Data from: ‘Field measurement of wind erosion flux and soil erodibility factors as affected by tillage and seasonal drought’

There are very few reports in the literature with field measurements of wind erosion flux associated with different forms of tillage management. Measurements of wind erosion flux were conducted to quantify the effects of soil tillage disturbance on wind erosion at a site in south central North Dakota USA in 2003 and 2004. The study was conducted on the Area IV Soil Conservation Districts Research Farm. The study site consisted of gently rolling topography (0-3%) with Temvik-Wilton silt loam soils (USDA: Fine-silty, mixed, superactive frigid Typic and Pachic Haplustolls). Three tillage treatments were included in the study: no-tillage (NT), an intermediate level of disturbance, one-pass tandem disk tillage (TDT), and a heavier level of disturbance, two-pass offset disk tillage (ODT). Erosion flux was measured with sediment samplers of the Big Spring Number Eight type from May through September each year. Sediment samplers were positioned near the peripheries of plots and captured soil flux between 5 and 10 cm height. Vertical flux profile was determined by stacked sediment samplers capturing flux at five heights between 5 and 100 cm. Measurements were applied to soil wind erodibility factors, including multiple within-season determinations of prostrate residue coverage (including live material) by marked cable technique, standing residue by photographic means, soil surface roughness by chain method, and twice per season determinations of aggregate size distribution by compact rotary sieve. Data associated with this study should be of interest to soil conservationists, soil scientists, earth scientists, agronomists and others interested in the increased erosion hazards occurring as result of global climate change. Data are generally applicable to croplands under a semiarid Continental climate for the following soil types: Grassna, Linton, Mandan, Temvik, Williams, and Wilton.