Tillage – impact on infiltration of the Loess Plateau of China

Abstract

In arid and semiarid regions, water infiltration is often affected by the soil surface conditions, such as the soil crusts and soil roughness. The objective of this laboratory study was to assess the effects of soil crusts and tillage treatments on soil infiltration in the Loess Plateau of China. A simulated rainfall storm at 80 mm h−1 rate was applied to soil boxes set to slopes of 5°, 10°, 15° and 20° with two soil surface conditions (crusted and uncrusted) and three tillage treatments (contour tillage [CT], artificial digging [AD] and straight slope [SS]) to investigate the infiltration rates. The results show that the infiltration rate was always lower under the SS treatment than under the CT and AD treatments. The time interval to the steady state was shorter under the SS (10 min) than under the CT and AD treatments (15–20 min). The final infiltration rate was nearly the same under the CT treatment and AD treatment; whereas, the SS treatment resulted in the lowest final infiltration rate. The infiltration rates were always greater in soils without crusts than in soils with crusts. The slopes, soil crusts and tillage treatments had significant (p < 0.001) effects on the cumulative infiltration rates. The combined effects of the slopes and tillage treatments on the cumulative infiltration rates were much more significant (p < 0.01) than the other combined effects (p < 0.05).