The Effect Of The Integrated Grasses In Controlling Runoff, Sediment And Nutrient Loss In The Loess Plateau, China

Soil and nutrient loss continues to be a major and serious environmental problem in theworld specifically in Loess plateau china. The eroded materials are directly transported to thelakes and rivers specifically yellow river in China, this might lead to Eutrophication if noprevention measures will be taken. Numerous techniques and methods have been evaluated toassess the runoff, sediment and nutrient loss under simulated rainfall, but limited work has beendone on integrated grass strips. The experiment was conducted on soil erosion and nutrient lossfrom5o,10°and15°plot slopes. Individual grasses plots for rye grass(Lolium), whiteclover(Trifolium repens) and integrated grass (rye+white clover grass) plots in which differentpercentage of vegetation cover of25,50,80and100plots were prepared. Bare land was used asa reference plot. Series of rainfall simulations were conducted and the runoff, sediment andnutrient loss were collected for analysis. The results show that, the sediment loss in a bare landreported to be1.5,3,2.7and1.3,2.1,1.9times higher in100%and80%cover plots for whiteclover, rye grass and integrated grass plot respectively. The runoff rate as compared to bare land,shown to be about2times less for white clover and rye grass plots, while more than2times lessfor integrated grasses plots. The total nitrogen and organic matter loss the results were in theorder bare land> white clover> rye grasses and integrated grasses in which100%,80%and50%vegetative cover shown to perform better. On average enrichment ratio range was40%to90%for nutrient loss, and50%to85%for organic matter for all plots in comparison with soil origin.The enrichment ration significantly shown to be high from bare land> rye and white cloverplots> integrated grasses plot. It has been concluded that integrated grasses are more effectivemeasure over others in controlling both soil, nutrient and organic matter loss in the soil. Thecanopy of Integrated strips grass plots significantly reduced runoff more than other grass types,whereas the plots without the canopy of rye and integrated strip grass were significantly reducedthe sediment yield. Canopy in all plots and plots without canopy were highly contributed to sediment and runoff reduction respectively. This study contributed some information on theerosion control measures modeling so as to boost the improvement of soil and grasslandconservation techniques for better land use and sustainable development.