scholarly journals Response of Soil Moisture to Single-Rainfall Events under Three Vegetation Types in the Gully Region of the Loess Plateau

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 3793 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guirong Hou ◽  
Huaxing Bi ◽  
Xi Wei ◽  
Lingxiao Kong ◽  
Ning Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Robinia Pseudoacacia ◽  
Soil Layer ◽  
Pinus Tabulaeformis ◽  
The Loess Plateau ◽  
Rainfall Events ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Vegetation Activities

Precipitation is the main source of soil moisture recharge in the gully region of the Loess Plateau, and soil moisture is the main and most important water resource for vegetation activities in semiarid regions. To identify the contributions to soil moisture replenishment from rainfall of different intensities, this study conducted a soil moisture monitoring experiment involving continuous measurements at 30-min intervals in areas of Robinia pseudoacacia artificial forestland, Pinus tabulaeformis artificial forestland, and grassland from 1 March to 31 November 2017. The results indicated that there was a positive relationship between the infiltration coefficient and precipitation until the relationship obtained a stable value. When the precipitation was greater than 30 mm, soil moisture was replenished up to the 150 cm soil layer in grassland, and when the precipitation was greater than 40 mm, soil moisture was replenished up to the 150 cm soil layer in P. tabulaeformis artificial forestland. However, only precipitation greater than 50 mm replenished the soil moisture at the 150 cm soil layer in R. pseudoacacia artificial forestland. These three vegetation communities play important roles in soil and water conservation during ecological restoration. The results of this study can guide vegetation configurations in vegetation recovery and reconstruction efforts in the gully region of the Loess Plateau.

Soil moisture decline following the plantation of Robinia pseudoacacia forests: Evidence from the Loess Plateau

2018 ◽  
Vol 412 ◽  
pp. 62-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haibin Liang ◽  
Yayong Xue ◽  
Zongshan Li ◽  
Shuai Wang ◽  
Xing Wu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Robinia Pseudoacacia ◽  
The Loess Plateau

Effects of litter cover on partitioning of natural rainfall for plantation Pinus tabulaeformis forest in the Loess Plateau of China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongsheng Cui ◽  
Chengzhong Pan ◽  
Geng Zhang ◽  
Zhanwei Sun ◽  
Fuxing Wang
Keyword(s):  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Surface Runoff ◽  
Rainy Season ◽  
Soil Layer ◽  
Bare Soil ◽  
Pinus Tabulaeformis ◽  
Soil Water Storage ◽  
The Loess Plateau ◽  
Light Rain ◽  
Litter Cover

<p>      Litter accumulates yearly since vegetations were widely planted for reforestation, and it plays an important role in hydrologic cycling. There is little information on the effects of litter on re-allocation of rainfall processes. Eight runoff plots were established in the <em>Pinus tabulaeformis</em> stand with four litter (needle-leaf) masses (0, 0.6, 1.2, 1.8 kg/m<sup>2</sup>), and the surface runoff (<em>R</em>), evaporation (<em>E</em>), infiltration and soil moisture dynamics were measured throughout the mainly rainy season from August 4 to September 28 in the Loess Plateau. The results showed that, soil evaporation mainly occurred in daytime for bare soil, and decreased with increasing litter masses, and litter cover is prone to hinder the heat and water exchange between soil and atmosphere, especially for the soil layer 0~5 cm. Litter cover greatly decreased surface runoff, and it may hinder infiltration at the beginning of rainy season, but increasing soil water storage (<em>SWS</em>) with deeper infiltration depth for the long run, especially for the litter masses 1.2 and 1.8 kg/m<sup>2</sup>. With the litter covered, the ratio of <em>R</em> to precipitation (<em>P</em>) was less than 10%, no matter it was heavy rain or light rain. However, the proportion of <em>R</em> was amplified when the rainfall was intense for the bare soil. And the ratio of <em>E</em> to <em>P</em> was always below 10% for all treatments, except for light rainfall. With the increased litter masses, the proportion of <em>R</em> and<em> E</em> all decreased, and the <em>SWS</em>/<em>P</em> has well nonlinear positive relationship with litter masses, and it was proved that more than a half of rainfall was stored even for bare soil. This study may helpful to better understanding the effects of litter on hydrological response, and promotes practical measurements to the management of precipitation in a forest stand view.</p>

scholarly journals Response of deep soil moisture to different vegetation types in the Loess Plateau of northern Shannxi, China

