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Assessment of soil erosion risk and its response to climate change in the mid-Yarlung Tsangpo River region

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Abstract

Soil erosion is sensitive to climate change, especially in high mountain areas. The Tibetan Plateau has experienced dramatic land surface environment changes under the impact of climate change during the last decades. In this study, we focused on the mid-Yarlung Tsangpo River (MYZ River) located in the southern part of the Tibetan Plateau. The revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) was applied to assess soil erosion risk. To increase its applicability to high mountain areas with longer periods of snowfall, snowmelt runoff erosivity was considered in addition to rainfall erosivity. Results revealed that soil erosion of the MYZ River region was of a moderate grade with an average soil erosion rate of 29.1 t ha−1 year−1 and most serious erosion in wet and cold years. Soil erosion rate in the MYZ River region showed a decreasing trend of − 1.14% year−1 due to the precipitation, temperature, and vegetation changes from 2001 to 2015, with decreasing precipitation being the most important factor. Increasing precipitation and temperature would lead to increasing soil erosion risk in ~ 2050 based on the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) and RUSLE models. It is clear that soil erosion in high mountain areas greatly depends on climate state and attentions should be paid to address soil erosion problem in the future.

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Acknowledgments

This research was financially supported by the “Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program” (2019QZKK0203) and the “Strategic Priority Research Program” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA20060202) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41771090 and No. 41571274).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Li Wang, Fan Zhang, Xiaonan Shi, Yao Chen, Muhammad Dodo Jagirani & Chen Zeng

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Li Wang, Fan Zhang, Yao Chen & Muhammad Dodo Jagirani

  3. CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Beijing, China

    Fan Zhang

  4. State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, School of Geography, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Suhua Fu

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  1. Li Wang
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Appendix. Rainfall runoff erosivity during snowfall and rainfall period

Appendix. Rainfall runoff erosivity during snowfall and rainfall period

Based on previous studies, the sediment delivery ratio ranged from 0.02 to 0.98 and largely depended on the watershed scale (Porto et al. 2011; Zhang et al. 2015). The average sediment delivery ratio of the snowfall and rainfall period at the Nuxia station (94° 39′ E, 294 28 N) of the Yarlung Tsangpo River were calculated based on the station data during 2001–2015 to be 0.11 and 0.12, respectively. The box plot (Fig. 6) showed that there is no significant difference between the sediment delivery ratios of the snowfall and rainfall periods at the Nuxia station, supporting our assumption that the sediment delivery ratios are equal in the periods of snowfall and rainfall in the study area.

Fig. 6
figure 6

Box plot of sediment delivery ratio at the Nuxia station during the snowfall and rainfall period

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Wang, L., Zhang, F., Fu, S. et al. Assessment of soil erosion risk and its response to climate change in the mid-Yarlung Tsangpo River region. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 607–621 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06738-y

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