Detachment of soil organic carbon by rainfall splash: experimental assessment on three agricultural soils of Spain Santiago Beguer´ıa∗ Estaci´onExperimental de Aula Dei (EEAD-CSIC), 1005 Avda. Monta~nana,Zaragoza, Spain Marta Angulo-Mart´ınez Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Pratt School for Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC Leticia Gaspar Environmental Science Program, University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, British Columbia, V2N 4Z9, Canada Ana Navas Estaci´onExperimental de Aula Dei (EEAD-CSIC), 1005 Avda. Monta~nana,Zaragoza, Spain Abstract An experiment was undertaken to measure the concentration of soil organic carbon (SOC) in particles mobilized by rainfall splash under natural precip- itation and to assess its relationship with soil and precipitation properties. Splash cups were deployed on three agricultural soils typical of the central Ebro Valley in Spain (a Cambisol, a Gypsisol, and a Solonchak), and the rainfall characteristics (intensity, kinetic energy) were measured by means of ∗Corresponding author Email address:
[email protected] (Santiago Beguer´ıa) Preprint submitted to Geoderma Thursday 8th January, 2015 a disdrometer (optical spectro-pluviometer). Evidences of SOC enrichment, i.e. a significantly higher concentration in the splashed material with respect to the parent material, were found in the three soils under study. Differ- ences were found, too, between two particle size fractions (less than 0.05 mm and between 0.05 and 0.5 mm), with higher SOC enrichment in the coarsest fraction. While the amount of splash was clearly related to the erosivity of each rainfall event, no significant effect was found with respect to the SOC concentration.