[Temporal variations of clay content in eroded sediment under different rainfall condition]

Erosion and sediment characteristics were measured using simulated rainfall on two cultivated soils from the Loess Plateau, China. The size distribution of eroded sediment (non-dispersed) was compared with equivalent measurements of the same samples after chemical and mechanical dispersion(dispersed) to investigate the aggregation ratio (AR) and enrichment ratio (ER). Results show that clay content is increasing with the length and rainfall intensity. The loessial soil increased by 8.77% and 2.43%, but the Lou soil increased by only 2.76% and 0.4%. With the increase of slope, the clay content of the two loess reduced by 4.91% and 3.93%, respectively. AR values were less than 1 and ER values were greater than 1. These indicated that relatively slight clay dispersion occurred and that most of the clay in the sediments was in the form of aggregates. The results will improve understanding of erosion and sedimentation processes, which in turn will improve erosion modeling. Knowledge of temporal variations of clay in sediment can also provide the basis for understanding and modeling the transfer of nutrients on hillslope.