SHORELINE EROSION - A CAUTIONARY NOTE IN USING SMALL FARM DAMS TO DETERMINE CATCHMENT EROSION RATES

Data from 10 small farm dams in SE Australia show that shoreline erosi on due to farm livestock access to the dams can account for a signific ant proportion (up to 85%) of sediment contained in the dam. The volum es of sediment resulting from such shoreline erosion may be of the sam e order as the volumes produced by gully erosion in the darns' catchme nts, prompting caution in using farm darns to which livestock have acc ess to determine small catchment erosion rates. Other issues, related to the trap efficiency, also mean that erosion estimates based on farm dam sedimentation should be treated with caution. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.