Gully formation in headwater catchments under sugarcane agriculture in Brazil

Abstract

Gully development following agricultural land use change is well documented in many tropical developing countries. However, the impact of specific agricultural intensification practices on gully formation, such as the construction of unpaved roads and contour terracing, remains poorly understood. We studied gully formation in catchments with sugarcane agriculture to inform sustainable agricultural management in Brazil. Through field surveys in ten first-to second-order catchments, we mapped erosional features and described gullying along an incision gradient from rill, to ephemeral and permanent gullies. We documented formation of >130 erosional features that concentrated mainly (96%) on dirt roads along the outer margins of streamside vegetation and bordering transitions from hillslope to hollow. We further established a slope-contributing area threshold for gullying, highlighting high susceptibility to gully formation on dirt roads and contour terraces. Key implications of our findings include targeted enhancements of riparian buffers that extend beyond concave topographies as well as the use of topographic thresholds as a benchmark for gully formation along dirt roads in Brazilian sugarcane fields.