The effect of sparse vegetative cover on erosion and sediment yield

Abstract An experimental study of the effects of changing vegetative cover from 43% to zero on a 10% slope demonstrates that sediment yield increases rapidly as vegetative cover decreases from 43 to 15%, but with less than 15% vegetative cover the rate of increase of sediment yield diminishes markedly. Therefore, the relation best describing the effect of vegetative cover on sediment yield is neither linear nor exponential, and these results indicate that less than 15% vegetative cover is ineffective in retarding erosion. Therefore, efforts to reduce erosion by slightly increasing vegetation density in the drylands of the world will also be ineffective.