Erosion resistance potential as a soil erodibility characteristic based on energy approach

Abstract

The ambiguity of existing methods encouraged researchers to search for more adequate approaches for the determination of soil erodibility. In the paper, based on the energy approach to soil erosion analysis, we have proposed a physically justified characteristic of soil erodibility as the potential of erosion resistance equal to the energy spent on the destruction and removal of a unit of soil mass in the places of its natural occurrence. The device and method of measuring the potential of erosion resistance in the field were described. The exponential character of the dependence of the erosion resistance potential on the volume moisture for light-gray and dark-gray forest soils of central region of Russia was experimentally revealed. It was shown that as the soil was moistened, the value of erosion resistance potential tended to a certain limit. Modelling of erosion processes on the basis of the proposed erosion resistance potential can allow describing erosion properties depending on the initial soil moisture and evaluating them at any time during the growing season.