Three-dimensional numerical analysis of plant-soil hydraulic interactions on pore water pressure of vegetated slope under different rainfall patterns

Understanding the pore water pressure distribution in unsaturated soil is crucial in predicting shallow landslides triggered by rainfall,mainly when dealing with different temporal patterns of rainfall intensity.However,the hydrological response of vegetated slopes,especially three-dimensional(3D)slopes covered with shrubs,under different rainfall patterns remains unclear and requires further investigation.To address this issue,this study adopts a novel 3D numerical model for simulating hydraulic interactions between the root system of the shrub and the surrounding soil.Three series of numerical parametric studies are conducted to investigate the influences of slope inclination,rainfall pattern and rainfall duration.Four rainfall patterns(advanced,bimodal,delayed,and uniform)and two rainfall durations(4-h intense and 168-h mild rainfall)are considered to study the hydrological response of the slope.The computed results show that 17%higher transpiration-induced suction is found for a steeper slope,which remains even after a short,intense rainfall with a 100-year return period.The extreme rainfalls with advanced(PA),bimodal(PB)and uniform(PU)rainfall patterns need to be considered for the short rainfall duration(4 h),while the delayed(PD)and uniform(PU)rainfall patterns are highly recommended for long rainfall durations(168 h).The presence of plants can improve slope stability markedly under extreme rainfall with a short duration(4 h).For the long duration(168 h),the benefit of the plant in preserving pore-water pressure(PWP)and slope stability may not be sufficient.

Characteristics of the Summer Time Rainfall Patterns over China and the Indian Ocean Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies

Using the monthly summer (June to August) precipitation data over China from 1979 to 1998,and the SST data in Indian Ocean of the overlapping periods,we have analyzed the spatial patterns as well as their temporal evolution of the summer precipitation,along with the relationships between the precipitation over China and the SST in Indian Ocean,with the EOF and SVD methods respectively.The important results are:several canonical anomalous summer precipitation patterns have been identified.The summer SST in Indian Ocean is positively correlated with the simultaneous precipitation in the Yangtze River and Huai River Basin,while negatively with that in other parts of China.

Effects of rainfall patterns on annual plants in Horqin Sandy Land, Inner Mongolia of China

Growth of annual plants in arid environments depends largely on rainfall pulses. An increased understanding of the effects of different rainfall patterns on plant growth is critical to predicting the potential responses of plants to the changes in rainfall regimes, such as rainfall intensity and duration, and length of dry intervals. In this study, we investigated the effects of different rainfall patterns（e.g. small rainfall event with high frequency and large rainfall event with low frequency） on biomass, growth characteristics and vertical distribution of root biomass of annual plants in Horqin Sandy Land, Inner Mongolia of China during the growing season（from May to August） of 2014. Our results showed that the rainfall patterns, independent of total rainfall amount, exerted strong effects on biomass, characteristics of plant growth and vertical distribution of root biomass. Under a constant amount of total rainfall, the aboveground biomass（AGB）, belowground biomass（BGB）, plant cover, plant height, and plant individual and species number increased with an increase in rainfall intensity. Changes in rainfall patterns also altered the percentage contribution of species biomass to the total AGB, and the percentage of BGB at different soil layers to the total BGB. Consequently, our results indicated that increased rainfall intensity in future may increase biomass significantly, and also affect the growth characteristics of annual plants.

Reconstruction of Conceptual Prediction Model for the Three Rainfall Patterns in the summer of eastern China under global warming

With the influence of global warming,the global climate has undergone significant inter-decadal variation since the late 1970s.Although El Nio-Southern Oscillation(ENSO)has been the strongest signal for predicting global climate inter-annual variability,its relation with the summer rainfall in China has significantly changed,and its indicative function on the summer rainfall in China has weakened.This has led to a significant decrease in the accuracy rate of early conceptual prediction models for the Three Rainfall Patterns in the summer of eastern China.On the basis of the difference analysis of atmospheric circulation system configuration in summer,as well as the interaction of ocean and atmospheric in previous winter between two phases,i.e.before and after the significant global warming(1951 to 1978 and 1979 to 2012,respectively),we concluded that(1)Under different inter-decadal backgrounds,the atmospheric circulations that impacted the Three Rainfall Patterns in the summer of eastern China showed consistency,but in the latter phase of the global warming,the Western Pacific Subtropical High(WPSH)was on the strong side,the position of which was in the south,and the blocking high in the Eurasia mid-high latitudes was active,while the polar vortex extended to the south,and meridional circulation intensified.This circulation background may have been conducive to the increase of the circulation frequency of Patterns II and III,and the decrease of the circulation frequency of Pattern I,thus leading to more Patterns II and III and fewer Pattern I in the summer rainfall of eastern China.(2)In the former phase,the corresponding previous winter SST fields of different rainfall patterns showed visible differences.The impact of ENSO on North Pacific Oscillation(NPO)was great,and the identification ability of which on Patterns I and II of summer rainfall was effective.In the latter phase,this identification ability decreased,while the impact of ENSO on the Pacific/North American(PNA)teleconnection pattern increased,and the identification ability of the PNA on Patterns II and III also increased.Based on the new inter-decadal climate background,this study reconstructs the conceptual prediction model for the Three Rainfall Patterns in summer of eastern China by using the previous winter PNA and the Eurasian(EU)teleconnection indexes.The fitting effect was satisfying,though it is necessary to be further tested.

