Chase Trautwein

Environmental Science

Mrs. Entrekin

Lab #2

9/21/17

Erosion Control

This lab was conducted so that a better understanding of erosion could be obtained.

Erosion is when the top layer of landslides due to a water or wind breaking the soil down. Erosion breaks
down mountains, fills in valleys and allow rivers to be made and/or disappear. Natural disaster such as
flooding and earthquakes are also ways erosion can occur.

The hypothesis given for this experiment was that the hay barrier would be the most effective followed
by cotton barrier and then the pine needle barrier.

Materials:

 Soil
 Panty hoes
 Cotton
 Pine needles
 Hay
 Ruler
 Measuring cup
 Cups
 Toothpick
 Aluminum trays
 Scale
 Coffee filters
 Rubber band

First, two aluminum trays were obtained, one this dine sized holes in a forth of the tray. Then soil was
added to the aluminum tray with the holes. The soil was pushed away from the holes. The toothpick was
then used to poke holes in the bottom of a cup to use it as a watering devise. Placing the second tray
beneath the first at an angle, the height was measured with the ruler at 139cm. Then using the
measuring cup, 12 oz. of water was added to the watering cup and used to water the soil in a horizontal
motion until the water that gone through the soil. After counting five seconds after the water had
stopped coming out of the watering cup, the first tray was removed and the water and soil in the second
tray were put into a cup and weighed. Then the soil and water were separated using a coffee filter and
rubber band. The cup was then weighed again without the soil. This process was repeated three more
times but each other time a different barrier was used. First the pine needles, then the cotton, and
finally the hay.
 Erosion control materials (total weight) Weight of water Weight of soil
No Barrier 250 g 175 g 75 g
Pine needles 150 g 125 g 25 g
Cotton 150g 100 g 50 g
Hay 155 g 140 g 15 g

The pine needles and cotton has the same amount of water and soil that passed though is barrier, were
as the hay has the most water and soil pass through. The cotton, compared to the pine needles and hay,
had the most soil pass through it were as the hay had the least soil pass through it.

The cup with no barrier had the most weight because there was no barrier to stop the water and soil
from going into the second tray. Both the pine needles and the cotton cups weighed the least because
both substances had enough density to slow the water and soil down. All the cups contained soil and
water, but the no barrier and cotton cups had the most soil. If a farmer were to use one of these barrios
to contain the soil but no the water, he would want to use the hay barrier because it let the most water
go through it without taking as much soil with it. Different barriers would be used for different purposed
and depending of what the developers or farmers wanted. For example, if they want the water to stay
and the soil to filter out they would want to use the cotton barrier.

Some errors that might have occurred in this experiment would be the measuring of the weight of the
soil because the coffee filters were not working as one would have hoped. Also the weight calculations
could have been more precise if an electronic scale had been used so that the weighted did not have to
be rounded.

The hypothesis for this experiment was proven correct. The only thing that was not correct was that
cotton and pine needles had the same amount of weight.

Other questions that could be asked to further experimentation would be, what would happen if denser
barriers were used? Or if sand were used in place of the soil?