RESEARCH ON BIOMASS DEVELOPMENT AND RESIDUE DECOMPOSITION OF HORTICULTURAL CROPS FOR EROSION PREDICTION MODELS: PHILOSOPHY AND METHODOLOGY OF DATA COLLECTION

The increased demand for food and fiber, due to population increase, is causing marked acceleration of soil erosion. The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) and its replacement, the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE), are the most widely used of all soil erosion prediction models. Of the five factors in RUSLE, the cover and management (C) factor is the most important one from the standpoint of conservation planning because land use changes meant to reduce erosion are represented here. Even though the RUSLE is based on the USLE, this modern erosion prediction model is highly improved and updated. Alcorn State University entered into a cooperative agreement with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1988 to conduct C factor research on vegetable and fruit crops. The main objective of this research is to collect plant growth and residue data that are used to populate databases needed to develop C factors in RUSLE, and used in databases for other erosion prediction and natural resource models. The enormous amount of data collected on leaf area index (LAI), canopy cover, lower and upper biomass, rate of residue decomposition, C:N ratio of samples of residues and destructive harvest and other growth parameters of canopy and rhizosphere made the project the largest data bank on horticultural crops.