Wind causes topsoil deflation, a type of erosion that is affected by plant and organic cover as well as water content of the soil. Scientists performed 2
experiments using equal-sized fields containing the same volume of soil. The soil
samples were primarily a mixture of sand and silt, but differed in the percentage
of clay they contained. Soil X was composed of 5% clay and soil Y was composed
of 40% clay. Large fans were used to simulate wind. Topsoil deflation was
measured in kilograms per hectare (kg/ha) following 10 hours of wind.
Experiment 1 A mixture of compost and straw was used to represent plant and
organic cover. The percentage of soil covered with the mixture was considered
to approximate an equivalent percentage of natural vegetative cover. One field
remained uncovered, and the other fields were covered with different
percentages of compost and straw. The topsoil deflation from each field was
recorded in Table 1.
Table 1
Topsoil delation (kg/ha) by percentage
of organic cover
Soil
0%
25%
50%
756
Х
Y
105,000
65,000
68,000
42.000
46.000
28,500
20.000
12.000
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