Assessment of soil losses on cultivated land by using the 137Cs technique in the Upper Yangtze River Basin of China

Zhang, Xinbao; Zhang, Yiyun; Wen, Anbang; Feng, Minquan

doi:10.1016/s0167-1987(02)00131-9

Cited by 72 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Recently, soil 137 Cs, an environmental tracer, has begun to be used more frequently to evaluate soil erosion (Fu et al, 2009;Zhang et al, 2003). The theory of this method can be described as follows.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of plant diversity on soil erosion for different vegetation patterns

Hou

Wang²,

et al. 2016

CATENA

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Vegetation effectively prevents soil erosion. However the relationship between plant diversity and soil erosion remains ambiguous under various environmental conditions. To explore the role that plant diversity plays in soil erosion, this study was conducted in the Three-River-Source region, located in the hinterlands of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China. After examining 99 plots within the study area, and analyzing the soil 137 Cs inventory within the plots, we found that with a greater number of plants distributed within an aggregation pattern, there was greater interception of the soil particles by the vegetation patch. This phenomenon results in a more developed vegetation patch that can support greater vegetation coverage and higher plant diversity than it previously could. Although a positive correlation exists between plant diversity and vegetation coverage, the relationship between the extent of soil erosion and plant diversity is modulated by the vegetation pattern. When plants are distributed in a relatively homogeneous pattern, vegetation coverage decreases with increasing plant diversity, which leads to increased soil erosion. When plants are distributed between a homogenous and a heterogeneous pattern, no relationship is found between plant diversity and soil erosion. With a heterogeneous plant distribution, vegetation coverage increases with plant diversity, and soil erosion is inhibited under such conditions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of plant diversity on soil erosion for different vegetation patterns

Hou

Wang²,

et al. 2016

CATENA

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“…Mean annual soil erosion rates on cultivated sloping lands before and after soil conservation treatments were quantified using the 137 Cs tracing technique [11]. Soil redistribution rates can be estimated by comparing the reference value and the inventories for sampling sites using calibration models.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Land use in the western highland is dominated by pasture and grazing, while in the eastern part mainly is farmland and cultivation. The area of dry farmland in this region is 15 × 10 4 km 2 ; 50% is sloping arable lands, and a large proportion is located on slopes with gradients over 25° [11,12]. The distribution of sloping arable lands with different slope gradients is summarized in Table 1.…”

Section: Site Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Farmers’ Sustainable Strategies for Soil Conservation on Sloping Arable Lands in the Upper Yangtze River Basin, China

Tang

et al. 2014

Sustainability

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Abstract:The Upper Yangtze River Basin comprises a densely-populated agricultural region with mountainous and hilly landforms. Intensive cultivation has been extended onto steep hillslopes, which constitute the principal source area for sediment production. Soil conservation on sloping arable lands is thus of utmost priority for persisting sustainable agricultural production and maintaining sound ecosystem services. Although there have been many soil conservation techniques, either promoted by the government or adopted by local farmers, the practiced area was very limited relative to the total area affected by soil erosion. This paper attempts to introduce four popular soil conservation measures on sloping arable lands in this region to enhance a broader scale of implementation, including hedgerow buffers, level trenches, sloping terraces and limited downslope tillage. These practices, although developed from local farmers' indigenous knowledge for productive purposes, have well conformed to our contemporary understanding of soil erosion processes on sloping landscape affected by human disturbances, were of sound suitability OPEN ACCESS Sustainability 2014, 6 4796 to regional manual tillage agriculture and more trade-off-efficient on rill prevention, runoff harvest and nutrient management.

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“…Soil erosion has increased dramatically in recent decades, especially within the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, leading to significant changes in the ecosystem and associated community http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2015.10.007 0045-6535/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. structure (Zhang et al, 2003;Long et al, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%