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingping Gou ◽  
Qingke Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Robinia Pseudoacacia ◽  
Soil Layer ◽  
Vegetation Restoration ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
Deep Soil ◽  
Deep Layers ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Natural Grassland

AbstractDeep soil moisture is a highly important source of water for vegetation in the semiarid Loess Plateau of China, vegetation restoration reduced the deep soil moisture, but how to better quantify the impact of vegetation restoration on deep soil moisture is lack of certain understanding. To explore the impact exerted by different types of vegetation on deep layers of the soil moisture, the 0–10 m soil moisture content profile was measured before and after the rainy season in Armeniaca sibirica, Robinia pseudoacacia, Populus simonii, Pinus tabuliformis, Hippophae rhamnoides and in natural grassland in Wuqi County in Shannxi Province. These results showed that the highest soil moisture in the shallow layers (0–200 cm) was exhibited in the P. simonii forest, which was followed by that in the natural grassland. Both of these results were significantly higher than that those of the A. sibirica, P. tabuliformis, H. rhamnoides and R. pseudoacacia forests. The soil moisture in the deep layer (200–1000 cm) of the natural grassland was significantly higher than that of the other vegetation types. The annual precipitation that recharges the depth of soil moisture was the highest in natural grassland and the lowest in P. simonii. The inter-annual soil moisture replenishment is primarily affected by rainfall and vegetation types. Compared with the natural grassland, the CSWSD (the comparison of the soil moisture storage deficit) of different vegetation types varies. In the shallow soil layer, P. simonii is the lowest, and R. pseudoacacia is the highest. In the deep soil layer, R. pseudoacacia and P. simonii are the highest; H. rhamnoides is the second highest, and A. sibirica and P. tabuliformis are the lowest. These results indicate that vegetation restoration can significantly reduce the amount of water in the deep layers of the soil. In the future vegetation restoration, we suggest emphasizing natural development more strongly, since it can better maintain the local vegetation stability and soil moisture balance.

scholarly journals Dynamics of carbon and nitrogen storage in two typical plantation ecosystems of different stand ages on the Loess Plateau of China

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e7708 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanfang Wang ◽  
Ling Liu ◽  
Feixue Yue ◽  
Dong Li
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Carbon Storage ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Robinia Pseudoacacia ◽  
Soil Layer ◽  
Pinus Tabulaeformis ◽  
Stand Age ◽  
Carbon And Nitrogen ◽  
Annual Carbon

In China’s Loess Plateau, afforestation and reforestation are considered the foremost practices for sequestering carbon and conserving soil and water. In order to evaluate the carbon storage changes of tree, soil, and litter, and the soil total nitrogen (STN) in two typical artificial forests in the region, we conducted plot surveys for different ages of both artificial forest types. Soil samples were collected at different depths from 0–100 cm. The results indicated that forest ecosystem carbon storage increased with tree development. The rates of mean annual carbon sequestration of Pinus tabulaeformis and Robinia pseudoacacia plantation ecosystems were 3.31 and 3.53 Mg ha−1 year−1, respectively. The rate of mean annual carbon sequestration of R. pseudoacacia plantation ecosystems was higher by 6.65% than that of P. tabulaeformis plantation ecosystems. The soil organic carbon (SOC) and STN decreased at deeper soil depths in both plantations at different stand ages, significantly decreasing in the 0–60 cm of soil (P < 0.05), and the highest SOC content and storage were in the top 0–20 cm of soil. The temporal patterns for SOC and STN changes at different soil sampling depths from 0 to 100 cm all showed an initial decrease during the early stage of restoration, and then an increase that coincided with the development of the two plantation forests. At 0–100 cm depth, the SOC storage was in the range of 40.95–106.79 and 45.13–113.61 Mg ha−1 for the P. tabulaeformis forest and R. pseudoacacia forest, respectively. The STN storage in the 0–100 cm soil layer with the stand age development ranged from 4.16 to 8.34 Mg ha−1 in the R. pseudoacacia plantation and 4.19–7.55 Mg ha−1 in the P. tabulaeformis forest. The results showed a significant positive correlation between SOC and STN. This study suggests that we should pay more attention to changes in soil carbon and nitrogen sequestration during long-term vegetation restoration.