Using a Hidden Markov Model to Analyze the Flood-Season Rainfall Pattern and Its Temporal Variation over East China

The homogeneous hidden Markov model(HMM), a statistical pattern recognition method, is introduced in this paper. Based on the HMM, a 53-yr record of daily precipitation during the flood season(April-September) at 389 stations in East China during 1961-2013 is classified into six patterns: the South China(SC) pattern, the southern Yangtze River(SY) pattern, the Yangtze-Huai River(YH) pattern, the North China(NC) pattern, the overall wetter(OW) pattern, and the overall drier(OD) pattern. Features of the transition probability matrix of the first four patterns reveal that 1) the NC pattern is the most persistent, followed by the YH, and the SY is the least one; and 2) there exists a SY-SC-SY-YH-NC propagation process for the rain belt over East China during the flood season. The intraseasonal variability in the occurrence frequency of each pattern determines its start and end time. Furthermore,analysis of interdecadal variability in the occurrence frequency of each pattern in recent six decades has identified three obvious interdecadal variations for the SC, YH, and NC patterns in the mid-late 1970 s, the early 1990 s, and the late 1990 s. After 2000, the patterns concentrated in the southern region play a dominant role, and thus there maintains a "flooding in the south and drought in the north" rainfall distribution in eastern China. In summary, the HMM provides a unique approach for us to obtain both spatial distribution and temporal variation features of flood-season rainfall.

Tropical Convective Activities Related to Summer Rainfall Anomaly in China

The paper presents the SVD-revealed relation of the tropical convection anomaly patterns to the summer rainfall counterparts of China, indicating that a) the ENSO-associated tropical con-vection anomaly is highly advantageous but the corresponding rainfall anomaly can only account for 10.3% of total variance, the rainfall anomaly related to tropical monsoon variation with the northern South China Sea as the center of convection abnormality for 18.8% and to the variation inside the tropical monsoon for 11.2%; b) the ENSO-related summer precipitation anomaly dis-plays a pattern of excessive rainfall in the south and deficit in the north, the anomaly relative to the tropical monsoon variation a pattern of more precipitation in the Yangtze River valleys and less in North, Northeast and South China, and that in relation to the variation within the tropical mon-soon a pattern of two rainbands, one in the Yangtze River valleys and the other in North China. Key words Tropical convection - Singular value decomposition (SVD) - Rainfall pattern (1)This work is supported by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China under Grant No. 49775265.

Slope stability of an unsaturated embankment with and without natural pore water salinity subjected to rainfall infiltration

Natural soils contain a certain amount of salt in the form of dissolved ions or electrically charged atoms,originated from the long-term erosion by acidic rainwater.The dissolved salt poses an extra osmotic water potential being normally neglected in laboratory measurements and numerical analyses.However,ignorance of salinity may result in overestimation of stability,and the design may not be as conservative as thought.Therefore,this research aims to first experimentally examine the influence of pore water salinity on water retention curve and saturated permeability of natural dispersive loess under saline and desalinated conditions.Second,the measured parameters are used for stability analyses of a railway embankment in an area subjected to regional rainfall incident.Eventually,a numerical parametric study is carried out to explore the significance of different rainfall schemes,construction patterns,and anisotropic permeability on the factor of safety.Results reveal that desalinization suppresses the water retention capability,which in turn results in a tremendous declination of unsaturated hydraulic conductivity.Despite the natural saline embankment,rainfall can hardly infiltrate into the desalinated embankment due to the lower conductivity.Therefore,the factor of safety for natural saline conditions drops notably,while only marginal changes occur in the case of the desalinated embankment.

An Abrupt Rainfall Decrease over the Asian Inland Plateau Region around 1999 and the Possible Underlying Mechanism

A decadal change in summer rainfall in the Asian inland plateau（AIP） region is identified around 1999. This decadal change is characterized by an abrupt decrease in summer rainfall of about 15.7% of the climatological average amount,leading to prolonged drought in the Asian inland plateau region. Both the surface air temperature and potential evapotranspiration in the AIP show a significant increase, while the soil moisture exhibits a decrease, after the late 1990s. Furthermore,the normalized difference vegetation index shows an apparent decreasing trend during 1999–2007. Three different drought indices—the standardized precipitation index, the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index, and the self-calibrating Palmer drought severity index—present pronounced climate anomalies during 1999–2007, indicating dramatic drought exacerbation in the region after the late 1990s. This decadal change in the summer rainfall may be attributable to a wave-like teleconnection pattern from Western Europe to Asia. A set of model sensitivity experiments suggests that the summer warming sea surface temperature in the North Atlantic could induce this teleconnection pattern over Eurasia, resulting in recent drought in the AIP region.

