Response of runoff and soil loss to reforestation and rainfall type in red soilregion of southern China
Zhigang Huang , Zhiyun Ouyang , Fengrui Li , Hua Zheng , Xiaoke Wang
DOI:
Received December 12, 2009,Revised March 30, 2010, Accepted , Available online
Volume 22,2010,Pages 1765-1773
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To evaluate the long-term effects of reforestation types on soil erosion on degraded land, vegetation and soil properties under
conventional sloping farmland (CSF) and three different reforestation types including a Pinus massoniana secondary forest (PSF),
an Eucommia ulmoides artificial economic forest (EEF) and a natural succession type forest (NST), were investigated at runoff plot
scale over a six-year period in a red soil region of southern China. One hundred and thirty erosive rainfall events generating runoff in
plots were grouped into four rainfall types by means of K-mean clustering method. Erosive rainfall type I is the dominant rainfall type.
The amount of runoff and the soil loss under erosive rainfall type III were the most, followed by rain-fall type II, IV and I. Compared
with CSF treatment, reforestation treatments decreased the average annual runoff depth and the soil loss by 25.5%–61.8% and 93.9%–
96.2% during the study period respectively. Meanwhile, runoff depth at PSF and EEF treatments was significantly lower than that in
NST treatment, but no significant difference existed in soil erosion modulus among the three reforestation treatments. This is mainly
due to the improved vegetation properties (i.e., vegetation coverage, biomass of above- and below-ground and litter-fall mass) and soil
properties (i.e., bulk density, total porosity, infiltration rate and organic carbon content) in the three reforestation treatments compared
to CSF treatment. The PSF and EEF are recommended as the preferred reforestation types to control runoff and soil erosion in the red
soil region of southern China, with the NST potentially being used as an important supplement.
