Soil Water Erosion and Its Hydrodynamic Characteristics in Degraded Bald Patches of Alpine Meadows in the Yellow River Source Area, Western China

作者：Shengchun Tong, Guorong Li, Xilai Li, Jinfang Li, Hui Zhai, Jianyun Zhao, Haili Zhu, Yabin Liu, Wenting Chen, Xiasong Hu · 发表于：Sustainability · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.3390/su15108165 · 被引用次数：7 · 研究领域：Soil erosion and sediment transport、Hydrology and Sediment Transport Processes、Landslides and related hazards

Degraded bald patches have been active influencing factors in recent years, leading to meadow degradation and soil erosion in the Yellow River source area. In this study, we aimed to quantify the soil water erosion patterns and the hydrodynamic characteristics of degraded bald patches under different vegetation coverage (10%, 30%, 50%, 70% and 90%) and slope (10°, 20° and 30°) combination treatments through simulated rainfall experiments, and to investigate the influence of rodent activities on meadow degradation and soil erosion using zokor mound bare ground as a control. The results show that rodent activity exacerbates erosion problems and that soil erosion rates are negatively correlated with the degree of meadow degradation as an exponential function (p < 0.01). All slope flows are laminar; Reynolds and Froude numbers decrease as a function of vegetation coverage exponentially and linearly (p < 0.01), respectively, and are positively correlated with slope. Flow resistance increases with increasing vegetation coverage and decreasing slope, and vegetation coverage and slope are significant factors affecting flow resistance (p < 0.05). Runoff shear stress was found to range from 1.71 to 5.27 N m−2 in the study area and is positively correlated with vegetation coverage and slope, with a much greater influence of slope than vegetation coverage (p < 0.05). Based on the Pearson correlation and grey correlation method analysis, we concluded that runoff rate, flow vel...