Concepts, processes and quantification methods of the forest water conservation at the multiple scales

Xiaoxue, 王晓学 Wang; Huitao, 沈会涛 Shen; Xuyong, 李叙勇 Li; Feng, 景峰 Jing

doi:10.5846/stxb201206130852

Cited by 20 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…During this period, the forests fully play the function of accumulating precipitation, making AFWC significantly larger than other months. From October to May, the study area had scarce precipitation and a dry climate, which caused the water stored in the forests to be consumed for evapotranspiration and supplementary runoff [17,77], and the AFWC showed a negative value. When the wetness index of the ZJG, ZTM and FP basins was greater than 0.64, 0.60 and 0.83, respectively, the AFWC in the basins was all positive.…”

Section: Monthly Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-Time Scale Evaluation of Forest Water Conservation Function in the Semiarid Mountains Area

Cao

Yang

2021

Forests

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Forest water conservation function is an important part of forest ecosystem services. The discontinuous distribution of forests in semiarid areas brings difficulties to the quantitative evaluation of forest water conservation functions at the basin scale. In this paper, we took the upstream of Xiong’an New Area (Zijingguan—ZJG, Zhongtangmei—ZTM and Fuping—FP basins) as an example and combine the soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) and the water balance method to calculate the amount of forest water conservation (AFWC) at annual, monthly and daily scales from 2007 to 2017, and analyzed the changes of AFWC. The results showed that the hydrological response unit (HRU) generated with the threshold area zero can accurately reflect the forest patch distribution in the three basins. On an annual scale, the annual AFWC were all positive in ZJG and ZTM basins from 2007 to 2017. While, the annual AFWC in the FP basin was negative in 2009, 2013, 2014 and 2017. On a monthly scale, the positive values of AFWC mainly appear from June to September, and the negative values of AFWC mainly appear from December to March. On a daily scale, the AFWC during extreme precipitation was positive, while that was negative during extreme drought. The annual and monthly AFWC in the three basins was positively correlated with the wetness index, and FP basin needs more humid climate conditions than ZJG and ZTM basins to make the forest store water and keep in a stable water storage state. The above results can not only provide important insight into sustainable forest and water resources management in the region, but also serve as reference cases for other regions to carry out relevant research work.

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Section: Monthly Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-Time Scale Evaluation of Forest Water Conservation Function in the Semiarid Mountains Area

Cao

Yang

2021

Forests

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“…Although many studies have assessed the increase in water retention amounts resulting from ER project (Wu et al, 2016; Xue et al, 2022), ER project in some water‐deficient areas may even lead to a decrease in water retention capacity (Cui et al, 2022), which hinders the development of ER measures and brings many uncertainties to water retention. Therefore, the impact of ER project on water retention is highly complex, particularly in regions with unique topography and water resources (Van Dijke et al, 2022; Wang et al, 2013). It is necessary to systematically reveal the variation trend and influencing factors of water retention.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing impacts of ecological restoration project on water retention function in the Taihang Mountain area, China

Wang,

Liu,

Deng

et al. 2024

Ecohydrology

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The ecological restoration (ER) project significantly affects the water retention function in the Taihang Mountain area. However, a comprehensive understanding of the water retention effects in different ER project areas still needs to be improved. In this study, we employed the integrated valuation of ecosystem services and trade‐offs (InVEST) model to evaluate the differences in water retention among different ER project areas. Additionally, we used the structural equation model to explore the influence of various factors on water retention. The results showed the following: (1) The total amount of water retention in the Taihang Mountain area increased yearly from 2000 to 2020, with an 85.25% increase in 21 years. The water retention function showed a trend of transferring to a higher level. (2) The forest land restoration project showed the highest average water retention capacity, followed by the grassland restoration project, which together provided 61.12% of the water retention capacity in the ER areas. Forest land restoration project was found to have the most potential in improving water retention, while grassland restoration was more efficient. The water retention capacity of a 21‐year‐old artificial forest could only reach 70.92% of the natural forest. Cropland restoration mode increased the water retention by 22.85% compared with non‐ecological engineering areas. (3) The enhancement of water retention function in the study area resulted from multiple factors, among which precipitation and root depth were the most critical variables. (4) According to the structural equation model, the impact of natural factors on water retention accounted for 74.33%, and ecological engineering had a greater impact on water retention in the hilly zone. The ER project significantly increased water retention capacity. The results provide scientific support for improving water retention function and optimizing ER projects in semi‐arid areas of China.

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“…Water conservation refers to the process of retaining floodwaters and regulating runoff within the canopy, litter, and soil functional layers of forests [12][13][14]; it has two time-scale features (rainwater events: rainfall interception in the rainy season; and seasonal: regulation of runoff in the dry season) and involves multiple functional layers, including canopy interception, litter-layer water retention, soil-layer water storage, ecosystem evapotranspiration, and runoff production, which increase the difficulty involved in quantifying the water conservation function. Different quantitative methods and models, including the water balance method [15,16], soil water storage method [17], and canopy interception residual method [18], have been developed to quantify the water conservation function of forests.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[21] evaluated the water conservation function of typical planted forests and natural secondary forests on the Loess Plateau using the comprehensive water storage capacity method. However, the above methods might lead to unreasonable results for forest water conservation, due to their one-sided nature [14]. Moreover, the estimation results of different methods vary greatly and are not comparable [19,21,22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison and Optimization of Water Conservation Function in Natural Forests and Tea Plantations in a Headwater Catchment, Taihu Lake Basin

Geng,

Li,

Shi

et al. 2024

Forests

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The rapid expansion of tea plantations (Camellia sinensis), which replace local natural forests, decreases the water conservation function in the headwater region and threatens regional water security. However, studies focusing on the comprehensive evaluation and improvement of the water conservation function of natural forests and tea plantations are lacking. In this study, we developed a comprehensive evaluation method for the water conservation function by investigating, monitoring, and conducting process model simulations of 221 tea plantation and natural forest (bamboo forest) samples obtained in the field. We also quantified the trade-off between water conservation and carbon sequestration. The results showed that the tea plantations had lower annual water conservation than the bamboo forests. Slope was the most critical influential variable affecting water conservation in tea plantations. Strict control should be exercised in the development of steep slopes above 20° for tea plantations, to enhance the regional water conservation capacity. Water conservation in bamboo forests increased to the maximum level at a planting density (SD) of approximately 2500–2700 tree/ha and then decreased quickly. The optimal SD values of bamboo forests were 2500, 2600, and 2650 trees/ha at slopes of 10°, 15°, and 20°, respectively, which can maintain higher water conservation and adequate carbon sequestration. Overall, water conservation and carbon sequestration increased by approximately 22.6% and 13.7%, respectively, compared with the average values for bamboo forests. However, at slopes >20°, a strong trade-off was observed between water conservation and carbon sequestration, and competing ecosystem services accompanied those, which were hard to balance and which resulted here in disproportionate water conservation at the cost of carbon sequestration loss.

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Concepts, processes and quantification methods of the forest water conservation at the multiple scales

Abstract: Wang X X, Shen H T, Li X Y, Jing F. Concepts, processes and quantification methods of the forest water conservation at the multiple scales. Acta

Cited by 20 publications

References 5 publications

Multi-Time Scale Evaluation of Forest Water Conservation Function in the Semiarid Mountains Area

Multi-Time Scale Evaluation of Forest Water Conservation Function in the Semiarid Mountains Area

Assessing impacts of ecological restoration project on water retention function in the Taihang Mountain area, China

Comparison and Optimization of Water Conservation Function in Natural Forests and Tea Plantations in a Headwater Catchment, Taihu Lake Basin

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