Vegetation pattern and topography determine erosion characteristics in a semi‐arid sandstone hillslope‐gully system

作者：Ruipeng Zhu, Yang Yu, Dianjun Liu, Jingxue Wang, Zhiqiang Gao, Jing Liu, Francisco Serrano Bernardo, Jesús Rodrigo‐Comino · 发表于：European Journal of Soil Science · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1111/ejss.13498 · 被引用次数：8 · 研究领域：Soil erosion and sediment transport、Aeolian processes and effects、Hydrology and Sediment Transport Processes

Abstract The hillslope‐gully system serves as the primary contributor to both runoff and sediment yield. The WEPP (Water Erosion Prediction Project) model is often applied to investigate erosion characteristics at hillslope scale, demonstrating a high level of accuracy in simulating water erosion. In this study, according to in situ field monitoring (2014–2020) at a Pisha sandstone hillslope on the Loess Plateau, China, a total of 50 rainfall events’ data were used as climatic data to calibrate the soil parameters, and 11 different vegetation patterns and four slope gradients of hillslope‐gully systems were installed as inputs for the management and slope data, respectively. In systems A, B, C and D, the hillslope gradients were defined as 5°, 8°, 10° and 12° and the gully gradients as 15°, 20°, 25° and 30°, respectively. The results showed that the steeper the slope, the more severe the erosion. However, there was a critical value for the effect of slope on runoff. When the slope exceeded 8° and the gully exceeded 20°, the runoff no longer increased further and even decreased. The reduction in runoff in hillslope‐gully systems was in the following order (in mm): system D (3.4 ± 0.14) > system C (3.4 ± 0.14) > system B (3.39 ± 0.14) > system A (3.12 ± 0.13). Increasing vegetation cover could reduce erosion. Differences in runoff between vegetation patterns were not significant ( p > 0.05) and ranged from 8% to 26%. However, there were significant differences in th...