Abstract

This study was carried out to determine the relationships between soil pyhsical and chemical properties to water erosion and crust strengths. The two consecutive rain storm (65 mm h^-1) were applied on the experimental soils. Erosion plots were waited under a platform, which included 4 infrared lamps (4 × 250 W) at 16 h between the two consecutive simulated rainfalls for crust forming. Results showed that soil physical and chemical properties affected runoff and soil loss significantly (p ≤ 0.05 and 0.01). In experimental soils, sand content, clay ratio and erosion ratio were negatively correlated with both runoff and soil loss, while soluble salt, C.E.C., silt and clay contents, field capacity were positively corelated with both of runoff and soil loss. In this research, no relationships between soil properties to crust strengths were found. By running stepwise multiple regression analysis, suspension percent and sand content were found effective on runoff significantly (r² = 0.53 to 0.72), and runoff, soluble salt were found effective on soil loss significantly (r² = 0.80–0.90), respectively.

Key words: Crust strength, rain simulator, runoff, soil loss, soil properties.