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  • The Brigalow Catchment Study: VI.† Evaluation of the RUSLE and MUSLE models to assess the impact of clearing brigalow (Acacia harpophylla) on sediment yield

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    Tiwari517658-Published.pdf (3.805Mb)
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    Version of Record (VoR)
    Author(s)
    Tiwari, J
    Thornton, CM
    Yu, B
    Griffith University Author(s)
    Yu, Bofu
    Tiwari, Jagriti
    Thornton, Craig M.
    Year published
    2021
    Metadata
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    Abstract
    Land clearing for cropping and grazing has increased runoff and sediment yield in Central Queensland. The Brigalow Catchment Study (BCS), was established to determine the effect of land clearing on water balance, soils, and productivity, and consisted of three catchments: brigalow forest, cropping, and grazing. Factors responsible for changes in and models for predicting sediment yield have not been assessed. Objectives of this study are to identify climatic, hydrological, and ground cover factors responsible for the increased sediment yield and to assess suitable models for sediment yield prediction. Runoff and sediment ...
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    Land clearing for cropping and grazing has increased runoff and sediment yield in Central Queensland. The Brigalow Catchment Study (BCS), was established to determine the effect of land clearing on water balance, soils, and productivity, and consisted of three catchments: brigalow forest, cropping, and grazing. Factors responsible for changes in and models for predicting sediment yield have not been assessed. Objectives of this study are to identify climatic, hydrological, and ground cover factors responsible for the increased sediment yield and to assess suitable models for sediment yield prediction. Runoff and sediment yield data from 1988 to 2018 were used to assess the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and the Modified USLE (MUSLE) to predict the sediment yield in brigalow catchments. Common events among the three catchments and events for all catchment pairs were assessed. The sediment yield was approximately 44% higher for cropping and 4% higher for grazing than that from the forested catchment. The runoff amount (Q) and peak runoff rate (Qp) were major variables that could explain most of the increased sediment yield over time. A comparison for each catchment pair showed that sediment yield was 801 kg ha−1 or 37% higher for cropping and 28 kg ha−1 or 2% higher for grazing than for the forested catchment. Regression analysis for three different treatments (seven common events) and for different storm events (15 for forested, 40 for cropping, and 20 for grazing) showed that Q and Qp were best correlated with sediment yield in comparison with variations in ground cover. The high coefficient of determination (R2 > 0.60) provided support for using the MUSLE model, based on both Q and Qp, instead of the RUSLE, and Q and Qp were the most important factors for improving sediment yield predictions from BCS catchments.
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    Journal Title
    Soil Research
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.1071/SR21030
    Copyright Statement
    © 2021 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
    Note
    This publication has been entered in Griffith Research Online as an advanced online version.
    Subject
    Agricultural land management
    Environmental management
    Science & Technology
    Life Sciences & Biomedicine
    Soil Science
    Agriculture
    brigalow clearing
    Publication URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10072/409414
    Collection
    • Journal articles

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