| Abstract: | Two rainfall simulators of different plot sizes were used to test whether sediment in runoff could be used to measure aggregate breakdown in the surface of a cracking clay soil under rain. Plots were prepared with either levelled or furrowed surfaces. Samples of the soil surface under rain were taken from furrow ridges or levelled surfaces, and from areas of deposited sediment. These were compared with samples of sediment in runoff taken at the same times. On both furrowed and levelled plot surfaces and for both simulators, aggregate sizes were significantly finer in sediment in runoff than in samples of the soil surface taken with a spatula. No significant differences in surface aggregate size distributions were found between rainfall simulators, or between furrowed and levelled plot surfaces. Regression lines fitted to the data on size distributions of sediment or of aggregates in the soil surface showed no significant changes through time. The fitted lines showed sediment in runoff to be still significantly finer than aggregates in the soil surface after 50 min rain at 95 mm h?1, except for levelled plots under the rotating disc rainfall simulator, where extreme variability of data meant that even relatively large differences were not statistically significant. Size distributions of deposited sediment were similar to those of the surface of adjacent furrow ridges exposed to raindrop impact. This provides evidence that sampling the soil surface with a spatula gives a representative sample of the material available for rain-flow transport. |
