Spatial distribution of soil roughness in experimental microplots under different intensities of simulated rainfall

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the spatial distribution of soil roughness in microplots composed of different soils in Galicia (Spain) after application of different simulated rainfall. Clusters of 3-5 cm soil were collected in the municipalities of Lugo and Taboada. In the laboratory experimental plots were built using metallic mobile 0.86 m x 0.86 m (0.73 m²). The roughness of the soil (dm) was determined with laser reliefmeter before and after
application of different amounts of rain (50 mm h^-1 and 75 mm h^-1) for an hour. The index of random roughness (RR) increased with increasing the volume of simulated rain in loam soil (Taboada). All treatments studied showed a high rate of spatial dependence between samples (RD), depending on the number of readings provided by laser reliefmeter, which favors a minimization of random variability.