Shainberg, I., Inst. of Soils & Water, ARO, the Volcani Center, POB 6 Bet-Dagan, Israel
Warrington, D., Inst. of Soils & Water, ARO, the Volcani Center, POB 6 Bet-Dagan, Israel
Laflen, J.M., Inst. of Soils & Water, ARO, the Volcani Center, POB 6 Bet-Dagan, Israel

We hypothesized that the rate at which short-slope soil erosion increases with slope steepness depends on the prevailing erosion mechanism, which is turn depends on soil dispersibility and rain properties (impact energy of drops and water quality. We used both deionized water (DW) and tap water (TW). Soil losses varied with rain properties in the following order: DW rain > TW rain = DW rain with low energy (mist) > TW mist. Rills were formed by both DW rains (high impact energy and mist). The extent of rilling increased with soil ESP. No rills were formed by TW rains. Under dispersive conditions (Sodic soils and DW) runoff was sufficient to initiate rilling and soil losses increased sharply with slope. -after Authors