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Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology ›› 2018, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (12): 3907-3916.doi: 10.13287/j.1001-9332.201812.014

• Research paper • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effect of vegetation utilization on runoff and sediment production on grain-for-green slopes in the wind-water erosion crisscross region

WANG Zi-hao1, ZHANG Feng-bao1,2*, YANG Ming-yi1,2, REN Rui-xue1, DENG Xin-xin1, CAO Xiao-juan2,3, LI Zhan-bin1,2,4   

  1. 1State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China;
    2Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China;
    3University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China;
    4Institute of Water Resources and Hydro-electric Engineering, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an 710048, China
  • Received:2018-06-04 Revised:2018-09-30 Online:2018-12-20 Published:2018-12-20
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC0402406) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41571130082).

Abstract: To effectively utilize the vegetation on grain-for-green slopes in the wind-water erosion crisscross region, it is necessary to determine the reasonable vegetation utilization intensity. We set up runoff plots on slopes which were not cultivated and were closed for many years in the Liudaogou catchment, a typical catchment in wind-water erosion crisscross region of the Loess Plateau. With artificial simulated rainfall experiments, the characteristics of runoff and sediment yield on slopes (10°, 20° and 30°) under different utilization intensity of vegetation were studied to select the reasonable utilization intensity. The results showed that the runoff rate in the process of rainfall simulation could be divided into two periods: rapidly increasing in the initial period and slow increasing or quasi-steady state in the middle and late periods. The variation of erosion rate during the rainfall was dependent on the slope. The utilization intensity had a significant effect on the runoff yield, which increased with the increasing utilization intensities. The slope gradient had a significant effect on the sediment yield, with the variation of sediment yield with slope gradient being: 20°>30°>10°. Compared with the unused (natural) plots, the relative runoff and sediment increased with increasing utilization intensities. Predicted based on the rainfall data, annual soil erosion amount on the slope would be basically lower than the tolerance level of soil loss when the vegetation cover on the slope surface reached 25% in 15 years after abandoning reclamation. More attention should be paid to the restoration and management of vegetation on the slope of 20° in this area.