Erodibility of an organic soil: the case in Montérégie, Quebec, Canada

Wind erosion causes significant soil loss worldwide. Bare, cultivated or harvested for peat organic soils looses about 1-2 cm of soil quantity when exposed to erosive winds, much more than mineral soils. The aim of this research was to examine the wind erodibility of cultivated organic soils. A total of 81 georeferenced soil samples were collected at a depth of 0-10 cm and analyzed in the laboratory to determine the following soil properties: bulk density (BD), mean weight diameter (MWD), geometric mean diameter (GMD), volumetric (VW) and gravimetric (GW) water contents, organic matter (OM), degree of decomposition (DD), and wind erodibility index (WEI). Other parameters such as depth to water table (DWT) and elevation (Z) were also measured on the site as well as the variation in soil height during about 30 days. The seasonal variation in soil height were consistent with the dominant wind erosion patterns and represented for the fall period of 30 days an average loss of 5.7 mm that is around 14 tons per hectare. Multiple linear regression was applied with WEI as the dependent variables and soil properties as the independent variables. The result showed high water content and high mean weight diameters to be associated with high organic soil resistance to wind while organic matter is related to low resistance to wind.