Question:

Soil Infiltration and Runoff

You will be conducting field research on vegetation-covered, smooth-rock covered, paved, and bare soil surfaces after rainfall to determine infiltration and runoff results.

Title: Soil Infiltration and Runoff

Instructions: Enter the Virtual Lab and gather the information needed to complete the report from the field. Please type your answers. When your lab report is complete, submit it to the Submitted Assignments area of the Virtual Classroom.

Part I: Field Research

Section 1: Gather the following information from field research while in the Phase 3 lab environment. Notice that each site you visit has a distinctly different surface, which could affect runoff.

Section 2: One inch of rainfall deposits 144 cubic inches (0.623 gallons) of water per square foot of surface area. Use the following formula to calculate the amount of water after one inch of rainfall (in gallons) for each section:

(0.623) x (square feet of surface area) x (% from lab demo*) = gallons of water

*Remember 40% is written as "0.40" in an equation.

Part II: For the following questions, provide your response in short-answer format (2-3 sentences each). Use this Phase's activities and resources to assist you in answering.

1. How does the vegetation surface type affect the amount of runoff? Speculate why this happens.

2. How does the smooth mountain rock surface type affect the amount of runoff? Speculate why this happens.

3. How does the bare soil surface type affect the amount of runoff? Speculate why this happens.

4. How does vegetation slow and prevent sediment loss?

5. How does vegetation allow greater infiltration?

6. How does pavement or smooth rock runoff affect waterways?

7. How do heavy sediment deposits affect waterways?

8. How does sediment loss affect land and soil quality?