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Response of biological soil crusts to raindrop erosivity and underlying influences in the hilly Loess Plateau region, China

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Abstract

Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are ubiquitous living covers in arid and semiarid regions, playing a critical role in soil erosion control in semiarid regions. So far, research separating the multiple mechanisms of erosion control by biocrusts has been limited. It was problematic to link the influence of biocrusts to existing erosion models. In the present study, the response of biocrusts of different successional stages to raindrop erosivity and underlying influences was investigated. Using single drop simulated rainfall, the erosion controlling capacities of biocrusts were analyzed from an energetic perspective. The results showed that biocrusts caused a dramatic improvement of soil erosion resistance, which depended on species composition and increased considerably with higher succession stages. While the accumulated raindrop kinetic energy sustained by dark cyanobacterial crusts was 0.93 J (~15 times higher than that of bare soil), that of 60 % moss covered crusts reached values up to 20.18 J (~342 times higher than that of bare soil) and for 80 % moss covered crusts even 24.59 J were measured. Besides the composition and successional stages, the resistance of biocrusts to raindrop erosivity was related to the substrate soil moisture, soil texture, slope gradients and seasonal variation. The accumulated raindrop kinetic energy measured for cyanobacterial crusts was highest on silty, followed by loamy and sandy soil. For moss-dominated crusts raindrop kinetic energy was highest on sandy, followed by silty and loamy soil. Dry biocrust samples reached significantly higher accumulated raindrop kinetic energies compared to moist biocrusts, whereas the moisture content within moist crusts did not have a significant influence. Erosion resistance increased significantly with higher slope gradients. The resistance capacities of biocrusts during monsoon and post-monsoon were significantly higher than these of pre-monsoon biocrusts. Our results suggest that the influence of biocrusts can be included into erosion models from an energy point of view. The raindrop kinetic energy resistance capacity provides a potential bridge between biocrust succession and soil erodibility in commonly used erosion models.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No.41271298; 40971174), “Western Light” Foundation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Thanks are also expressed to the staff at the Ansai field research station for their support during the field experiments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&F University, 26 Xinong Road, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Yunge Zhao, Ningqiang Qin & Mingxiang Xu

  2. Multiphase Chemistry Department, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Hahn-Meitner-Weg 1, 55128, Mainz, Germany

    Bettina Weber

  3. Plant Ecology and Systematics, Department of Biology, University of Kaiserslautern, P.O. Box 3049, 67653, Kaiserslautern, Germany

    Bettina Weber

Authors
  1. Yunge Zhao
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  2. Ningqiang Qin
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  3. Bettina Weber
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  4. Mingxiang Xu
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Correspondence to Yunge Zhao.

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Communicated by Guest Editors of S.I.: Biocrust.

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Zhao, Y., Qin, N., Weber, B. et al. Response of biological soil crusts to raindrop erosivity and underlying influences in the hilly Loess Plateau region, China. Biodivers Conserv 23, 1669–1686 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-014-0680-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-014-0680-z

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