Assessing the efficacy of human-induced grassland as a soil erosion buffer on hillside lands in central Mexico

Our aims of this research were (1) to quantify erosion rates across various land uses on hillside landscapes in central Mexico in areas where human-induced grassland (H-IG) was established approximately 30 years ago and (2) to evaluate the function of H-IG as a soil erosion controller by establishing the relationship between rainstorms and erosion rates to improve local estimations.

This research was conducted on hillsides sites in central Mexico. Under experimental design in factorial randomize, sediment plots were stablished in two Land Use (LU) types: Cattle Grazing (CG) and Crop Production (CP); in both LU were stablished experimental treatments encoded as: bare soil, BS (CGT1); plowed soil, PS (CGT2); plow mulching, PM (CGT3); and H-IG (CGT4); similarly for CP were encoded like as: CPT1, CPT2, CPT3, and CPT4.

The results indicated that the BSs under both land use types faced a higher exposure risk to rainstorms, leading to a significantly greater sedimentation rate (9.5 t ha^− 1 yr^− 1). In contrast, CP experienced a moderate sedimentation rate (4.5-6 t ha^− 1 yr^− 1) during the measured period (2017–2018). The most effective treatments exhibited lower sedimentation rates (< 1 t ha^− 1 yr^− 1), notably those that involved surface soil protection, such as PM and H-IG.

The evaluation of H-IG under both land use types emphasized the importance of grassland ecosystems containing members of the Poaceae family. These human-induced grasslands showcased great promise as viable options for controlling soil erosion on hillsides.