The role of rock fragments in crack and soil structure development: a laboratory experiment with a <scp>V</scp>ertisol

Gargiulo, Laura; Mele, Giacomo; Terribile, Fabio

doi:10.1111/ejss.12263

Cited by 26 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 29 publications

(45 reference statements)

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 94%

“…Rock fragments could be referred to as an armouring factor, providing a protective cover over soils. Many investigators have found that the presence of rock fragments in soil can decrease their potential erosion compared to bare soil surfaces (Gargiulo et al, 2015;Liu and She, 2017;Rodrigo-Comino et al, 2017a, b;Lv et al, 2019), which is consistent with our results. The distribution and content of rock fragments is different for steep rocky slopes with different slope gradients (Wang, 2015); therefore, the slope gradient is also an important factor affecting soil loss in purple soils.…”

Section: Effects Of Rock Fragments On Soil Loss In Purple Soilssupporting

confidence: 93%

“…The position, content, cover, size, density, water permeability and surface structure of rock fragments can change the soil structure and physical properties of soils so that rock fragments play a key role in understanding the erosional behaviour of hillslopes (Rodrigo-Comino et al, 2017aGong et al, 2018). The effects of rock fragments on runoff production, runoff hydraulics and soil erosion have been widely studied in recent decades, both on agricultural and non-agricultural soils with natural and simulated rainfall events under field and laboratory conditions (Bunte and Poesen, 1994;Cerdà, 2001;Rieke-Zapp et al, 2007;Smets et al, 2011;Gargiulo et al, 2015;Lai et al, 2018;Lv et al, 2019). Rock fragments have also been considered in erosional models (Jomaa et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Response of soil erosion and sediment sorting to the transport mechanism on a steep rocky slope

Han

Wang

Song

et al. 2019

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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A deeper understanding of the sediment characteristics associated with rock fragment content can improve our knowledge of the erosional processes and transport mechanisms of sediments on steep rocky slopes. This research used simulated rainfall experiments lasting for 1 h at a rate of 90 mm h−1 and employed 5 × 1 × 0.4 m parallel troughs filled with purple soils with different rock fragment volumetric contents (0, 5, 10, 20, 30 and 40%) on a 15° slope gradient. For each simulated event, runoff and sediment were sampled at 1‐ and 3‐min intervals, respectively, to study, in detail, the temporal changes in the size distributions of the eroded sediments. The results show that sediment concentrations, soil erosion rates and soil loss ratios significantly decreased as rock fragment content increased for rock fragment contents from 0 to 40% in purple soils. During the transportation process, clay particles often formed aggregates and were then transported as larger particles. Silt particles were more likely to be transported as primary particles with a low degree of sediment aggregation. Sand‐sized particles, which constituted a greater proportion of the original soil than the eroded sediments, were formed from other fine particles and transported as aggregates rather than as primary particles. Suspension‐saltation, which mainly transports fine particles of 0.02–0.05 mm and coarse particles larger than 0.5 mm in size, was the most important transport mechanism on steep rocky slopes. The results of this study can help to explain the inherent laws of erosional processes on steep rocky slopes and can provide a foundation for improving physical models of soil erosion. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 94%

Section: Effects Of Rock Fragments On Soil Loss In Purple Soilssupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Response of soil erosion and sediment sorting to the transport mechanism on a steep rocky slope

Han

Wang

Song

et al. 2019

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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“…Covering soil with rock fragments has been used in agriculture on the Loess Plateau for more than 300 years. It is common for rock fragments to be exposed on soil surface in this region because of powerful soil erosion and frequent human activities (Gao, Ma, & Fu, 2016;Gargiulo, Mele, & Terribile, 2015;Wu, Liu, & Ma, 2016). Thus, between 0% and 50% of these loess soils are covered with rock fragments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of rock fragment cover on hydrological processes under rainfall simulation in a semi‐arid region of China

