Abstract
Soil cracking is an important process influencing water and solutes transport in the Yuanmou Dry-hot Valley region of Southwest China. Studying the morphological development of soil cracks helps to further reveal the close relationship between the soil cracking process and water movement in such semi-arid regions. Here we report regular changes on surface morphology of soil cracks with decreasing water in four different soils (Typ-Ustic Ferrisols, Ver-Ustic Ferrisols, Tru-Ustic Vertisols and Typ-Ustic Vertisols) through simulation experiments. Our results indicate the following: 1) Different soils ultimately have different development degrees of soil cracks, according to their various values of crack area density. Soil cracks in Typ-Ustic Ferrisols can only develop to the feeble degree, while those in the other three soils are capable of developing into the intensive degree, and even into the extremely intensive degree. 2) Soil crack complexity, as expressed by the value of the area-weighted mean of crack fractal dimension (AWMFRAC), is found to continuously decrease as a whole through the whole cracking process in all the studied soils. 3) Soil crack connectivity shows a uniform trend in the studied soils, that is to say, connectivity gradually increases with soil crack development.
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Foundation item: Under the auspices of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40901009), National Key Technologies Research and Development Program in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan of China (No. 2008BAD98B02, 2006BAC01A11), the Western Light Program of Talents Cultivating of Chinese Academy of Sciences (2008), the Foundation of Key Laboratory of Mountain Hazards and Surface Process, Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Xiong, D., Yan, D., Long, Y. et al. Simulation of morphological development of soil cracks in Yuanmou Dry-hot Valley region, Southwest China. Chin. Geogr. Sci. 20, 112–122 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-010-0112-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-010-0112-2