Information
Level 2 Detail of experimental conditions (what might be found in a journal paper or project brief in Hydrstra)
Description of the Study
What?
This study measured the rate of soil erosion in sloping sugarcane land under conventional cultivation and various no-tillage surface management techniques. The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between rainfall, management practices and erosion rate.
When and Where?
From 1982-1984 (2 years) a study was undertaken on a commercial farm within 50km of Innisfail. There was no specific description of the sites location or proximity to landmarks. The site’s slope is 15% in Basaltic parent material.
How?
The management practices investigated include; Conventional cultivation practices (including burning before harvest and tilling) and three no cultivation practices (including retention of harvest residues after green cane harvest, no cultivation after harvest of burnt cane, no cultivation after harvest of burnt cane and removal of harvest residue).
Measurements were taken in 2 adjacent inter-rows at 10m intervals, each plot was at least 100 m in length and 9 to 9.6 m in width.
Soil erosion was quantified using a profilemeter, measuring the height of the soil profiles before and after erosion events. Bulk density measurements were obtained using soil cores to 30 cm.
Soil compaction was measured using a penetrometer. Forty penetrations were recorded, at 3 sampling times equal to pre-harvest, post harvest and cultivation.
Rainfall data was recorded at the South Johnston Research Station (17º30’S, 166ºE), within a 50 km proximity to the site.
Project administration
Site identifier code: N/A
Principle investigator: BG Prove
Principle data manager: N/A
Principle organisations: Queensland Department of Primary Industries and CSIRO
Data custodian: N/A
Key co-operators: L Nucifora of Liverpool Creek
Data access policy: N/A
Planned pathway for data: Research has been published but base data is not available
Data warehousing: for ongoing studies N/A
Planned data upload frequency for ongoing studies: for ongoing studies N/A
Key references and sources of this data synthesis
These data summaries have been extracted from:
Prove BG, Doogan VJ, Truong PNV. (1995). ‘Nature and magnitude of soil erosion in sugarcane land on the wet tropical cost of north-eastern Queensland’, vol. 35, pp. 641-649.
Keywords
Sugarcane, sediment erosion and water quality