Pedosphere 23(4): 532--541, 2013
ISSN 1002-0160/CN 32-1315/P
©2013 Soil Science Society of China
Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press
| Responses of runoff and soil erosion to vegetation removal and tillage on steep lands |
XU Qing-Xue1, 2, WANG Tian-Wei2, CAI Chong-Fa2, LI Zhao-Xia2 , SHI Zhi-Hua2 and FANG Rong-Jie1 |
1College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin 541004 (China)
2Key Lab of Subtropical Agriculture & Environment of Ministry of Agriculture, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070 (China) |
| ABSTRACT |
| Land use and land cover change is a key driver of environmental change. To investigate the runoff and erosion responses to frequent land use change on the steep lands in the Three Gorges area, China, a rainfall simulation experiment was conducted in plots randomly selected at a Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP) site with three soil surface conditions: existing vegetation cover, vegetation removal, and freshly hoed. Simulated rainfall was applied at intensities of 60 (low), 90 (medium), and 120 mm h-1 (high) in each plot. The results indicated that vegetation removal and hoeing significantly changed runoff generation. The proportion of subsurface runoff in the total runoff decreased from 30.3% to 6.2% after vegetation removal. In the hoed plots, the subsurface runoff comprised 29.1% of the total runoff under low-intensity rainfall simulation and the proportion rapidly decreased with increasing rainfall intensity. Vegetation removal and tillage also significantly increased soil erosion. The average soil erosion rates from the vegetation removal and hoed plots were 3.0 and 10.2 times larger than that in the existing vegetation cover plots, respectively. These identified that both the runoff generation mechanism and soil erosion changed as a consequence of altering land use on steep lands. Thus, conservation practices with maximum vegetation cover and minimum tillage should be used to reduce surface runoff and soil erosion on steep lands. |
| Key Words: runoff generation, sloping land, subsurface runoff, surface runoff, vegetation cover |
| Citation: Xu, Q. X., Wang, T. W., Cai, C. F., Li, Z. X., Shi, Z. H. and Fang, R. J. 2013. Responses of runoff and soil erosion to vegetation removal and tillage on steep lands. Pedosphere. 23(4): 532-541. |
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