Variable response of particles and inorganic carbon of two different soils during splash erosion

• Published in: Catena (Giessen) 2023-05, Vol.224, p.106958, Article 106958
• Main Authors: Yuan, Chenjia, Lin, Junqiu, Wang, Bing, Yang, Daming, Fang, Nufang, Ni, Lingshan, Shi, Zhihua
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aggregate; Selective migration; Soil inorganic carbon; Soil particle; Sorting; Splash erosion
• ISSN: 0341-8162; 1872-6887
• DOI: 10.1016/j.catena.2023.106958

•Splash erosion affected the redistribution of soil particles and SIC.•The redistribution of splashed material and SIC varied with soil type.•SIC had sorting and enrichment characteristics. Splash erosion caused by raindrops is the first stage of water erosion that detaches and transports soil particles. As an important component of soil particles, soil inorganic carbon (SIC) contains little information on its redistribution during splash erosion. In this study, two soils, purple soil and loess, were selected and placed in a soil tray with a diameter of 20 cm at the center of a splash tray, and a rainfall simulator was used to simulate three raindrop energies in experiments to investigate the migration of soil particles and SIC. The results showed differences in the amount and selective migration of splashed material between the soils, which was evident in the obvious sorting of the particle size of purple soil with distance and the insignificant change of loess soil. The SIC sorting characteristic performed differently in the two soils, that is, the SIC content of purple soil increased with particle size, while that of loess was the opposite. The enrichment and depletion of SIC during splash erosion varied with soil type, and differed from the general enrichment of soil organic carbon (SOC). The SIC enrichment ratio (ERIC) of purple soil was generally > 1, whereas the ERIC values of loess were