Impacts of land-use pattern on soil water-content variability on the Loess Plateau of China


Autoria(s): SHE, D. L.; SHAO, M. A.; TIMM, L. C.; SENTIS, I. Pla; REICHARDT, K.; YU, S. E.
Contribuinte(s)

UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO

Data(s)

18/10/2012

18/10/2012

2010

Resumo

Long-term vegetation restoration carried out on the slopes of the Loess Plateau of China employed different spatial and temporal land-use patterns but very little is known about the effects of these patterns on soil water-content variability. For this study the small Donggou catchment was selected to investigate soil water-content distributions for three spatial scales, including the entire catchment area, sampling transects, and land-use systems. Gravimetric soil water contents were determined incrementally to a soil depth of 1.20 m, on 10 occasions from April to October, 2007, at approximately 20-day intervals. Results indicated that soil water contents were affected by the six land-use types, resulting in four distinct patterns of vertical distribution of soil moisture (uniform, increasing, decreasing, and fluctuating with soil depth). The soil water content and its variation were also influenced in a complex manner by five land-use patterns distributed along transects following the gradients of five similar slopes. These patterns with contrasting hydrological responses in different components, such as forage land (alfalfa)-cropland-shrubland or shrubland-grassland (bunge needlegrass)-cropland-grassland, showed the highest soil water-content variability. Soil water at the catchment scale exhibited a moderate variability for each measurement date, and the variability of soil water content decreased exponentially with increasing soil water content. The minimum sample size for accurate data for use in a hydrological model for the catchment, for example, required many more samples for drier (69) than for wet (10) conditions. To enhance erosion and runoff control, this study suggested two strategies for land management: (i) to create a mosaic pattern by land-use arrangement that located units with higher infiltration capacities downslope from those with lower soil infiltrabilities; and (ii) raising the soil-infiltration capacity of units within the spatial mosaic pattern where possible.

National Natural Science Foundation of China[90502006]

National Natural Science Foundation of China[50839002]

Ministry of Education[3 000 000 RMB]

Identificador

ACTA AGRICULTURAE SCANDINAVICA SECTION B-SOIL AND PLANT SCIENCE, v.60, n.4, p.369-380, 2010

0906-4710

http://producao.usp.br/handle/BDPI/18938

10.1080/09064710903049334

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09064710903049334

Idioma(s)

eng

Publicador

TAYLOR & FRANCIS AS

Relação

Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica Section B-soil and Plant Science

Direitos

restrictedAccess

Copyright TAYLOR & FRANCIS AS

Palavras-Chave #Hydrological modelling #land-use patterns #runoff and erosion control #soil moisture variation #SPATIAL VARIABILITY #MOISTURE-CONTENT #SMALL CATCHMENT #HILLY AREA #FIELD #EROSION #EVAPOTRANSPIRATION #ENVIRONMENT #SPAIN #BASIN #Agronomy #Soil Science
Tipo

article

original article

publishedVersion