Soil losses related to land use and rainfall seasonality in a watershed in the Brazilian Cerrado

Water erosion is one of the main environmental issues nowadays, which results in the decline of soil quality, reducing the productive potential of crops and also causing water pollution, decreasing water availability for human supply. Thus, this study aimed to estimate soil losses related to the rainfall seasonality in the Verdinho River basin, located in the Brazilian Cerrado. Here, we gathered remote sensing products, cartographic and rainfall databases to provide the parameters of the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) and to build watershed-scale estimations of the factors that contributing to erosion using the Geographic Information System (GIS) software. The greatest potential for erosion coincided with the rainy season (November–March). In terms of real erosion, the results ranged from 0 to 56,713.57 t ha−1 year−1, with the highest soil losses rates observed between the months of November and March. The land use and land cover categories with the highest soil losses are bare soil (48,369,623.73 t year−1), cultivated land (35,617,228.52 t year−1) and pasture (20,509,860.52 t year−1). It was also possible to observe critical points of higher occurrence of soil loss located mainly in the middle and lower part of the watershed. These high rates of soil losses are justified by the intensification of natural factors and the contribution of anthropic actions, which are evidenced mainly in the period of the rainy season. Thus, we emphasized the importance of planning the land use and management in the watershed, with the adoption of support practices in order to reduce the effects of the erosive process on the soil and especially on the watercourse. •The seasonality demonstrated critical times of greatest occurrence of soil losses.•The USLE model properly identified factors that intensify water erosion.•The soil loss is intensified in the middle and lower parts of the watershed.•The erosion is associated water system, with implication in the production water.