Monitoring soil erosion on agricultural land: results and implications for the Rother valley, West Sussex, UK

Boardman, John; Burt, Tim; Foster, Ian

doi:10.1002/esp.5011

Monitoring soil erosion on agricultural land: results and implications for the Rother valley, West Sussex, UK

Boardman, John; Burt, Tim; Foster, Ian

Authors

John Boardman

Tim Burt t.p.burt@durham.ac.uk

Ian Foster

Abstract

Monitoring has played a key role in understanding the rates, extent and frequency of erosion on agricultural land and this includes projects in Switzerland, Germany and the UK. In this case we focus on highly erodible soils in the Rother valley, West Sussex, southern England on which grow a range of arable crops throughout the year. Erosion rates and extent are high, particularly in response to exceptionally wet periods in the early winter. In the monitored period, rates on summer crops were relatively low due to an absence of intense summer storms. In the years 2015‐20, erosion was localised to where limited areas of bare ground coincided with heavy winter rainfall. Issues of river pollution, associated with excessive sedimentation, off‐site flooding and a high degree of connectivity between arable fields and the river, are of increasing concern. Mitigation measures need to be expanded to protect freshwater systems and properties. This study has implications for similar programmes in intensely farmed regions.

Citation

Boardman, J., Burt, T., & Foster, I. (2020). Monitoring soil erosion on agricultural land: results and implications for the Rother valley, West Sussex, UK. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 45(15), 3931-3942. https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.5011

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Sep 24, 2020
Online Publication Date	Oct 13, 2020
Publication Date	2020
Deposit Date	Oct 6, 2020
Publicly Available Date	Oct 13, 2021
Journal	Earth Surface Processes and Landforms
Print ISSN	0197-9337
Electronic ISSN	1096-9837
Publisher	British Society for Geomorphology
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	45
Issue	15
Pages	3931-3942
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.5011

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Copyright Statement
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Boardman, John, Burt, Tim & Foster, Ian (2020). Monitoring soil erosion on agricultural land: results and implications for the Rother valley, West Sussex, UK. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 45(15): 3931-3942., which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.5011. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.