Collaborative Research: Pattern Emergence and Resilience of Rill Networks and Their Relation to Soil Loss, Landscape Degradation, and Erosion Prediction Technology

Suny At Buffalo, Amherst NY

Investigators

Abstract

Soil erosion remains the principal cause of soil degradation worldwide, and soil loss continues to be a critical concern for the sustainable management of agricultural resources. Furthermore, off-site sedimentation from upland sources severely affects water quality and ecology. Areas of intense, localized erosion, such as rills and gullies, often are the primary cause of soil loss and are the dominant source of sediment removed from these landscapes. This collaborative research project will examine the fundamental mechanics of soil erosion and landscape degradation by rill development. The investigators also will analyze the fundamental topographic organization and evolution of these systems under laboratory and natural conditions. The project will enhance basic understanding of the fundamental mechanics of soil erosion and landscape degradation by rill development as well as the fundamental topographic organization. The project will increase the recognition and understanding of geopatterns and the initiation, development, and evolution of surface water drainage networks at various time and space scales. The project will improve capabilities for predicting soil loss before any erosion takes place, which will help improve watershed and agricultural-management tools, thereby reducing the further degradation of soil resources in the U.S. and elsewhere. The project also will provide special education and training opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students. The project will combine laboratory, analytic, and field investigation to focus on the emergence, evolution, and resiliency of rill networks on soil-mantled landscapes at the field-plot scale. The investigators hypothesize that rill networks display rapid pattern-emergent characteristics and long-term resiliency on hillslopes and that the location, organization, and dimensions of these rills can be predicted before any erosion takes place. Full-scale soil erosion experiments will be conducted during which terrain analysis will be combined with state-of-the-art physical models and analytical formulations for soil erosion processes. The theoretical framework and terrain analysis tools developed in the experimental landscape then will be applied to a field experiment, where erosion plots will be created to replicate the in-house experiments and monitored over time.