Influence of Root Morphology on Ecological Slope Protection

Abstract

Ecological slope protection is of great importance for preventing the water and soil loss on bare slopes, improving the ecological environment, and realizing the sustainable ecosystem development. The root-soil composite slope consisting of homogenous soil mass and oleander root system was taken as the study object. Based on the mechanics principle of soil reinforcement by roots in ecological slope protection, the influences of the lateral root quantity of plants and included angle between main root and lateral root on the slope protection were investigated via the finite element (FE) software ABAQUS. The simulation results show that the larger the quantity of lateral roots, the more obvious the displacement reduction of the soil mass on the slope surface will be. The slope protection effect varies with the root morphology, the included angle between main root and lateral root is an important factor influencing the slope protection effect of plants, and the slope protection effect at included angle of 30° is apparently superior to that at 90°. The research results can provide a theoretical support for the plant selection in the ecological slope protection.