Estimation of soil loss is critical to conservation planning. To make that estimation, use of the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) is prominent in Brazil. For use of the USLE, there is a shortage of data obtained according to the standard method of this model. Among the factors that compose the USLE, soil erodibility (K factor) is difficult to obtain due to the need to conduct experiments in the field for a long time under natural rainfall. Aiming to quantify soil erodibility in a Humic Inceptisol in Lages, Santa Catarina, Brazil, with the use of the standard method of USLE, we quantified the erosivity (EI30) of natural rainfall and respective soil loss for the period 1993-2012. Erodibility was determined by the ratio between these variables and by simple linear regression of the same variables. Annual erodibility values, estimated by the ratio and by simple linear regression between soil loss and erosivity, were 0.0175 and 0.0172 Mg ha h ha-1 MJ-1 mm-1, respectively. The erodibility in spring-summer and autumn-winter showed small variations in relation to the annual average. The monthly erodibility ranged from 0.0083 Mg ha h ha-1 MJ-1 mm-1 in December to 0.0241 Mg ha h ha-1 MJ-1 mm-1 in April. Throughout the time period evaluated, annual erodibility exhibited a greater increase in the initial years and a smaller increase in the final years.
USLE K factor; susceptibility to erosion; soil loss
