Abstract

QUINONES-VERA, Jesús José et al. Effect of Biological Soil Crust on Water Infiltration in a Rangeland. Terra Latinoam [online]. 2009, vol.27, n.4, pp.287-293. ISSN 2395-8030.

Studies of water infiltration rate and water erosion in rangeland soils of northern Mexico have considered only vascular plant cover. The importance of the biological crust for water infiltration rates has not been measured. The objective of this work was to evaluate the infiltration rate in a rangeland in areas with and without a biological soil crust where the dominant species is Bouteloua gracilis. The work was carried out in Cieneguilla, municipality of Hidalgo, in the state of Durango, Mexico. Four pairs of lines were randomly located using systematic sampling. On these lines, 64 points were located and used to perform infiltration rate tests, half of them with the presence of crust. To this end, double ring infiltrometers were used. The results showed that in the first 15 minutes a higher infiltration rate was observed in those areas where the crust was not present, whereas in the other areas (crust present) the faster rates were found between 20 and 60 minutes. Considering the random pairs, only the 28% of the soils with a biological crust showed higher infiltration rates. In this study, the results do not support the hypothesis that biological crusts on soils of grasslands dominated by Bouteloua gracilis improve infiltration rates. Factors of water drop impact and water runoff must be studied on soils covered with biological crusts in grasslands to analyze their importance in soil protection.

Keywords : Bouteloua gracilis; grassland; infiltrometer.

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