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Detachment of Soil Aggregates by Simulated Rainfall from Heavily Manured Soils in Eastern Nebraska¹

ABSTRACT

A field experiment was established to measure the effects of annual applications of high rates of manure for the production of crops under irrigation. The effects of incorporating the manure into the soil by disk plowing to depths of 10 cm, 20 cm, and 30 cm on the stability of the soil mass was measured under simulated rainfall conditions. The effect of simulated rainfall on soil surface compaction as influenced by rate of application of manure and depth of incorporation was measured with a penetrometer.

The amount of soil material detached from undisturbed soil cores by simulated raindrops was curvilinearly related to the rainfall intensity. When the plots were disk plowed to a depth of 10 cm, soil detachment increased from 55 mg/cm³ of water for the nonmanured plots to 89 mg/cm³ for the 415 metric tons/ha per year. The amount of soil particles detached by the raindrops was reduced about 15 mg/cm³ of water as the depth of disking the manure into the soil was increased from 10 to 30 cm. Aggregate size distribution of the splashed material showed that prior application of manure to the soil increased the amount of soil aggregates in the large diameter classes. The penetrometer resistance of the crust formed by the waterdrops decreased from 36 kg/cm² for nonmanured plots to 4.4 kg/cm² for the plots receiving 360 metric tons of manure/ha/year.

¹ Published with the approval of the Director as Paper no. 3859, Journal Series, Nebraska Agric. Exp. Sta., Lincoln, Neb. 68503. Research reported was conducted under projects no. 12-061, 12-065, and 12-081, and supported in part by funds received from the Office of Water Resources Research, Department of Interior, under the P. L. 88-379 program.

² Professor of Agronomy, Associate Professor of Agronomy, and former Graduate Assistant, respectively.

Received for publication October 7, 1974. Accepted for publication February 24, 1975.