Pedosphere 18(6): 717--730, 2008
ISSN 1002-0160/CN 32-1315/P
©2008 Soil Science Society of China
Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press
| Function of soils in regulating rainwater in southern China: Impacts of land uses and soils |
YU Dong-Sheng 1, SHI Xue-Zheng1, WANG Hong-Jie1, ZHANG Xiang-Yan1 and D. C. WEINDORF2 |
1 State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008 (China). E-mail: dshyu@issas.ac.cn;
2 Louisiana State University AgCenter, Baton Rouge, LA 70803 (USA) |
| ABSTRACT |
| One of the most important functions of soils is to regulate rainwater and mitigate flooding and associated damages; this function can be estimated by the rainwater regulation ratio (η), i.e., percent of regulated rainwater. Fifteen experimental plots were set up on the hills in Yingtan of Jiangxi Province, southern China. These plots were under three land use patterns, cultivated cropland, noncultivated land, and orchard interplanted with cash crops. With aid of an artificial rainfall simulator and Guelph method, rainfall, runoff, soil infiltration, and so on were measured in situ. Results showed that the orchard interplanted with cash crops was more effective in regulating rainwater than the other two land use patterns. When the maximum infiltration intensity was three times higher than the observed mean, η was higher than 70% for all plots. η was related to land use, slope gradient, and soil properties such as soil infiltration, organic carbon, bulk density, and texture. There is still more room to improve capacity of rainwater drainage (underground percolation) than that of rainwater storage in soils. Therefore, enhancing soil permeability is vital to improve the rainwater regulation effciency in soils. |
| Key Words: land use, rainwater partition, soil water retention, southern China |
| Citation: Yu, D. S., Shi, X. Z., Wang, H. J., Zhang, X. Y. and Weindorf, D. C. 2008. Function of soils in regulating rainwater in southern China: Impacts of land uses and soils. Pedosphere. 18(6): 717-730. |
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