Effects of slope gradient on runoff from bare-fallow purple soil in China under natural rainfall conditions

Purple soil is highly susceptible for overland flow and surface erosion, therefore understanding surface runoff and soil erosion processes in the purple soil region are important to mitigate flooding and erosion hazards. Slope angle is an important parameter that affects the magnitude of runoff and thus surface erosion in hilly landscapes or bare land area. However, the effect of slope on runoff generation remains unclear in many different soils including Chinese purple soil. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between different slope gradients and surface runoff for bare-fallow purple soil, using 5 m × 1.5 m experimental plots under natural rainfall conditions. Four experimental plots(10°, 16°, 20° and 26°) were established in theYanting Agro-ecological Experimental Station of Chinese Academy of Science in central Sichuan Basin. The plot was equipped with water storage tank to monitor water level change. Field monitoring from July 1 to October 31, 2012 observed 42 rainfall events which produced surface runoff from the experimental plots. These water level changes were converted to runoff. The representative eight rainfall events were selected for further analysis, the relationship between slope and runoff coefficient were determined using ANOVA, F-test, and z-score analysis. The results indicated a strong correlation between rainfall and runoff in cumulative amount basis. The mean value of the measured runoff coefficient for four experimental plots was around 0.1. However, no statistically significant relationship was found between slope and runoff coefficient. We reviewed the relationship between slope and runoff in many previous studiesand calculated z-score to compare with our experimental results. The results of z-score analysis indicated that both positive and negative effects of slope on runoff coefficient were obtained, however a moderate gradient(16°-20° in this study) could be a threshold of runoff generation for many different soils including the Chinese purple soil.

Influence of natural rainfall variability on the evaluation of artificial precipitation enhancement

Evaluating cloud seeding effects is one of the most critical issues in artificial precipitation enhancement experiments. However, the evaluation is not straightforward because there is natural rainfall variability, which subjects the atmosphere to spatiotemporal instabilities. The aim of this study is to analyze natural rainfall variability using the modern statistical simulation method, "bootstrap", to analyze its influence on the evaluation of seeding activities and to take proper measures to control the influence. The study is based on the 1997?2007 airborne seeding macro records and the daily precipitation data in Jilin Province. The influence of natural rainfall variability can be reduced through three approaches: the increase of the supposed "seeded" sample size N, the rejection of outliers, and the selection of similar control units. A larger N leads to smaller calculated precipitation variability and detectable lower limits of seeding effects. When N is near 470 and the seeding effect is between 20% and 30%, the confidence level reaches 90%. For a single seeding operation, the case deletion model that rejects strong influence points and selects similar control units is established to control the influence of natural precipitation variability, which obviously improves the evaluation of artificial precipitation enhancement. The results demonstrate that the relative seeding effect in Jilin Province is concentrated mainly in the range of 0 to 30%, with an average of 11.95%, and has no significant linear relationship with the actual precipitation amount. However, the fluctuation amplitude of the relative effect decreases as the precipitation amount rises.

Effects of soil conservation practices on soil erosion and the size selectivity of eroded sediment on cultivated slopes

Soil conservation practices can greatly affect the soil erosion process,but limited information is available about its influence on the particle size distribution(PSD)of eroded sediment,especially under natural rainfall.In this study,the runoff,sediment yields,and effective/ultimate PSD were measured under two conventional tillage practices,downhill ridge tillage(DT)and plat tillage(PT)and three soil conservation practices,contour ridge tillage(CT),mulching with downhill ridge tillage(MDT),and mulching with contour ridge tillage(MCT)during 21 natural rainfall events in the lower Jinsha River.The results showed that(1)soil conservation practices had a significant effect on soil erosion.The conventional tillage of DT caused highest runoff depth(0.58 to 29.13 mm)and sediment yield(0.01 to 3.19 t hm^(-2)).Compared with DT,the annual runoff depths and sediment yields of CT,MDT and MCT decreased by 12.24%-49.75%and 40.79%-88.30%,respectively.(2)Soil conservation practices can reduce the decomposition of aggregates in sediments.The ratios of effective and ultimate particle size(E/U)of siltand sand-sized particles of DT and PT plots were close to 1,indicating that they were transported as primary particles,however,values lower/greater than 1 subject to CT,MDT and MCT plots indicated they were transported as aggregates.The ratios of E/U of claysized particles were all less than 1 independently of tillage practices.(3)The sediments of soil conservation practices were more selective than those of conventional tillage practices.For CT,MDT and MCT plots,the average enrichment ratios(ERs)of clay,silt and sand were 1.99,1.93 and 0.42,respectively,with enrichment of clay and silt and depletion of sand in sediments.However,the compositions of the eroded sediments of DT and PT plots were similar to that of the original soil.These findings support the use of both effective and ultimate particle size distributions for studying the size selectivity of eroded sediment,and provide a scientific basis for revealing the erosion mechanism in the purple soil area of China.

