Tuesday, November 6, 2007
211-6

The Development of Risk of Soil Erosion Indicator for Use on Agricultural Landscapes in Canada.

Sheng Li1, David Lobb1, and Brian McConkey2. (1) University of Manitoba, Department of Soil Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada, (2) Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Agriculture Canada, Box 1030, Swift Current, SK S9H 3X2, CANADA

Soil erosion is a major threat to the sustainability of agriculture in Canada. The observed soil erosion pattern in agricultural land is a comprehensive result of all forms of soil erosion processes: tillage, water and wind erosion. A Risk of Soil Erosion Indicator (SoilERI) was developed in Canada through the National Agri-Environmental Health Analysis and Reporting Program (NAHARP). The SoilERI is an integration of tillage, water and wind erosion indicators (TillERI, WaterERI and WindERI). The TillERI is based on a more sophisticated tillage erosion model, the WaterERI is based on the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation 2 (RUSLE2) and the WindERI is based on the Wind Erosion Equation (WEQ). These erosion indicators were applied to Soil Landscapes of Canada (SLC) polygon scale. Soil and climate data for each SLC polygon were extracted from the existing soil and climate databases. Representative landscape(s) were determined for each SLC polygon and each was divided into four segments: upper-, mid-, lower-slope and depression. 5-year interval crop rotations from 1981 to 2001 were extracted from Census Canada data. These data were used in the TillERI, WaterERI and WindERI to estimate tillage, water and wind erosion, respectively, on each segment on a given landscape. SoilERI was calculated as the sum of tillage, water and wind erosion on a given segment, and was integrated to the landscape and the SLC polygon levels. The preliminary results show that soil erosion decreased gradually overtime. Tillage and water erosion are the major contributors to total soil erosion, in which tillage erosion mainly causes soil loss on upper-slope segment and water erosion mainly causes soil loss in mid-slope segment.