Assessment of soil erosion sensitivity and post-timber-harvesting erosion response in a mountain environment of Central Italy

article i nfo This study aimed to assess the effects of forest management on the occurrence of accelerated soil erosion by water. The study site is located in a mountainous area of the Italian Central Apennines. Here, forest harvesting is a widespread forestry activity and is mainly performed on the moderate to steep slopes of the highlands. Through modeling operations based on data on soil properties and direct monitoring of changes in the post- forest-harvestingsoilsurfacelevelatthehillslope scale,we show thattheobserved site became pronetosoilero- sion after human intervention. Indeed, the measured mean soil erosion rate of 49 t ha �1 yr �1 for the harvested watershed is about 21 times higher than the rate measured in its neighboring undisturbed forested watershed (2.3 t ha �1 yr �1 ). The erosive response is greatly aggravated by exposing the just-harvested forest, with very limited herbaceous plant cover, to the aggressive attack of the heaviest annual rainfall without adopting any conservation practices. The erosivity of the storms during the first four months of field measurements was 1571 MJ mm h �1 ha �1

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