Reduced raindrop-impact driven soil erosion by infiltration

SummaryWe used a simple laboratory experiment to investigate whether infiltration influences raindrop-impact induced soil erosion. There was substantially less erosion under infiltration conditions than with no infiltration. This was because a “shield” layer of deposited particles developed more rapidly under infiltration compared to “no-infiltration” conditions. Interestingly, the “shield” depth that fully protected the underlying soil from raindrop-impacts was shallower under infiltrating conditions. We found that the Rose soil erosion model captured the erosion dynamics well (R2 ≈ 0.9). Predicting the “full-shield” depth remains unresolved. These results add evidence to previous studies indicating that saturated, slowly draining areas in the landscape are particularly susceptible to soil erosion from raindrop impact.