Quantifying sediment sources in lowlying sugarcane land: A sediment budget approach

Abstract

The flood plain of the Herbert River basin is predominantly used for sugarcane cultivation. Although flood plains are generally considered depositional areas, high sediment concentrations have been observed in the water draining from cane land. Erosion control measures have reduced erosion from cane fields, but other landscape elements (e.g. drains) could still be important sediment sources. For this study the total sediment output from a cane area was gauged and the contribution of a range of landscape elements was quantified with traditional erosion measurement methods. A sediment budget is used to both present and check the measurement results. The study indicates that this tropical flood plain area is a net source of sediment. Sediment loss from the cultivated cane land was 3.9 t ha-1 between 1 December 1999 and 31 May 2000.