Laboratory calibration of a tipping-bucket device and sediment sampling tube for soil erosion plots.

Abstract

The calibration of runoff and sediment measuring device for erosion plot studies is described. Volume and flow rate measurements were made by a tipping bucket device. Runoff and sediment samples were collected with a perforated sampling tube attached to the tipping bucket device. The device was calibrated under laboratory conditions for flow rates between 4 and 70l/min and for sediment conc. between 0 and 100g/l. the sample size collected by the sampling tube was around 1% of the total liquid and solid phases. The performance of the volume and flow rate measurements was fitted to a simple linear regression that gave a coefficient of determination of 0.99. Sediment sampling performance was significantly dependent upon flow rate and duration in a multiple linear regression with a coefficient of determination of 0.95.