Resumo

BRAVO ESPINOSA, Miguel; MENDOZA CANTU, Manuel E.  e  MEDINA OROZCO, Lenin E.. Soil erosion scenarios under different agronomic managements in the Zirahuén Lake Basin, Michoacán, Mexico. Invest. Geog [online]. 2009, n.68, pp.73-84. ISSN 2448-7279.

Main problems in endorreic watersheds of the Volcanic Belt of Mexico are soil erosion, lake dissecation, and losses of both water-areas and water-volumes. This degradation begins to occur in the Zirahuén Lake watershed, which is one of the few Mexican lakes of clean non polluted water. Thus, it is necessary to carry out studies which provide bases for sustainable natural resources management by lake and basin stakeholders. The main objective of this study was to predict soil erosion for different cropland systems considering three tillage intensities (traditional, minimum and the conservation tillage) in the Zirahuén Lake watershed. For this evaluation it was applied the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) linked to a geographical information system (GIS). Results suggested that the use of the conservation tillage could reduce soil losses to less than 3 t ha^-1 year^-1 in all cropland within the basin; this improved farming practice will probably reduce the sediment discharge to the Zirahuén Lake

Palavras-chave : Watershed management; tillage systems; Universal Soil Loss Equation.

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