engleski

Monitoring of Water Erosion in Croatia - Fifteen Years of Experience

Soil losses were recorded during the fifteen years (1994-2008) investigation cycle. Stationary measurements of soil loss by water erosion, carried out on Stagnic Luvisols in central Croatia under different tillage systems (The check plot - fallow ; Ploughing up and down the slope ; No-tillage ; Ploughing across the slope ; Very deep ploughing across the slope and Subsoiling across the slope) in crop rotations: maize ; soybean ; winter wheat ; oil rape and spring barley with sown in soybean. The results indicate that soil losses are much higher in the production of spring row crops (maize and soybean) compared to winter crops (wheat and oil rape) and spring barley with soybeans. The highest soil losses are observed in row crops production with over 80% annual erosion, in the seedbed stage, immediately upon sowing. The period from May to mid-June is the riskiest period for water erosion in the agroecological conditions of central Croatia if low density spring row crops are grown in the field. There are no critical periods of high risk in the production of winter crops, and negligible erosion is uniformly distributed throughout the whole growing season. The trend of increasing participation of low density spring crops compared to high density winter and fodder crops on the arable areas in the Republic of Croatia indicates that the problem of water erosion on sloping terrains will be increasingly present. Based on the results of our fifteen year investigations, we recommend that soils susceptible to erosion, such as Stagnic Luvisols, should be ploughed across the slope, and that solely high density crops or fodder crops should be grown on more inclined slopes. Such tillage protects the soil from erosion and water recourses from immission of pollution with different chemical agents, commonly applied in intensive crop production.

water erosion; tillage; crops

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