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Soils and Erosion

Soil & Water Conservation Society of Metro Halifax (SWCSMH)

July 26, 2006

Also see Typical pollutants in stormwater runoff; and Relationships with Man, Freshwater Benthic Ecology!

Guide for Textural Classification (USDA-SCS)
Classification of mineral substrates by particle size, according to the Wentworth Scale (Allan, 1995)
Rate of settling in pure, still water (Welch, 1935)
Burney (pers. comm., 1992)
Average Erosion Rates (USEPA, 1980)
Factors involved in the magnitude of P transfer (Haygarth, 1997)
Effects of silt
Buffer strips
Canadian Soil Information System, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
NRCS Soils, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), USDA
Amethyst Galleries' Mineral Gallery

Guide for Textural Classification (USDA-SCS)

[Img-texture.jpg]

Classification of mineral substrates by particle size, according to the Wentworth Scale

(Allan, 1995)

[Img-particlesizes.jpg]

Rate of settling in pure, still water- @temp=10°C, sp. gravity of particles=2.65, shape of particles=spherical

(Welch, 1935)

(pers. comm.) Burney, J.L. Professor of Biological Engineering, DalTech, Nova Scotia

"As a rule of thumb, a typical barren site in Halifax and Wolfville soils yields 40 tons/ha-yr of topsoil at 10% slope, which may be approximately equivalent to the capacity of 40 pickup trucks."

Estimated Average Erosion Rates- Louisiana forested areas

(USEPA, 1980 [Source: Alan H. Plummer Associates, 1979])

[Img-erosionrates.jpg]

Factors involved in the magnitude of P transfer

(Haygarth, 1997)

The selectivity of the erosion process for fine material, since P is associated predominantly with the clay-size fraction (<2 痠).
Sorption of P during transport.
Selectivity of erosion for organic matter or clay minerals which have a larger surface area and therefore a large capacity to sorb P during P transport.
The use of buffer strips and riparian zones are useful, but should not be viewed as the ultimate solution.

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