Xin-shi

Song

et al. 2018

Hydrological Processes

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Rock fragment cover has long been an important agricultural crop production technique on the Loess Plateau, China. Although this approach plays an important role in controlling hydrological processes and preventing soil erosion, inconsistent results have been recovered in this field. In this study, we investigated the effects of rock fragment cover on infiltration, run‐off, soil erosion, and hydraulic parameters using rainfall simulation in the field in a semi‐arid region of China. Two field plots encompassing 6 rock fragment coverages (0%, 10%, 20%, 25%, 30%, and 40%), as well as 2 rock fragment positions and sizes were exposed to rainfall at a particular intensity (60 mm h−1). The results of this study showed that increasing the rock fragment coverage with rock fragments resting on the soil surface increased infiltration but decreased run‐off generation and sediment yield. A contrasting result was found, however, when rock fragments were partially embedded into the soil surface; in this case, a positive relationship between rock fragment coverage and run‐off rate as well as a nonmonotonic relationship with respect to soil loss rate was recovered. The size of rock fragments also exerted a positive effect on run‐off generation and sediment yield but had a negative effect on infiltration. At the same time, both mean flow velocity and Froude number decreased with increasing rock fragment coverage regardless of rock fragment position and size, whereas both Manning roughness and Darcy–Weisbach friction factor were positively correlated. Results show that stream power is the most sensitive hydraulic parameter affecting soil loss. Combined with variance analysis, we concluded that the order of significance of rock fragment cover variables was position followed by coverage and then size. We also quantitatively incorporated the effects of rock fragment cover on soil loss via the C and K factors in the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation. Overall, this study will enable the development of more accurate modelling approaches and lead to a better understanding of hydrological processes under rock fragment cover conditions.

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“…Many studies have reported that large particles can increase macro-pores, which mainly occur at the contact point between large particles and soil particles. [22,23] Macro-pores are the main channel for soil water movement. [24][25][26][27] There is a positive correlation between the content of large particles and the number of macro-pores in soil.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Caliche Nodules on Soil Water Storage in the Northern Loess Plateau of China

Gong

Zhu

Wang

et al. 2019

CLEAN Soil Air Water

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Knowledge of water absorbed by caliche nodules is important for accurate soil water estimation. Simulated soil column experiments are used to investigate the effects of caliche nodules on soil profile water distribution and soil water estimation under given water supply conditions. The results indicate that for the treatments with five caliche nodules contents (CNC = 0, 10, 20, 30, and 40%), except for the top 0–0.1 m soil layer, the soil water content (SWC) of other layers is significantly different between the treatments (P < 0.05). The SWC is positively correlated to CNC. There are significant differences (P < 0.05) in caliche nodule water content (CWC) in the top three soil layers for all treatments. For soils with less than 10% caliche nodules, the soil water storage (SWS) in deeper soil layer (0.3–0.4 m) is significantly higher than that in surface soil layers (P < 0.05). Caliche nodule water storage (CWS) and available caliche nodule water storage (ACWS) both increase with increasing CNC. Water storage in the caliche nodules increases with the increase in CNC. There are significant differences in ACWS among soil layers in all soils (P < 0.05). The total ACWS significantly increases with the increase in CNC (P < 0.01). If water is absorbed by caliche nodules, then the total water storage of soils with CNCs of 10, 20, 30, and 40% would be underestimated by 3, 8, 10, and 17%, respectively. This study contributes to accurate soil water estimation in soils with caliche nodules and provide a scientific basis for rational utilization of soil and water resources.

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The role of rock fragments in crack and soil structure development: a laboratory experiment with a Vertisol

Cited by 26 publications

References 29 publications

Response of soil erosion and sediment sorting to the transport mechanism on a steep rocky slope

Response of soil erosion and sediment sorting to the transport mechanism on a steep rocky slope

Effects of rock fragment cover on hydrological processes under rainfall simulation in a semi‐arid region of China

Effect of Caliche Nodules on Soil Water Storage in the Northern Loess Plateau of China

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