As the first event in soil erosion, rain splash erosion causes movement of soil fragments. Splash is an important process in interrill erosion. The amount of soil particles detached from the surface is associated with soil and rain characteristics and may be affected by rainfall erosivity and soil erodibility. Therefore, in this study, splash erosion rate and its relation with some soil properties were studied. 120 soil samples were collected from three adjacent land uses including forest, rangeland and agriculture in two depths of 0-10 and10-20 cm in Kasilian Watershed. Soil samples were investigated under the experimental condition using splash cup and rainfall simulator. Results showed no significant differences between splash erosion in different land uses. Cultivated and rangeland soils were found to show a significantly lower organic matter (OM) by 59.93% and 33.62% in depth (0-10cm) and 33.33% and 25.59% in depth (10-20cm), respectively. We also found significance positive correlation between percent of silt and splash erosion rate in agriculture (r=0.69, p=0.018) and significance negative correlation between soil organic matter and splash erosion rate in rangeland (r=0.767, p=0.001) and significance positive correlation between K-USLE and splash erosion rate in agriculture (r=0.00, p=0.758).

Keywords: Splash erosion, Land use change, Soil properties, Splash cup

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