Wood chips as soil conservation in field conditions

Abstract

The soil conditioner in processes of soil conservation is important especially in heavily eroded areas. Because in this study done in Educational and Research Forest Watershed of Tarbiat Modares University, north of Iran, the experiments created four treatments of control and different wood chips with rates of 0.5, 1, and 1.5 kg m−2, by rainfall simulation in rainfall intensity of 60 mm h−1, and plot scale of 1 m2 on changing ponding time, runoff coefficient, sediment concentration, and soil loss. The results showed that the average change ponding time in control treatment and wood chip treatments with rates of 0.5, 1, and 1.5 kg m−2 were 4.25, 7.48, 11.63, and 12.45 min. Also, the average change runoff coefficient in control treatment and wood chip treatments with rates of 0.5, 1, and 1.5 kg m−2 were 50.03, 26.27, 15.28, and 13.17 %. The results also indicated that the wood chips could decrease average soil loss with the rates of −52.15, −82.18, and −89.35 % compared with control treatment for 0.5, 1, and 1.5 kg m−2 of wood chips, respectively. The one-way ANOVA results showed that the runoff coefficient, sediment concentration, and soil loss decreased with increasing wood chip amount, and the effect of conservation treatment was significant on study variables (R 2 = 0.99). But, the ponding time increased with increasing wood chip amount, and this effect was significant on study variables (R 2 = 0.99).