נגר וסחף לאורך חתך אקלימי: אפיון והשוואה כמותית בקנה מידה מיקרוסביבתי

Soil erosion by water depends on the hillslope surface characteristics. Shrubs function as sink areas for runoff and sediment that originate in bare soil areas. The objective of the study was to examine runoff and sediment rates in different microenvironments along a climatic transect running from north to south of Israel: arid (Sde Boker), semi-arid (Lahav), dry Mediterranean (Mata) and humid Mediterranean (Ein Yaakov). Specific runoff and sediment yields increased from Sde Boker to Lahav, decreased in Mata, and then increased in Ein Yaakov. Significant lower runoff and sediments values were obtained in the shrub microenvironment compared with the bare soil one in sites Lahav, Mata and Ein Yaakov. It revealed that the sediment yield in the bare soil depends on the runoff yield and rain intensity in all the studied sites