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Soils and Erosion
Soil & Water Conservation Society of Metro Halifax (SWCSMH)
April 10, 2012 
Also see Typical pollutants in stormwater runoff; and Relationships with Man, Freshwater Benthic Ecology!
Contents:
- Guide for Textural Classification (USDA-SCS)
- Classification of mineral substrates by particle size, according to the Wentworth Scale (Allan, 1995)
- Rate of settling in pure, still water (Welch, 1935)
- Burney (pers. comm., 1992)
- Average Erosion Rates (USEPA, 1980)
- Factors involved in the magnitude of P transfer (Haygarth, 1997)
- Effects of silt
- Buffer strips
- Canadian Soil Information System, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
- NRCS Soils, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), USDA
- Amethyst Galleries' Mineral Gallery
Guide for Textural Classification (USDA-SCS)
![[Img-texture.jpg]](PIC/texture.jpg)
Classification of mineral substrates by particle size, according to the Wentworth Scale
(Allan, 1995)
![[Img-particlesizes.jpg]](PIC/particlesizes.jpg)
Rate of settling in pure, still water- @temp=10°C, sp. gravity of particles=2.65, shape of particles=spherical
(Welch, 1935)
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(pers. comm.) Burney, J.L. Professor of Biological Engineering, DalTech, Nova Scotia
"As a rule of thumb, a typical barren site
in Halifax and Wolfville soils yields 40 tons/ha-yr of topsoil at 10%
slope, which may be approximately equivalent to the capacity of 40
pickup trucks."
Estimated Average Erosion Rates- Louisiana forested areas
(USEPA, 1980 [Source: Alan H. Plummer Associates, 1979])
![[Img-erosionrates.jpg]](PIC/erosionrates.jpg)
Factors involved in the magnitude of P transfer
(Haygarth, 1997)
- The selectivity of the erosion process
for fine material, since P is associated predominantly with the
clay-size fraction (<2 µm).
- Sorption of P during transport.
- Selectivity of erosion for organic matter or clay minerals which
have a larger surface area and therefore a large capacity to sorb P
during P transport.
- The use of buffer strips and riparian zones are useful, but should not be viewed as the ultimate solution.
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