To predict the soil-water characteristic curve(i.e.SWCC)of natural and remoulded Malan loess from soil physical properties,one-point methods for determining the SWCC that are much simpler than experimental methods are...To predict the soil-water characteristic curve(i.e.SWCC)of natural and remoulded Malan loess from soil physical properties,one-point methods for determining the SWCC that are much simpler than experimental methods are proposed.The predicted SWCC is presented in the form of the BRUTSAERT equation,in which the four model parameters can be estimated from soil physical properties using the best correlations obtained in the present study along with one measured data point.The proposed one-point methods are validated using the measured SWCC data reported in the literature.The results of validation studies suggest that the proposed one-point methods can provide reasonable prediction of the SWCC for natural and remoulded Malan loess.The measured data point should be within the transition zone;the measured suction is suggested between25to100kPa for natural loess,while between100to500kPa for remoulded loess.展开更多
China has experienced dramatic land use changes over recent decades, with marked environmental and socio-economic consequences. Hengshan County, located in the aeolian-loessial area of Northwest China, was investigate...China has experienced dramatic land use changes over recent decades, with marked environmental and socio-economic consequences. Hengshan County, located in the aeolian-loessial area of Northwest China, was investigated to illustrate land use changes and their implications for environmental and long-term rural economic development. The farmland in Hengshan County significantly decreased during 1990–2003, whereas forest land and grassland increased. The conversion rates of farmland, orchard land, forest land and construction land varied markedly among different periods: 1990–1995, 1995–2000 and 2000–2003. Conversion of orchard land, grassland and construction land was dominant in 1990–1995, whereas the conversion of farmland to forest land mainly occurred in 2000–2003. The results suggested a profound transition in institutional policy and political economy of land management, including implementation of integrated soil erosion control projects, adoption of a market-oriented economy and the ‘Grain-for-Green’ policy, during this period in China. To achieve long-term sustainable land use in Hengshan County, efforts should aim at increasing off-farm income of rural families as well as establishing land-economizing mechanisms to promote land productivity, in addition to conservation measures.展开更多
Potentiometric experiments were carried out on the proton binding equilibria of FA extracted from a weathered coal and HA and Fa extracted from a dark loessial soil.The affinity spectrum model was employed to treat th...Potentiometric experiments were carried out on the proton binding equilibria of FA extracted from a weathered coal and HA and Fa extracted from a dark loessial soil.The affinity spectrum model was employed to treat the experimental data.The affinity spectrum model technique could“magnify” the heterogeneity of the proton binding equilibria.so it was useful for comparing and studying the characteristics of humic substances with similar properties.According to the affinity spectra,we also found that the direction of the titration could affect the properties of the equilibria of FA from the weathered coal,and the acidic functional groups contained in FA from the weathered coal were larger in quantity than those contained in HA and FA from the dark loessial soil.展开更多
The collapsibility of loess ground can directly affect stability of subgrade. Therefore, how to adopt practical technical measures to reduce or eliminate its collapse deformation is an important content in foundation ...The collapsibility of loess ground can directly affect stability of subgrade. Therefore, how to adopt practical technical measures to reduce or eliminate its collapse deformation is an important content in foundation design in collapsible loess zone. Selecting collapsible loess from Fuxin-Chaoyang highway in Liaoning, the authors conducted a series of tests for improving loess with cement. The loess in different water content was mixed with the cement in varying proportions, unconfined compression strength for the samples at four different curing periods were tested, and the relationships of improved soil strength among cement mixture ratio and curing periods were analyzed. When the curing periods are certain, the strength of loess increases along with the mixture ratio increases; when the cement mixture ratio is 5%-15%, the scope of increases is quite obvious; when the mixture ratio is greater than 15%, the tendency of intensity increases turns slow. When the mixture ratio for the specimen is certain, the intensity of the test specimen increases along with the curing period increases, the intensity grows obviously in 28 days, and the growth rate is small in 28-90 days, the intensity tends to be steady in the curing period of 90 days.展开更多
Gully feature mapping is an indispensable prerequisite for the motioning and control of gully erosion which is a widespread natural hazard. The increasing availability of high-resolution Digital Elevation Model(DEM) a...Gully feature mapping is an indispensable prerequisite for the motioning and control of gully erosion which is a widespread natural hazard. The increasing availability of high-resolution Digital Elevation Model(DEM) and remote sensing imagery, combined with developed object-based methods enables automatic gully feature mapping. But still few studies have specifically focused on gully feature mapping on different scales. In this study, an object-based approach to two-level gully feature mapping, including gully-affected areas and bank gullies, was developed and tested on 1-m DEM and Worldview-3 imagery of a catchment in the Chinese Loess Plateau. The methodology includes a sequence of data preparation, image segmentation, metric calculation, and random forest based classification. The results of the two-level mapping were based on a random forest model after investigating the effects of feature selection and class-imbalance problem. Results show that the segmentation strategy adopted in this paper which considers the topographic information and optimal parameter combination can improve the segmentation results. The distribution of the gully-affected area is closely related to topographic information, however, the spectral features are more dominant for bank gully mapping. The highest overall accuracy of the gully-affected area mapping was 93.06% with four topographic features. The highest overall accuracy of bank gully mapping is 78.5% when all features are adopted. The proposed approach is a creditable option for hierarchical mapping of gully feature information, which is suitable for the application in hily Loess Plateau region.展开更多
