In the UK, conventional asparagus cultivation practices on sloping land, erodible soils and increased frequency of extreme rainfall events combine to promote runoff generation and soil loss, particularly from interrows. This instrumented field study investigated the interactive effect of mulch and shallow soil disturbance (working depth of 0.175 m) on reducing runoff and soil loss. Ten treatments were installed in a commercial asparagus field near Ross-on-Wye (England, UK) during May 1st–July 17th, 2012. Straw and compost were applied to the interrows at high and low application rates (straw = 5 t ha⁻¹ and 3 t ha⁻¹ and compost = 18 t ha⁻¹ and 8 t ha⁻¹, respectively), both with or without shallow soil disturbance (SSD and Non-SSD) as compared with a bare soil, unamended Control. Across five sampling periods, Non-SSD straw mulch applied at 5 t ha⁻¹ and 3 t ha⁻¹; Non-SSD compost mulch at 18 t ha⁻¹; and straw mulch applied at 5 t ha⁻¹ with SSD all significantly reduced cumulative total soil loss by 53–72% as compared with the Control. Further, mulch treatments with SSD were in general less effective at reducing total soil loss as compared to non-SSD mulch treatments. Compost application was less effective than straw, due to sub-optimal compost blanket depths as dictated by N restrictions for Nitrate Vulnerable Zones, in which the study took place. Despite an overall reduction in total soil loss of 72% (associated with Non-SSD straw mulch applied at 5 t ha⁻¹), soil erosion rates exceeded 1.4 t ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹, considered to be a tolerable erosion rate in the EU. In addition, measured sediment concentrations in the runoff consistently exceeded the EU water quality guideline value of 25 mg l⁻¹. The results indicate that the efficacy of the treatments tested was not adequate to reduce soil erosion in commercial asparagus fields in the UK to tolerable rates. This may in large part be due to daily foot trafficking events that occur during the asparagus harvesting period (April–June) which disturbs and degrades the treatments applied reduing their efficacy. This study demonstrates that additional research is required in order to identify effective erosion control measures to ensure the sustainability of commercial asparagus production systems in the UK.

在英国，在倾斜的土地，易蚀的土壤和极端降雨事件发生频率增加的常规芦笋栽培方法共同促进了径流的产生和土壤流失，特别是由于行间流产。这项有仪器的现场研究调查了覆盖物和浅层土壤扰动（工作深度为0.175 m）对减少​​径流和土壤流失的相互作用。在2012年5月1日至7月17日，在Ross-on-Wye（英国英格兰）附近的商业芦笋田中安装了十种处理方法。将秸秆和堆肥分别以高和低施用率（秸秆= 5吨公顷^{- 1}和3 t ha ^-1，堆肥= 18 t ha ^-1和8 t ha ^-1分别与裸土相比，有或没有浅层土壤扰动（SSD和Non-SSD），未经修正的对照。在五个采样周期内，分别在5 t ha ^-1和3 t ha ^-1施用了非SSD秸秆覆盖；18 t ha ^-1时的非SSD堆肥覆盖；和秸秆覆盖在5 t ha ^-1与对照组相比，使用SSD的所有土壤总累积流失量均显着降低了53–72％。另外，与非SSD覆盖物处理相比，用SSD覆盖物处理通常在减少总土壤流失方面效果较差。堆肥的施用效果不如秸秆，这是由于研究进行的硝酸盐脆弱区的N限制所规定的堆肥覆盖深度不够理想。尽管总体土壤流失总量减少了72％（与在5 t ha ^-1施用非SSD秸秆覆盖物有关），但土壤侵蚀率仍超过1.4 t ha ^-1 yr ^-1，被认为是土壤中的可容忍侵蚀率。欧洲联盟。此外，径流中测得的沉积物浓度始终超过欧盟水质准则值25 mg l^-1。结果表明，所测试处理的功效不足以将英国商业芦笋田的土壤侵蚀降低到可容忍的水平。这在很大程度上可能是由于芦笋收获期（4月至6月）期间发生的每日贩运人口事件，这干扰并降低了所采用的治疗方法，从而降低了其效力。这项研究表明，需要进行更多的研究才能确定有效的侵蚀控制措施，以确保英国商业芦笋生产系统的可持续性。