Long-term effects of no-till cropping systems on erosion and runoff from West Tennessee loess soils

This study focused on comparing the hydrologic responses of a West Tennessee loess soil to identical simulated rainfall events in the early 1980's and 1994. The goal is to see whether long-term no-till (in place longer than 10 years) causes a significant change in that hydrologic response. For these treatments, the amount of runoff and the peak rate of runoff were measured. Two quantitative parameters (the total amount of rainfall, the total amount of runoff) were used to determine the final runoff amount. The runoff values from the 1980's were significantly higher than runoff values for the 1994 study, though it is not understood to what these differences should be attributed. The runoff amounts for the 1994 study were greatest for tillage double crop, followed by no-till and tillage single crop, respectively.