The Loess Plateau of China has experienced a lengthy drought and severe soil erosion.Changes in precipitation and land use largely determine the dynamics of runoff and sediment yield in this region. Trend and mutation...The Loess Plateau of China has experienced a lengthy drought and severe soil erosion.Changes in precipitation and land use largely determine the dynamics of runoff and sediment yield in this region. Trend and mutation analyses were performed on hydrological data(1981–2012) from the Yanwachuan watershed in the Loess Plateau Gully Region to study the evolution characteristics of runoff and sediment yield. A time-series contrasting method also was used to evaluate the effects of precipitation and soil and water conservation(SWC) on runoff and sediment yield. Annual sediment yield declined markedly from 1981 to 2012 although there was no significant change in annual precipitation and annual runoff. Change points of annual runoff and annual sediment yield occurred in 1996 and 1997,respectively. Compared with that in the baseline period(1981–1996), annual runoff and annual sediment yield in the change period(1997–2012)decreased by 17.0% and 76.0%, respectively, but annual precipitation increased by 6.3%. Runoff decreased in the flood season and normal season, but increased in the dry season, while sediment yield significantly declined in the whole study period. The SWC measures contributed significantly to the reduction of annual runoff(137.9%) and annual sediment yield(135%) and were more important than precipitation. Biological measures(forestland and grassland) accounted for 61.04% of total runoff reduction, while engineering measures(terraces and dams) accounted for 102.84% of total sediment yield reduction. Furthermore, SWC measures had positive ecological effects. This study provides a scientific basis for soil erosion control on the Loess Plateau.展开更多
The impact of vegetation coverage on erosion and sediment yield in the Loess Plateau has been extensively studied,but the research has been primarily based on observations from slope runoff plots or secondary forest r...The impact of vegetation coverage on erosion and sediment yield in the Loess Plateau has been extensively studied,but the research has been primarily based on observations from slope runoff plots or secondary forest regions;the scaling method remains unresolved when it is applied at a large spatial scale,and it is difficult to apply to regions with severe soil and water loss given the predominance of herbs and shrubs.To date,there is little data on the quantitative impact of changes to vegetation on sediment concentration at a large spatial scale.This paper is based on vegetation information from remote sensing images,measured rainfall and sediment data over nearly 60 years,and results from previous runoff and sediment variation research on the Yellow River.We introduce the concepts of a sediment yield coefficient and the percentage of effective vegetation and erodible area,analyze the impact of different vegetation conditions on the flood sediment concentration and sediment yield,and evaluate the effect of rainfall intensity on sediment yield under different vegetation conditions at the watershed scale.We propose models to evaluate the impact of vegetation on sediment yield in the loess gully hilly region,which are based on remote sensing data and support an application at a large spatial scale.The models can be used to assess sediment reduction that results from the current significant improvement of vegetation in the Loess Plateau.展开更多
Significant uncertainties remain regarding the temporal evolution of natural vegetation during the Quaternary, and drivers of past vegetation change, on the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP). This study presents analyses ...Significant uncertainties remain regarding the temporal evolution of natural vegetation during the Quaternary, and drivers of past vegetation change, on the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP). This study presents analyses of total organic carbon isotopic composition (TOC) and n-alkane ratios (C31/C27) from the Lingtai loess-palaeosol sequence on the central CLP over the last 450 kyr. The results demonstrate that the vegetation in this region comprised a mix of C3 and C4 plants of herb and woody growth-form. C3 plants dominated for most of the last 450 kyr, but this did not lead to extensive forest. C3 woody plants were more abundant in MIS9 (S3 period) and MIS5 (S 1 period) during warm and humid climate conditions. Herbs increased in the region since 130 kyr, possibly as a result of increased aridity. On the orbital timescales, there was a reduction of C3 herbal plants in MIS 11 ($4) than in M1S 12 (L5), and in Holocene than in the last glacial period. Our isotope and n-alkane proxy records are in agreement with Artemisia pollen changes in the region, which is/was the dominant species in this area and varying due to different heat and water conditions between glacial and interglacial periods. Though the climate in MIS1 (SO) was similar to that in MIS11 (S4), a significant increase in woody plants during the Holocene suggests the impact of human activities and ecological effects of changes in fire activity.展开更多
基金Project(41372329) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaProject(2014CB744701) supported by the National Basic Research Program of China
文摘To predict the soil-water characteristic curve(i.e.SWCC)of natural and remoulded Malan loess from soil physical properties,one-point methods for determining the SWCC that are much simpler than experimental methods are proposed.The predicted SWCC is presented in the form of the BRUTSAERT equation,in which the four model parameters can be estimated from soil physical properties using the best correlations obtained in the present study along with one measured data point.The proposed one-point methods are validated using the measured SWCC data reported in the literature.The results of validation studies suggest that the proposed one-point methods can provide reasonable prediction of the SWCC for natural and remoulded Malan loess.The measured data point should be within the transition zone;the measured suction is suggested between25to100kPa for natural loess,while between100to500kPa for remoulded loess.
