1 to loamy sand soil and subjected to a slope of 36% with a 20 mm h-1 simulated rainfall. Application of BP decreased soil pH compared to the untreated check (CK); however, the soil pH was not altered with PAM. The decrease in pH might most likely be due to availability of anionic sites to be protonated on soils having pH >6 and soil buffering capacity. Both PAM and BP applications may not induce eutrophication with stable levels of total contents of N and P. With PAM and BP, the average values of suspended soil (SS) and turbidity were reduced by up to 96.0 and 99.9%, respectively, compared to CK. Reduction of SS can be attributed to increasing soil stability and shear strength by clay flocculation. There was no toxicity effects resulting from germination tests and the dry weight was increased by 17.7% (vs. CK) when PAM and BP were applied. These results are attributed to increases in water retention and plant-available water. The use of polymeric soil amendments is an environmentally friendly way to mitigate soil erosion and nonpoint source pollution.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2193-1801-2-534) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Soil erosion is a natural process resulting primarily from forces of water and wind
Anionic polyacrylamide (PAM) and biopolymer (BP) To ensure changes in soil aggregates and pore characteristics in soil treated with PAM, the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images were produced from 200 kg ha-1 PAM-treated and untreated soils (Figure 1a,b)
Aggregate stability and water holding capacity Aggregate stability was increased by 25.4 and 27.1% for soils treated with PAM and BP, respectively (P < 0.05; Figure 2a), compared to the CK
Summary
Soil particles are detached from soil aggregates and moved to other locations by natural processes (McIntyre 1958; Troeh et al 2004) Many factors such as the slope, soil properties, rainfall intensity, and management practices directly affect the yield of soil erosion or its acceleration rate (Agassi et al 1990; Gerits 1990; Kinnell 2000; Troeh et al 2004). Nonpoint source pollution induces exceed transportation of organic/inorganic nutrient chemicals from agricultural fields, thereby inducing eutrophication in aquatic systems and subsequent environmental devastation (Clark et al 1985; Myers 1993; Choi et al 2000; USEPA 2004; Shin 2006). It threatens agricultural sustainability and requires enormous restoration costs (Clark et al 1985)
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