Field wind erosion measurements with Big Spring Number Eight (BSNE) and modified Wilson and Cook (MWAC) sample

MENDEZ, MARIANO; FUNK, ROGER; BUSCHIAZZO, D. E.

GEOMORPHOLOGY

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Año: 2011 vol. 129 p. 43 - 48

0169-555X

The aim of this study was to compare the horizontal mass flux (HMF) of Aeolian sediment obtained from field wind erosion measurements with the Modified Wilson and Cook (MWAC) and Big Spring Number Eight (BSNE) and to analyze the effectiveness of exponential, power, logarithmic and rational equations to calculate the horizontal mass transport (HMT) for each sampler type. With this purpose wind erosion was measured on a fine sandy loam soil in 10 erosion events between December 4, 2008 and July 1, 2009. The relative efficiency of the MWAC- related to BSNE (REW/B, quotient between the HMF of MWAC and the HMF of BSNE multiplied by 100) was 247% while REW/B obtained from absolute efficiency of the BSNE (85% to 95%) and MWAC (44% to 120%) found in previous studies, was between 51% and 141%. The REW/B increased with height, as a consequence of the wind speed increase and particle size decrease, which reduce the efficiency of the BSNE while the efficiency of the MWAC remains constant. Depending on the equation used, the HMT of MWAC was from 2.1 to 2.53 times higher than the HMT of BSNE indicating that if the HMF are corrected by the REW/B, found in this study, the HMT obtained with the MWAC and BSNE are similar. The HMT obtained from exponential equations were 16% higher than the power equation and, 62% and 11% lower than logarithmic and rational equations respectively. In spite of this, the HMT obtained with different equations presented a good relationship with each other (p