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Land preparation and vegetation type jointly determine soil conditions after long-term land stabilization measures in a typical hilly catchment, Loess Plateau of China

  • Soils, Sec 2 • Global Change, Environ Risk Assess, Sustainable Land Use • Research Article
  • Published:
Journal of Soils and Sediments Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Land preparation (e.g., leveled ditches, leveled benches, adversely graded tableland, and fish-scale pits) is one of the most effective ecological engineering practices to reduce water erosion in the Loess Plateau, China. Land preparation greatly affects soil physicochemical properties. This study investigated the influence of different land preparation techniques during vegetation restoration on soil conditions, which remained poorly understood to date.

Materials and methods

Soil samples were collected from depths of 0–10, 10–20, 20–40, 40–60, 60–80, and 80–100 cm, in the typical hilly watershed of Dingxi City, Loess Plateau. Soil bulk density (BD), soil organic matter (SOM), and total nitrogen (TN) were determined for different land preparations and vegetation type combinations. Fractal theory was used to analyze soil particle size distribution (PSD).

Results and discussion

(1) The effect of land preparation on soil properties and PSD varied with soil depth. For each land preparation category, SOM and TN values showed a significant difference between the top soil layer and the underlying soil depths. (2) The fractal dimension of PSD showed a significant positive correlation with clay and silt content, but a significant negative correlation with sand content. (3) The 20 cm soil layer was a boundary that distinguished the explanatory factors, with land preparation and vegetation type as the controlling factors in the 0–20- and 20–100-cm soil layers, respectively.

Conclusions

Land preparation and vegetation type significantly influenced soil properties, with 20 cm soil depth being the boundary for these two factors. This study provided a foundation for developing techniques for vegetation restoration in water-limited ecosystems.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Jin Chen, Xiaoping Wang, Qindi Zhang, for their generous assistance with the field work. The work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41371123, 41501091, 41401209) and the National Advanced Project of China (2015BAC01B02). We thank the editors and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive remarks to improve the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

    Yang Yu, Wei Wei, Liding Chen & Tianjiao Feng

  2. Research Center on Soil and Water Conservation of the Ministry of Water Resource, Beijing, 10048, China

    Yang Yu

  3. Department of Earth Sciences, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), Indianapolis, 46202, USA

    Wei Wei, Stefani Daryanto & Lixin Wang

  4. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Tianjiao Feng

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  1. Yang Yu
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  2. Wei Wei
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  5. Stefani Daryanto
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Correspondence to Wei Wei.

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Responsible editor: Hailong Wang

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Yu, Y., Wei, W., Chen, L. et al. Land preparation and vegetation type jointly determine soil conditions after long-term land stabilization measures in a typical hilly catchment, Loess Plateau of China. J Soils Sediments 17, 144–156 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-016-1494-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-016-1494-2

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