An investigation of rainfall characteristics, erosivity and soil erosion on Round Island, Mauritius

Abstract

Round Island is a small (208 ha) islet of volcanic origin located 22.5 km north east of mainland Mauritius and has been classified as a nature reserve since 1957. Two sites were chosen for the installation of environmental monitoring equipment. A series of Gerlach troughs were installed to capture surface sediment transported by runoff, which were used to document sediment yields and determine the particle size distribution. Overall, rainfall and erosivity on Round Island is far less, when compared to mainland Mauritius. However, erosivity from Round Island (2,314.76 MJ.mm.ha-1.h-1.yr-1) is slightly above the global average of 2,190 MJ.mm.ha-1.h-1.yr-1. In terms of sediment transport, the annual sediment movement rates for Round Island were established during this study (0.1248 t.ha-1.yr-1) and were found to be considerably lower than Mauritius (10 t.ha-1.yr-1), as well as other tropical island such as Kauai (0.86 t.ha-1.yr-1) and O’ahu (0.6 t.ha-1.yr-1). Thus, although the estimated rates of soil erosion are very low for humid tropical regions, these rates only reflect the contemporary environmental conditions and cognisance of the landscape history should be incorporated into assessments of soil erosion