Inhibitability of soil loss and sediment concentration during consecutive rainfalls from experimental plots treated by endemic microorganisms

Consecutive rainfalls, due to changes in antecedent moisture, alter soil erosion processes, necessitating the implementation of suitable soil loss control methods. Biological soil microorganism approaches have been applied to control soil loss. However, information on the involvement of microorganisms in the soil loss and rill erosion processes has yet to be supplied. In this study, the individual and combined inoculation of cyanobacteria and bacteria was investigated during five consecutive rainfalls with an interval of three days, an intensity of 50 mm/h, and a duration of 30 min. Also, additional runoff simulation of about 2.18 ± 0.32 L/min was done in mid-sized experimental plots (i.e., 6 m × 1 m × 0.5 m) induced by rill erosion. These experiments were done at the Rainfall and Soil Erosion Simulation Laboratory of the Faculty of Natural Resources, Tarbiat Modares University, Iran. Soil loss and sediment concentration were measured during five consecutive rainfalls in the study treatments and compared with the control treatment. Results showed that the highest soil loss of 30,810.70 g occurred at the control treatment in the first rainfall. In contrast, individual and combined inoculation treatments of cyanobacteria and bacteria with the secretion of polysaccharides and resulting stability of aggregates decreased soil loss significantly (p