A model to predict the effects of prostrate ground cover on wind erosion

Abstract

This paper presents a simple physical model which assumes that the loss of soil is proportional to the fraction of the uncovered ground, when the aerodynamic roughness is small. Integration shows that the total soil loss decreases exponentially with the fraction of ground covered. The model is compared with the soil flux generated in a portable wind tunnel over prostrate lupin residues and results from other studies. The data are well described by the model. Unexpectedly, the same data seem to predict soil fluxes that are not necessarily proportional to the cube of the excess wind speed above the threshold level.