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Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology ›› 2017, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (12): 4025-4033.doi: 10.13287/j.1001-9332.201712.017

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Effects of land use changes on soil water conservation in Hainan Island, China

WEN Zhi1,2, ZHAO He1,2, LIU Lei3, OUYANG Zhi-yun1, ZHENG Hua1,2*, MI Hong-xu3, LI Yan-min2,4,5   

  1. 1State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
    2University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
    3Hainan Yinggeling National Nature Reserve, Baisha 572800, Hainan, China
    4Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, Fujian, China
    5Xiamen Key Laboratory of Urban Metabolism, Xiamen 361021, Fujian, China
  • Received:2017-05-22 Online:2017-12-18 Published:2017-12-18
  • Contact: * E-mail: zhenghua@rcees.ac.cn
  • Supported by:

    This work was supported by the National key R&D project (2016YFC0503401)

Abstract: In tropical areas, a large number of natural forests have been transformed into other plantations, which affected the water conservation function of terrestrial ecosystems. In order to clari-fy the effects of land use changes on soil water conservation function, we selected four typical land use types in the central mountainous region of Hainan Island, i.e., natural forests with stand age greater than 100 years (VF), secondary forests with stand age of 10 years (SF), areca plantations with stand age of 12 years (AF) and rubber plantations with stand age of 35 years (RF). The effects of land use change on soil water holding capacity and water conservation (presented by soil water index, SWI) were assessed. The results showed that, compared with VF, the soil water holding capacity index of other land types decreased in the top soil layer (0-10 cm). AF had the lowest soil water holding capacity in all soil layers. Soil water content and maximum water holding capacity were significantly related to canopy density, soil organic matter and soil bulk density, which indicated that canopy density, soil organic matter and compactness were important factors influencing soil water holding capacity. Compared to VF, soil water conservation of SF, AF and RF were reduced by 27.7%, 54.3% and 11.5%, respectively. The change of soil water conservation was inconsistent in different soil layers. Vegetation canopy density, soil organic matter and soil bulk density explained 83.3% of the variance of soil water conservation. It was suggested that land use conversion had significantly altered soil water holding capacity and water conservation function. RF could keep the soil water better than AF in the research area. Increasing soil organic matter and reducing soil compaction would be helpful to improve soil water holding capacity and water conservation function in land management.