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Influence of canopy and topographic position on soil moisture response to rainfall in a hilly catchment of Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China

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Abstract

Rainfall provides essential water resource for vegetation growth and acts as driving force for hydrologic process, bedrock weathering and nutrient cycle in the steep hilly catchment. But the effects of rainfall features, vegetation types, topography, and also their interactions on soil water movement and soil moisture dynamics are inadequately quantified. During the coupled wet and dry periods of the year 2018 to 2019, time-series soil moisture was monitored with 5-min interval resolution in a hilly catchment of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area in China. Three hillslopes covered with evergreen forest (EG), secondary deciduous forest mixed with shrubs (SDFS) and deforested pasture (DP) were selected, and two monitoring sites with five detected depths were established at upslope and downslope position, respectively. Several parameters expressing soil moisture response to rainfall event were evaluated, including wetting depth, cumulative rainfall amount and lag time before initial response, maximum increase of soil water storage, and transform ratio of rainwater to soil water. The results indicated that rainfall amount is the dominant rainfall variable controlling soil moisture response to rainfall event. No soil moisture response occurred when rainfall amounts was <8 mm, and all the deepest monitoring sensors detected soil moisture increase when total rainfall amounts was >30 mm. In the wet period, the cumulative rainfall amount to trigger surface soil moisture response in EG-up site was significantly higher than in other five sites. However, no significant difference in cumulative rainfall amount to trigger soil moisture response was observed among all study sites in dry period. Vegetation canopy interception reduced the transform ratio of rainwater to soil water, with a higher reduction in vegetation growth period than in other period. Also, interception of vegetation canopy resulted in a larger accumulated rainfall amount and a longer lag time for initiating soil moisture response to rainfall. Generally, average cumulative rainfall amount for initiating soil moisture response during dry period of all sites (3.5–5.6 mm) were less than during wet period (5.7–19.7 mm). Forests captured more infiltration water compared with deforested pasture, showing the larger increments of both soil water storage for the whole soil profile and volumetric soil water content at 10 cm depth on two forest slopes. Topography dominated soil subsurface flow, proven by the evidences that less rainfall amount and less time was needed to trigger soil moisture response and also larger accumulated soil water storage increment in downslope site than in corresponding upslope site during heavy rainfall events.

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate the assistance from the Governors of the Dalaoling Forest Park during the field experiment. Graduate students Lou Shulan, Yang Xiufeng, Li Xiangfu, and Yang Ye are acknowledged for their field work and laboratory measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, China

    Muxing Liu, Qiuyue Wang, Jun Yi & Hailin Zhang

  2. Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Muxing Liu, Li Guo, Henry Lin & Bihang Fan

  3. State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, CAS, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Qing Zhu

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  1. Muxing Liu
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  2. Qiuyue Wang
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  3. Li Guo
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  4. Jun Yi
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  5. Henry Lin
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  6. Qing Zhu
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  7. Bihang Fan
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  8. Hailin Zhang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Li Guo.

Additional information

Foundation: National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.41771261, No.41601215; Hubei Province Natural Science Foundation of China, No.2015CFA141, No.2016CFA027, No.2019CFB766; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, No.CCNU18QN002, No.CCNU19TS001

Author: Liu Muxing (1979–), Professor, specialized in hydropedology and soil physics.

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Liu, M., Wang, Q., Guo, L. et al. Influence of canopy and topographic position on soil moisture response to rainfall in a hilly catchment of Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China. J. Geogr. Sci. 30, 949–968 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-020-1764-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-020-1764-1

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