ABSTRACT Water erosion is one of the main environmental impacts of land use. When soil and water losses occur, nutrients essential for the growth and maintenance of plants are removed, with harmful outcomes on the sustainability of agriculture and the environment. In addition, they lead to other deleterious effects, such as sedimentation and eutrophication of water bodies. Estimation of soil losses due to water erosion in sub-basins is essential for prediction of soil degradation, especially in areas of semi-intensive cultivation, […]

ABSTRACT: The soil is a key component of the Earth System, and is currently under high pressure, due to the increasing global demands for food, energy and fiber. Moreover, the management of agricultural systems is often inadequate and ignores the agricultural suitability of lands, and particularly the vulnerability of soils. This paper demonstrates the application of the concept of the Soil Lifetime Index (SLtI) for the entire state of São Paulo, at a spatial resolution of 30 m. The SLtI […]

Soil loss tolerance refers to the maximum rate of annual soil loss that will permit crop productivity to be obtained economically and indefinitely. Besides the usual form, it can also be used in the Universal Soil Loss Equation as a criteria to better define terrace spacing on croplands. This research work was developed during 1998, at the Agroveterinary Center/UDESC, in Lages, Santa Catarina, Brazil, to establish soil loss tolerance values by water erosion for 73 soil profiles of Santa Catarina, […]