基金Project supported by the Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Land Use, Ministry of Land & Resources of China the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos.40871257 and 40635029).
文摘China has experienced dramatic land use changes over recent decades, with marked environmental and socio-economic consequences. Hengshan County, located in the aeolian-loessial area of Northwest China, was investigated to illustrate land use changes and their implications for environmental and long-term rural economic development. The farmland in Hengshan County significantly decreased during 1990–2003, whereas forest land and grassland increased. The conversion rates of farmland, orchard land, forest land and construction land varied markedly among different periods: 1990–1995, 1995–2000 and 2000–2003. Conversion of orchard land, grassland and construction land was dominant in 1990–1995, whereas the conversion of farmland to forest land mainly occurred in 2000–2003. The results suggested a profound transition in institutional policy and political economy of land management, including implementation of integrated soil erosion control projects, adoption of a market-oriented economy and the ‘Grain-for-Green’ policy, during this period in China. To achieve long-term sustainable land use in Hengshan County, efforts should aim at increasing off-farm income of rural families as well as establishing land-economizing mechanisms to promote land productivity, in addition to conservation measures.
文摘Potentiometric experiments were carried out on the proton binding equilibria of FA extracted from a weathered coal and HA and Fa extracted from a dark loessial soil.The affinity spectrum model was employed to treat the experimental data.The affinity spectrum model technique could“magnify” the heterogeneity of the proton binding equilibria.so it was useful for comparing and studying the characteristics of humic substances with similar properties.According to the affinity spectra,we also found that the direction of the titration could affect the properties of the equilibria of FA from the weathered coal,and the acidic functional groups contained in FA from the weathered coal were larger in quantity than those contained in HA and FA from the dark loessial soil.
基金Project supported by Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40972171)
文摘The collapsibility of loess ground can directly affect stability of subgrade. Therefore, how to adopt practical technical measures to reduce or eliminate its collapse deformation is an important content in foundation design in collapsible loess zone. Selecting collapsible loess from Fuxin-Chaoyang highway in Liaoning, the authors conducted a series of tests for improving loess with cement. The loess in different water content was mixed with the cement in varying proportions, unconfined compression strength for the samples at four different curing periods were tested, and the relationships of improved soil strength among cement mixture ratio and curing periods were analyzed. When the curing periods are certain, the strength of loess increases along with the mixture ratio increases; when the cement mixture ratio is 5%-15%, the scope of increases is quite obvious; when the mixture ratio is greater than 15%, the tendency of intensity increases turns slow. When the mixture ratio for the specimen is certain, the intensity of the test specimen increases along with the curing period increases, the intensity grows obviously in 28 days, and the growth rate is small in 28-90 days, the intensity tends to be steady in the curing period of 90 days.
