Effects of tillage on runoff and erosion patterns

Historically, research on water runoff and soil erosion has been conducted mainly at the plot scale, with slope gradient being one of the dominant con trolling factors. However, tillage-induced roughness can also significantly impact runoff and erosion, and therefore runoff patterns on a field scale can be very different from the runoff pattern that would be predicted from topography alone. A model and methodology were developed to account for ori ented tillage effects on runoff patterns. Results suggests that the predict ion of soil erosion and deposition within a field, as well as total soil lo ss from a field, can be significantly improved by combining the effects of tillage-induced runoff patterns with detailed topographic data. (C) 2001 El seviel Science B.V. All rights reserved.