Influence of Vegetation Coverage on Surface Runoff and Soil Moisture in Rainy Season in Dry-hot Valley

[Objective]The research aimed to study the effects of vegetation coverage on the changes of soil moisture in rainy season in dry-hot valley.[Method]The surface runoff and soil moisture of slope with vegetation coverage and bare land in rainy reason in Jinsha River at Yuanmou County of Yunnan Province were observed continuously.Moreover,the statistical analysis was made based on the observation data.[Result]The vegetation coverage could decrease surface runoff and the surface runoff on bare land（CK） was 22 times as the plot with vegetation coverage.The soil water content in 0-180 cm layer with vegetation coverage increased by 37.8% than bare land.The stability of soil moisture content in deep layer was enhanced and the physical properties stability of soil was maintained.The soil moisture content in different depth of soil had significant difference and the changes of soil moisture content were obviously different.[Conclusion]The vegetation coverage of slope could change the soil hydrology obviously and keep soil moisture at the higher level,especially at soil layer below 20 cm.

Heavy Metal Runoff in Relation to Soil Characteristics

Cu, Zn, Pb and Hg runoff from yellow limestone soil and purple soils and the relationships between the mobility of the heavy metals and the soil characteristics were studied in laboratory using a rainfall simulator. The results showed that the concentrations of soluble Zn in surface runoff were significantly negatively correlated with the contents of <0.002 mm particles and CEC of the soils, indicating that Zn was mostly adsorbed by clays in the soils. The contents of Cu and Hg in surface runoff were positively related to their contents in the soils. The amounts of Cu, Zn, Pb and Hg removed by surface runoff were influenced by the amounts of soil and water losses and their contents in the soils, and were closely related to the contents of soil particles 1-0.02 mm in size.

Salt-Water Dynamics in Soils:Ⅲ.Effect of Crop Planting

Through a simulation test conducted with soil columns (61.8cm in diameter) in field condition,effect of crop planting upon the regulation of salt-water dynamics in soils was studied by monitoring of salt-water dynamics in situ,using soil salinity sensors and tensiometers.The results indicated that the amount of water absorbed by crops from the soil was generally larger than the decrement of water consumption from soil surface evaporation reduced by the crop covering the soil surface and improving the soil structure,therefore,under the conditions of crop growing and non-irrigation,water content in soil profile was less than that without crop growing,and the gradient of negative pressure of soil water in soil profile especially in the root zone was enlarged,thus causing the water flowing from subsoils into root zone and increasing the groundwater moving upwards into soil layer via capillary rise,so that the groundwater evaporation increased.Consequently,under the condition of crop growing,the salt was mainly accumulated towards the root zone rather than to the top soil.the accumulating rate of salt in groundwater via capillary rise of soil water to subsoils was increased thereby.

Spatial and Temporal Variability of Water Availability in the Yellow River Basin

The changes in hydrological processes in the Yellow River basin were simulated by using the Community Land Model(CLM,version 3.5),driven by historical climate data observed from 1951 to 2008.A comparison of modeled soil moisture and runoff with limited observations in the basin suggests a general drying trend in simulated soil moisture,runoff,and precipitation-evaporation balance(P-E) in most areas of the Yellow River basin during the observation period.Furthermore,annual soil moisture,runoff,and P-E averaged over the entire basin have declined by 3.3%,82.2%,and 32.1%,respectively.Significant drying trends in soil moisture appear in the upper and middle reaches of the basin,whereas a significant trend in declining surface runoff and P-E occurred in the middle reaches and the southeastern part of the upper reaches.The overall decreasing water availability is characterized by large spatial and temporal variability.

Physical Effectiveness of Soil and Water Conservation Technologies in Drought Prone Areas of Western and Central Uganda

The effect of soil and water conservation （SWC） practices on controlling surface runoff and soil loss was studied in drought prone banana growing areas of Uganda, during the two major rainy seasons of 2014. The study was conducted at two sites-- Ntungamo （Southwest） and Sembabule （Central）, with comparable slopes of about 13%-25%. The treatments included mulch, manure, manure ＋ mulch and a control with no conservation. Results indicated that conservation practices of mulch and manure ＋ mulch significantly reduced surface runoff and soil loss by about 72%-85%, when compared to farmers＇ up-and-down cultivation practice （control）. It was also observed that significantly greater amounts of soil loss occurred from manure and control plots than the ones with mulch. Thus, the combination of manure and mulch is recommended for uptake by crop farmers in the study areas, if they are to overcome drought stress and adapt to changes in climate. More research is needed to quantify nutrient losses resulting from runoff under the different SWC techniques. Modeling such effects is essential in assessing the impacts of SWC practices on soil and crop productivity.

An approach to estimating sediment transport capacity of overland flow

Estimating sediment transport capacity of overland flow is essential to the development of physically based soil erosion models.Correlation analysis indicates that stream power is a dominant factor for sediment transport in overland flows and a new sediment transport capacity equation is proposed based on dimensional analysis.The coefficients of the new equation are calibrated using the published laboratory data,and rainfall impact is taken into consideration by adding an empirical factor on the dimensionless critical stream power.The new sediment transport capacity equation is a function of stream power,rainfall impacted critical stream power and slope.The new equation is applied in a one-dimensional soil erosion model to simulate field data of a runoff plot and the simulation results are reliable.