Soil, water, nutrients and organic carbon losses from Inceptisol and Oxisol under natural rainfall

Abstract

Water erosion is responsible for considerable losses of nutrients and organic carbon from agricultural soils. The reduction of soil, water, nutrients and organic carbon losses constitutes an important aspect of the conservation planning. The objectives of this work were to evaluate the soil, water, nutrients and organic carbon losses from a Typic Dystrochept (TD) and a Rhodic Hapludox (RH). The samplings were performed after each considered erosive rain event. The mean annual soil losses were 205.65 Mg ha^-1 for the TD and 14.90 Mg ha^-1 for the RH. The mean annual water losses were 369 mm for the TD and 113 mm for the RH, representing 28.67% and 8.78% of the total precipitation, respectively. The mineralogical, chemical and physical attributes and the relief where these soils occur satisfactorily explain the obtained results. The TD presents higher nutrients and organic carbon losses than the RH. The organic carbon was the main component of the eroded sediment, evidenced by the selective character of erosion.