Transformation of Erosion Types on Loess Slope by REE Tracking

REE Tracking was adopted to study the transformation of erosion types on loess slope and the results indicated that the slope runoffs was correlated with the erosion ratios at the coefficients ranging within 0.84～0.94 and this indicated the variation tendency of erosion ratios basically agreed with the runoffs; the major erosion type is sheet erosion during the initial slope runoff generation and the sheet erosions separately accounted for 71%, 48% and 49% of the total; as rainfalls went on, the rill erosions continuously increased, indicating gradual transformation from sheet erosion into rill erosion. The examination of the origins of erosion silts revealed the relative erosion was always below 10% in the upper slope section; comparison of the relative rill erosions in different slope sections showed that rill erosions mainly originated in the section spanning from 0 to 4 m away from slope foot.

Analysis of Precipitation Resource and Weather Modification Potential in Anyang

Using ground water vapor pressure and precipitation data at four times of one day during 1985- 2014 in each county（ city） of Anyang,precipitable water at each station was calculated,and temporal-spatial distribution of atmospheric maximum precipitable water and its change trend over the years in the city were analyzed. Results showed that atmospheric maximum precipitable water in Anyang City had the characteristics of summer far more than winter,autumn slightly higher than spring,west and south more,and east and north less,and presented the increasing trend year by year. We further analyzed the characteristic of monthly rainfall enhancement potential in each county,and mean in whole year was 80%. In spring and winter,rainfall enhancement potential in the west was bigger than east,while rainfall enhancement potential in the east was bigger than west in summer and autumn. The research provides reference basis for rationally carrying out artificial rainfall work,which could effectively ease uneven temporal-spatial distribution problem of water resource in Anyang City.

Modeling Runoff from Semi-Arid Agricultural Lands in Northwest Iran

Transformation of rainfall into runoff over an area is a very complex process which exhibits both temporal and spatial variability;runoff in a defined area can be affected by factors such as topography, vegetation, rainfall characteristics and soil properties. This study was conducted to develop an empirical model using the rainfall characteristics and soil properties for predicting runoff from dry-farming lands in a semi-arid agricultural area in Hashtroud, Northwest Iran. Runoff plots(1.83 m × 22.1 m) in triplicate were installed in thirty-six sloped dry-farming lands in the study area. Runoff under natural rainfalls was measured in each plot during a2-year period. The results showed that runoff for 41 runoff-producing rainstorm events with duration longer than 30 min was largely associated with a rainfall index obtained by multiplying the positive square root of rainfall depth(h0.5) by the logarithm of the maximum 30-minute intensity(LogI30)(R2= 0.81). Runoff significantly varied among the plots(P < 0.001), which was considerably related to the effective soil properties(R2= 0.74), i.e., soil permeability(Per) and aggregate stability(AS). A multiple linear regression model was developed between runoff and the rainfall index(h0.5logI30) and the effective soil properties(AS and Per). Evaluation of the model using 34 runoff-producing rainstorm events that occurred during the next two years resulted in high values of the efficiency coefficient and R2(0.88 and 0.91, respectively), which revealed that the model developed in this study could be used in predicting runoff from the dry-farming lands in the semi-arid regions.