ABSTRACT
The potential impacts of soil degradation on water quality include acidification and the enrichment of water with plant nutrients, sediments, pesticides and other organic chemicals, salts, and trace elements. Soil degradation is a reduction in the ability of a soil to produce food, fiber or feed of sufficient quality and quantity or to maintain a desired ecosystem. Soil chemical or physical changes that reduce soil quality are considered degradation. Watersheds are complex systems involving the interaction between water entering as precipitation or already present in surface and groundwater reservoirs and the landscape. A watershed represents an area with well-defined, natural, topographic boundaries. The land area that contributes surface runoff to a point of interest is called a watershed and can contain several small subwatersheds. Rates of infiltration vary both in space and time within a given watershed. Spatial variation occurs because of soil type and vegetative cover.
