Assessing sediment and nutrient transport in a South Brazilian catchment: hysteresis, fingerprinting, and management implications.

Effective management and protection of natural resources - especially soil and water - require a thorough understanding of the occurring hydro-sedimentological processes in a catchment. In South Brazil, the 18.5 km Guarda Mor catchment, characterized by strong topographic gradients, is vulnerable to soil and water degradation, despite much of its land use under no-till agriculture.

Fluvial erosion in a catchment cultivated with no-tillage at the edge of the southern Brazilian plateau.

The dynamics of fluvial erosion responds to soil erosion and surface runoff on hillslopes due to land use and environmental fragility, conditioned by the soil, geology, relief, and rainfall rate. Despite the increasing problems associated with fluvial erosion in Brazil, little information is available on bedload transport in headwater catchments under intense agricultural activity. Therefore, this study sought to characterize the fluvial erosion processes and bedload dynamics in an experimental catchment in southern Brazil located at the edge of the Brazilian Meridional plateau, which is representative of a large area of high environmental fragility and intense agricultural activity in Southern Brazil.