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This experiment was conducted in Suwon and Iksan city from 2012 to 2014 to evaluate soil erosion and nutrient loss from irrigated paddy fields during cropping period. Rainfall amount and rainfall erosivity of EI 30 were, on average, 1,026 ㎜ and 3,922 ㎜ ㏊ -1 yr -1 hr -1 for the cropping period, respectively, and the rainfall event with maximum EI 30 occurred in July. Annual average of runoff was 2,508 MT ㏊ -1 yr -1 in Suwon and 3,375 MT ㏊ -1 yr -1 in Iksan, accounting for 36% of rainfall of the cropping period. Nutrient loss by runoff, on average, was 7.0 ㎏ N ha -1 yr -1 , 1.3 ㎏ P ㏊ -1 yr -1 , and 16.6 ㎏ K ㏊ -1 yr -1 ; N, P, and K loss were 5.0, 0.6, and 8.3 ㎏ ㏊ -1 yr -1 , respectively, in Suwon and 8.9, 1.9, and 16.7 ㎏ ㏊ -1 yr -1 in Iksan. Soil loss in Korean paddy rice was evaluated as 0.33 MT ㏊ -1 yr -1 ranging from 0.05 MT ㏊ -1 yr -1 to 0.88 MT ㏊ -1 yr -1 . Amount of soil loss, however, depended on areas and year influenced by variation of rainfall amount and intensity. Interestingly, soil erosion in Iksan in 2012 was remarkably greater than those in other periods due to heavy rainfall between late May and June with soil flake dispersion right after the rice-planting season.

In highland crop fields, saprolite is piled up approximately every three years as deep much as 20 to 30 cm because farmers expect that adding new materials may improve productivity and mitigate hazards by continuous cultivation of a single crop. Piling saprolite, however, has been reported to induce poor soil drainage. Effects of deep ploughing with a spading machine and an excavator were studied in sites located in Daekwanryeong-myeon, Pyeongchang in which soil physical properties were deteriorated by piled saprolite. The soil made of parent material of Samgag series was piled up over surface soil of Haggog series naturally developed in the area. Carrot was cultivated in the field. Productivity and growth factors of carrot were compared among control and deep ploughing by a spading machine and an excavator. Effective soil depth extended to 60 cm or greater by 60 cm deep ploughing by an excavator or 50 cm deep ploughing by a spading machine. On the other hand, effective soil depth was within 50 cm at control plot. Productivity of carrot responded to amelioration of soil physical properties. The productivity was greater in deep ploughing treatments than that of control or 30 cm ploughing. It suggested that increased productivity by deep ploughing was mainly related to breaking plough pan which inhibited extension of rooting zone.

Bad drainage problems from paddy fields adjacent to roads are caused by higher constructed roads which change topography of paddy fields to concave topography and artificial pan to prevent road erosion when road constructions are occurred. This study investigated effects of topography changes on soils by road constructions. Soil samples were investigated by physico-chemical analyses and micromorphology analyses from representative soil profile of Sachon series and soil samples. The characteristics of Sachon series that were adjacent to roads were fewer redoximorphic features (RMF) and increase in grey layers than the original Sachon series. The characteristics of Yecheon Series were shown from Jeollanamdo - Suncheon > Chungchungnamdo - Cheonan > Gangwondo - Wonju. Mosaic speckles were shown from micromorphological analyses because of repeat of shrink and expansion by wetting and drying. The location of graying in soil clods were found from coarse stone blocks to fine stone blocks and color changes of composed particles were also found.

Six study sites in Gumi, Goryeong in Gyeongbuk province and Naju in Jeonnam province were selected to investigate soil properties of poorly drained horizons in paddy soils. The horizons were re-established layers which were parent material layers originated from fluvial deposits. Topsoil layers were differentiated from piled parent materials while soil structure of the topsoil layer was massive with striated microstructure. Compaction at soil re-establishment and a lack of structure and aggregate development in these soils may cause the limitation of vertical water movement and result in poorly drained horizons. Soil samples were taken from paddy fields with top soils of sandy loam, silt loam and silty clay loam and re-established soils of coarse and fine texture. The samples were taken from each horizon for the analyses of soil chemical and mineral properties. Soils with re-established soils of coarse texture had greater amounts of sands from top soil texture distributions, while soils with fine texture had greater amounts of silts. Chemical properties of top soils were analyzed from rice cultivated soils at the time of re-establishments and one year after the re-establishments. The coarse texture of the re-established horizons decreased in EC values from 0.23 to 0.11 (dS m -1 ), available phosphate values from 112 to 54 (mg kg -1 ), and exchangeable Ca values from 6.6 to 4.9 (cmolc kg -1 ). On the other hand, soils with fine texture showed decrease only in pH and exchangeable Ca values. Especially, organic matter and available phosphate contents showed heterogeneous distributions from each horizon. This result may be caused by mixture of plough layer and subsurface layer during and consolidation. Hydraulic conductivity values were low at the boundaries of top soil and parent material layers except SL/coarse soil. Soil microstructure was massive structure without soil clods or pores and showed striated structure. Therefore, re-established paddy fields with fluvial deposits as parent material layers showed limited vertical movements of soil water because of occurrence of compacted layers and less-development of soil clods and aggregates.

Farmers in highlands in South Korea pile up 20 to 30 cm of saprolites, mostly granite- or granitegneiss-weathered materials, on surface of arable lands every three to five years to compensate eroded soil and sometimes to discontinue soil-borne diseases. Immediate increases of infiltration and percolation rates are expected with coarse textured saprolites while soil drainage becomes poorer in a long-term. In this study, we analyzed mineralogical characteristics and micro-morphology of plow pan to investigate processes making impermeable layers. Soil samples were collected from plow pan, usually located at approximately 20 cm soil depth and at the lower part of piled saprolites, in arable lands in Hoenggye 5-ri, Daekwanryeong-myeon, Gangwon-do (N37.7, E128.7) in which saprolites were added 2, 4, and 8 years ago; saprolites were transported from similar areas. The saturated hydraulic conductivity decreased over time. Based on soil thin section pedography, quartz and feldspar accounted for a majority of minerals. The size of feldspar decreased and macropores became filled with clay or silt particles over time, which implies that macropores were packed with particles weathered from feldspar. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis indicated that intensity of feldspar decreased over time and the reverse was true for kaolinite and illite, indicating that feldspar and mica weathering induced formation of kaolinite and illite. Conclusively, deteriorated drainage by formation of impermeable layers in farms with piled saprolites was caused by accumulation of clay minerals such as kaolinite and illite in macropores; illite and kaolinite can be formed by weathering of mica and eldspar, respectively.