Modifying soil properties with herbaceous plants for natural flood risk-reduction

作者：David Boldrin, Jonathan Adam Knappett, Anthony Kwan Leung, Jennifer Brown, Kenneth Loades, Anthony Glyn Bengough · 发表于：Ecological Engineering · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.1016/j.ecoleng.2022.106668 · 被引用次数：43 · 研究领域：Tree Root and Stability Studies、Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics、Agroforestry and silvopastoral systems

Nature-based solutions to engineering challenges are essential to limit climate change impacts on the urban environment. Quantitative understanding of multiple “engineering functions” provided by soil-plant interactions of different species is needed for species selection and re-establishing natural processes affected by urbanisation. Contrasting herbaceous species (legumes, grasses, and forbs) were selected and grown as monoculture or species mix in soil columns for a five-month growing season. Saturated hydraulic conductivity was initially tested for each column, and then the columns were monitored for three-weeks of evapotranspiration. Water loss, matric suction, and penetrometer resistance were measured. Finally, soil was tested for aggregate stability and water retention. Saturated hydraulic conductivity of vegetated soil was generally larger than that of fallow soil (6.9e−6 ± 1.4e−6 m/s in fallow soil). Saturated hydraulic conductivity was significantly different between species (e.g., from 9.9e−6 ± 1.3e−6 m/s in Festuca ovina to 3.9e−5 ± 1.2e−6 m/s in Lotus corniculatus) and was negatively correlated with specific root length. The water stored in the soil was efficiently removed by plant transpiration (> 60% of evapotranspiration). Large changes in soil structure were observed in vegetated soil, with significant increases in soil strength, aggregate stability, and alteration of water retention properties. Multiple soil-plant interactions influence species selection for...