Soil roughness indexes and their relationship with water erosion

The objective of this work was to express soil roughness through statistical, geostatistical, and fractal indexes, comparing and relating them to soil and water losses in different experimental conditions. The study was conducted from 2012 to 2015, in the municipality of Lages, in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil, in a completely randomized design with two replicates. Three treatments were evaluated: T1, scarified soil at the end of the ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum) crop cycle after removal of the shoot residue; T2, scarified soil at the end of the vetch (Vicia sativa) crop cycle after removal of the shoot residue; and T3, scarified soil without cultivation and without cover. The heights of the microrelief were read with a surface roughness tester with rods. Soil roughness was analyzed through the statistical, geostatistical, and fractal indexes. The fractal dimension and intersection distance showed a clear difference between the treatments with cultivation. All indexes, except R1, are associated with soil losses in the treatments with cultivation. As for water losses, there is only an association with the fractal dimension index and only in the treatment without cultivation.