基金Under the auspices of Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions,National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.41271438,41471316,41401440,41671389)
文摘Gully feature mapping is an indispensable prerequisite for the motioning and control of gully erosion which is a widespread natural hazard. The increasing availability of high-resolution Digital Elevation Model(DEM) and remote sensing imagery, combined with developed object-based methods enables automatic gully feature mapping. But still few studies have specifically focused on gully feature mapping on different scales. In this study, an object-based approach to two-level gully feature mapping, including gully-affected areas and bank gullies, was developed and tested on 1-m DEM and Worldview-3 imagery of a catchment in the Chinese Loess Plateau. The methodology includes a sequence of data preparation, image segmentation, metric calculation, and random forest based classification. The results of the two-level mapping were based on a random forest model after investigating the effects of feature selection and class-imbalance problem. Results show that the segmentation strategy adopted in this paper which considers the topographic information and optimal parameter combination can improve the segmentation results. The distribution of the gully-affected area is closely related to topographic information, however, the spectral features are more dominant for bank gully mapping. The highest overall accuracy of the gully-affected area mapping was 93.06% with four topographic features. The highest overall accuracy of bank gully mapping is 78.5% when all features are adopted. The proposed approach is a creditable option for hierarchical mapping of gully feature information, which is suitable for the application in hily Loess Plateau region.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51239009, 41171034)Shaanxi Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Key) Project (2013JZ012)+1 种基金Shaanxi Provincial Key Laboratory Project of Department of Education (14JS059)Shaanxi Provincial Water Conservancy Science and Technology Project (2016slkj-11)
文摘The Loess Plateau of China has experienced a lengthy drought and severe soil erosion.Changes in precipitation and land use largely determine the dynamics of runoff and sediment yield in this region. Trend and mutation analyses were performed on hydrological data(1981–2012) from the Yanwachuan watershed in the Loess Plateau Gully Region to study the evolution characteristics of runoff and sediment yield. A time-series contrasting method also was used to evaluate the effects of precipitation and soil and water conservation(SWC) on runoff and sediment yield. Annual sediment yield declined markedly from 1981 to 2012 although there was no significant change in annual precipitation and annual runoff. Change points of annual runoff and annual sediment yield occurred in 1996 and 1997,respectively. Compared with that in the baseline period(1981–1996), annual runoff and annual sediment yield in the change period(1997–2012)decreased by 17.0% and 76.0%, respectively, but annual precipitation increased by 6.3%. Runoff decreased in the flood season and normal season, but increased in the dry season, while sediment yield significantly declined in the whole study period. The SWC measures contributed significantly to the reduction of annual runoff(137.9%) and annual sediment yield(135%) and were more important than precipitation. Biological measures(forestland and grassland) accounted for 61.04% of total runoff reduction, while engineering measures(terraces and dams) accounted for 102.84% of total sediment yield reduction. Furthermore, SWC measures had positive ecological effects. This study provides a scientific basis for soil erosion control on the Loess Plateau.
基金supported by the National Key Technology R&D Program in the 12th Five-year Plan of China(Grant No.2012BAB02B05)National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.41301030)
文摘The impact of vegetation coverage on erosion and sediment yield in the Loess Plateau has been extensively studied,but the research has been primarily based on observations from slope runoff plots or secondary forest regions;the scaling method remains unresolved when it is applied at a large spatial scale,and it is difficult to apply to regions with severe soil and water loss given the predominance of herbs and shrubs.To date,there is little data on the quantitative impact of changes to vegetation on sediment concentration at a large spatial scale.This paper is based on vegetation information from remote sensing images,measured rainfall and sediment data over nearly 60 years,and results from previous runoff and sediment variation research on the Yellow River.We introduce the concepts of a sediment yield coefficient and the percentage of effective vegetation and erodible area,analyze the impact of different vegetation conditions on the flood sediment concentration and sediment yield,and evaluate the effect of rainfall intensity on sediment yield under different vegetation conditions at the watershed scale.We propose models to evaluate the impact of vegetation on sediment yield in the loess gully hilly region,which are based on remote sensing data and support an application at a large spatial scale.The models can be used to assess sediment reduction that results from the current significant improvement of vegetation in the Loess Plateau.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.41172149)the Science Fund for Creative Research Groups of NSFC(Grant No.41321062)the National Key Basic Research Program of China(Grant No.2015CB953804)
文摘Significant uncertainties remain regarding the temporal evolution of natural vegetation during the Quaternary, and drivers of past vegetation change, on the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP). This study presents analyses of total organic carbon isotopic composition (TOC) and n-alkane ratios (C31/C27) from the Lingtai loess-palaeosol sequence on the central CLP over the last 450 kyr. The results demonstrate that the vegetation in this region comprised a mix of C3 and C4 plants of herb and woody growth-form. C3 plants dominated for most of the last 450 kyr, but this did not lead to extensive forest. C3 woody plants were more abundant in MIS9 (S3 period) and MIS5 (S 1 period) during warm and humid climate conditions. Herbs increased in the region since 130 kyr, possibly as a result of increased aridity. On the orbital timescales, there was a reduction of C3 herbal plants in MIS 11 ($4) than in M1S 12 (L5), and in Holocene than in the last glacial period. Our isotope and n-alkane proxy records are in agreement with Artemisia pollen changes in the region, which is/was the dominant species in this area and varying due to different heat and water conditions between glacial and interglacial periods. Though the climate in MIS1 (SO) was similar to that in MIS11 (S4), a significant increase in woody plants during the Holocene suggests the impact of human activities and ecological effects of changes in fire activity.