International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) ISSN (Online): 2319-7064 Impact Factor (2012): 3.358 Volume 3 Issue 5, May 2014 www.ijsr.net Soil Management Impact on Soil Characteristics (Physiques) and Erosion on Hapludalfs Bogor Abraham Suriadikusumah 1 , Sidik Permana 2 , Ika Mertikawati 1 1 Department of Soil Science, Padjadjaran University, Jatinangor, West Java, Indonesia 2 Graduate of Soil Science Department, Padjadjaran University, Indonesia Abstract: The experiments were performed to find out the effect of terrace types and elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) on erosion, aggregate stability, and permeability of Typic Hapludalfs. The experiment was done in the rainy season in Sukamulya village, Sukamakmur, Bogor, West Java with the altitude of 800 m above sea level and slope of 30%. Randomized block design was used in this experiment; consist of 5 treatments and 3 replications. Treatments were: without terrace and without grass (T 0 ) as a control, dike terrace without grass (T 1 ), dike terrace with grass (T 2 ), bench terrace without grass (T 3 ), and bench terrace with grass (T 4 ). The results showed that, there were highly significant difference effect of terrace types and grass (Pennisetum purpureum) on erosion, soil aggregate stability, and soil permeability. The treatment of the bench terrace with elephant grass (T 4 ) gave the lightest eroded soil of 6.698 t ha -1 . The decreasing value on aggregate soil stability and soil permeability were significantly affected by increasing erosion. These relationships were much closed, showed on the coefficients of regression determination of 96% and 97% respectively. Meanwhile the increasing of rainfall followed significantly by increasing of erosion, with a regression determination coefficient of 99%. The results of this study, showed that, there were significantly correlated between erosion with soil aggregate stability, soil permeability, and rainfall. Keywords: Typic Hapludalfs, soil characteristics, terrace types, grass, erosion 1. Introduction Land is a natural resource that is very important in agriculture, resulting in the use and management should always be associated with the preservation of the environmental issues in order to achieve the target of agricultural production and the desired profits and sustainable. Land degradation or loss of land quality lately, so rife among others due to the incompatibility kinds of land use with the ability or the carrying capacity of the land. One soil order of dry land farms in Indonesia is Alfisols, whose presence in West Java around 244,000 ha of 5.153 million ha in Indonesia (Puslitanak - Indonesian Center for Soil Research, 2000). The main problem encountered in the utilization of Alfisols origin Sukamakmur (study sites) for the management of the farm, is the high level of potential erosion. This is supported by the local climatic conditions of Sukamakmur with an average annual rainfall over the last 10 years of 2682.3 mm (Balitklimat – Indonesian Agency for Agrocilamtological Research, 2006). Farmers with all its limitations often penetrated into the sloping land as a place of their farm with all the attendant risks, causing landslides, erosion and flooding during the rainy season. According Sarief (1988), the amount of erosion and surface runoff depends on some physical properties of soil, such as infiltration capacity, aggregate stability, and permeability. If the erosion process takes place continuously, it will be increasingly depleted soil solum, physical properties, chemical, and biological soil is getting worse (Arsyad, 2000). To resolve these factors, it needs the erosion control efforts, which, among other things can be done through terracing and planting implementations. Some research results show, dike and bench terraces with cover crops is quite effective in reducing erosion and maintain the physical characteristics of the soil. Abdurachman (1988) research results show that the use of the dike and bench terraces with cover crops on Ultisols Darmaga with a slope of 10-30 %, the average erosion decreased by 62.8 % in the first year of observation when compared without terrace. Puslitanak research results (1997), showed that the use of the Inceptisols Ciampea with dike terrace with a slope of 10-30 %, the amount of erosion of 0.20 t ha -1 during the growing season, and from the bench terrace on the same slope, erosion has the same great anyway. In terms of the research, which is to determine the role of the type of terraces and planting elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) in reducing the rate of erosion and maintain the physical characteristics of the Typic Hapludalfs Sukamulya. The benefits derived from this study is able to contribute information on the science of soil and water conservation and soil physics, whereas for farmers can be applied in an effort to control erosion and maintain the physical characteristics of the soil, especially on aggregate stability and permeability of Typic Hapludalfs. 2. Materials and Method The experiment was conducted in the village of Sukamulya, District Sukamakmur, Bogor Regency, West Java, with the altitude of 800 m above sea level and about 25 % of slope. Soil Typic Hapludalfs including type C of precipitation class (Schmidt and Fergusson, 1951). The materials used were: (1) land area with a slope of 25 %, (2) erosion receptacle, (3) plastic for each plot bulkhead receptacle coating erosion, (4) cuttings of elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum ). While the tools used in the field consists of: (1) clinometer, (2) the ring sampler, (3) meter, (4) hoes, (5) spades, (6) the hammer, (7) scales, (8) plastic bags, (9) equipment in the laboratory, and (10) stationery and other support tools. Laboratory equipment used consisted of (1) analytical balance, (2) oven, (3) wet and dry sieve, and (4) stationery and other supporting tools. Experiments using experimental methods in randomized block design (RBD). In this experiment, there were 5 treatments with 3 replications, so there were 15 experimental plots. The treatments are T 0 = no terrace and no elephant Paper ID: 020131902 Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 856