Impacts of terracing on hydrological processes: a case study in Wangmaogou watershed of the Loess Plateau

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiuxiu Chen ◽  
Qihua Ran ◽  
Yanyan Hong ◽  
Sheng Ye
Keyword(s):  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Water Loss ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Flow Direction ◽  
Soil And Water Conservation ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Distributed Hydrological Model ◽  
The Loess Plateau ◽  
Rainfall Events ◽  
Soil And Water

&lt;p&gt;The Loess Plateau of China is known for its severe soil and water loss problems. Terracing is one of the most important soil and water conservation measures there. Our understanding of the effects of terraces on soil and water conservation and its mechanism is limited by observation data on runoff and soil erosion as well as the influences from local environmental characteristics. In this study, we applied a physically-based distributed hydrological model (Integrated Hydrology Model, InHM) to an experimental terrace in Wangmaogou watershed of the Loess Plateau, and validated it with the measured soil water content. Our results suggested that terrace construction can substantially reduce runoff by changing the flow direction, especially during heavy rainfall events. This reduction in runoff would be greatly attenuated when ridges are damaged due to lack of maintenance. Under the rainfall intensity of 120 mm/h, compared with hillslope, a well-maintained terrace could reduce runoff by 100%, while the terrace without ridges could only reduce 28% runoff. Besides, ridges not only prevented water from flowing out of platforms, but also helped maintain the risers from terrace failure by decreasing about 20% of the saturation rate at the risers. Our results also emphasized the importance of evaporation, which could make up to 15% of the total water loss even during the rainfall events. Given the effects of terraces on water conservation, it is essential for the land use management of the Loess Plateau to take into account of the terracing approach, as well as a good maintenance of ridges.&lt;/p&gt;

Soil moisture decline following the plantation of Robinia pseudoacacia forests: Evidence from the Loess Plateau

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
HaiBin Liang ◽  
Zongshan Li
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Climatic Factors ◽  
Robinia Pseudoacacia ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Influential Factor ◽  
Mean Annual Precipitation ◽  
Drought Severity ◽  
Mean Annual Temperature ◽  
The Loess Plateau

&lt;p&gt;Soil moisture is the foundation of ecosystem sustainability in arid and semi-arid regions, and the spatial&amp;#8211;temporal details of soil moisture dynamics of afforested areas can benefit for land use management in watershortage regions such as the Loess Plateau of China. In this study, spatial&amp;#8211;temporal variations in soil moisture under Robinia pseudoacacia plantations on the Loess Plateau were analyzed. A total of 147 observations of soil moisture content (SMC) data to a depth of 500 cm soil profile were collected in 23 counties via field transect surveys and analyses of published literature. The results suggested that (1) the depth-averaged SMC was generally lower under forest sites than under cropland, both in the shallow layers and in the deep profiles. This finding implied that, compared with the native vegetation, the introduced R. pseudoacacia plantations caused intense reductions in soil moisture. (2) SMC was positively correlated with climatic factors (mean annual precipitation (MAP), mean annual temperature (MAT), and the Palmer drought severity index (PDSI)), indicating that the SMC under R. pseudoacacia plantations was highly consistent with the hydrothermal conditions at the regional scale. (3) The decreasing amplitude of SMC was linearly related to the increasing number of restoration years, especially in the areas below the 500&amp;#8211;550 mm precipitation threshold. This finding showed that the restoration ageing sequence was an influential factor that affected the regional SMC variation in R. pseudoacacia plantations on the Loess Plateau. Our results suggest that afforestation activities should be avoided if the local total precipitation is insufficient for replenishing the soil moisture and that local tree species with a lower demand for water resources should be considered a top priority for further afforestation of the Loess Plateau.&lt;/p&gt;

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