ABSTRACT
Both water and wind erosion can be serious problems on cropland, especially on land that is managed by intensive tillage methods of seedbed preparation. The most predominant form of water erosion is sheet or rill erosion, which occurs on soils even with gentle slopes. However, the extent (land area affected), magnitude (amount of soil displaced), and the rate (amount of soil displaced per unit area and per unit time) of sheet erosion are vastly accentuated by anthropogenic perturbations. In addition, rill erosion becomes a problem on steeplands with concentrated overland flow. Rills are shallow channels of concentrated flow and can easily be covered by plowing, but without proper management can easily become gullies. Gully erosion, a most spectacular form of water erosion, causes terrain deformation. Gullies are deep, often permanent, and not covered by plowing and other farm operations. In addition to water erosion, the displacem1ent of soil material by wind is often a problem in arid and semiarid regions. The extent, magnitude, and rate of wind erosion as well as water erosion are also accentuated by anthropogenic activities such as overgrazing, biomass burning, tillage, and other activities that lead to removal of the protective vegetation cover. Coarse-textured soils (e.g., sandy, sandy loam, loam sand, etc.) are more susceptible to wind erosion than fine-textured soils. Excessive wind erosion can also lead to terrain deformation.