我国东部夏季三类雨型的诊断和预测方法研究

采用三级逐步判别方法对我国东部地区夏季（６、７、８月）降水进行客观诊断和预测。结果表明，利用６个测站的夏季降水量即可定量诊断我国夏季雨型，利用冬季５００ｈＰａ极涡面积和北半球遥相关型指数建立起来的三级判别函数只包含７个因子。历史拟合率为３８／３９，试报效果也较好，从而为我国东部地区夏季降水型的客观预报提供了有应用价值的预报模型。

Analysis of Design Rainstorm Hydrograph Based on Asymmetrical Extreme Value Copula

In this paper,the maximum 1-hour rainfall( rain peak),the maximum 6-hour rainfall and the maximum 24-hour rainfall in the Caojiang River basin from 1967 to 2013 were taken as samples. The typical typhoon rainstorm hydrograph of joint distribution of rainfall in three periods was constructed based on the asymmetric Archimedean Gumbel-Hougaard extreme value Copula. The main conclusions were as follows:( 1) the design rainstorm value in the Caojiang River basin calculated by using the joint distribution of rainfall in three periods was larger than the design rainstorm value of the joint distribution in two periods and that of a single period. The design rainstorm process hydrograph amplified at the same frequency had the optimal overall effect,which provided a new idea and method for studying the design rainfall patterns.( 2) According to the maximum 24-hour rainfall,the risk rate of the multi-peak rainstorm process that the main peak was in the back was the highest,and the constructed typical design rainstorm process hydrograph was the most representative.( 3) " OR" joint return period of rainfall combination in three periods as the design criteria of a watershed was applicable to responding to the risk of rainfall and flood in this watershed.

Duration and intensity of rainfall events with the same erosivity change sediment yield and runoff rates

The effect of different rainfall patterns on surface runoff,infiltration and thus soil losses and sediment concentrations are still in the focus of current research.In most simulated rainfall experiments,pre-cipitation is applied at a fixed intensity for a fixed time.However,the impact of rainfall patterns on soil erosion processes may be different varying the rainfall duration and intensity that produces an event with similar rainfall erosivity values.Twenty-five rainfall events were applied on micro-scale runoff plots in a soil covered with corn straw to evaluate the sediment yield and runoff rates.The different rainfall types were composed by association of duration(Dur)and intensity(IP)with the same erosivity value.The Dur varied from 38 to 106 min and the IP varied from 75.0 to 44.6 mm h^(-1).The sediment yield varied from 1.89±1.26 g m^(-2) to 4.02±2.66 g m^(-2) and runoff ranged from 16.9±8.74 mm to 32.63±10.67 mm with highest rates occurring with high intensity and low duration.The highest rainfall intensity provides the maximum sediment yield(0.138 g m^(-2) min^(-1))and runoff rates(0.87 mm min^(-1)).The time to start surface runoff varied from 14 to 19.2 min and it was longer in treatments with longer durations and low precipitation intensity.No difference was found in the amount of sediments applying rain with the same erosivity and different associations of duration and intensity.However,the intensity and duration of the rain,with the same erosivity,altered the amount and time of runoff.In rainfall experiments with con-stant intensity and fixed time,the erosion rates depend on the duration of the applied rain.Therefore,the results of this study can contribute to the development of new perspectives in the design of water erosion experiments with simulated rain considering the duration,intensity and also the association of these variables to produce rainfall that delivery the same soil erosion capacity.

Effects of precipitation on soil organic carbon fractions in three subtropical forests in southern China

Aims The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of precipitation changes on soil organic carbon(SOC)fractions in subtropical forests where the precipitation pattern has been altered for decades.Methods We conducted field manipulations of precipitation,including ambient precipitation as a control(CK),double precipitation(DP)and no precipitation(NP),for 3 years in three forests with different stand ages(broadleaf forest[BF],mixed forest[MF]and pine forest[PF])in subtropical China.At the end of the experiment,soil samples were collected to assay SOC content,readily oxidizable organic carbon(ROC)and non-readily oxidizable organic carbon(NROC),as well as soil microbial biomass carbon(MBC),pH and total nitrogen content.Samples from the forest floors were also collected to analyze carbon(C)functional groups(i.e.alkyl C,aromatic C,O-alkyl C and carbonyl C).Furthermore,fine root biomass was measured periodically throughout the experiment.Important Findings Among the forests,ROC content did not exhibit any notable differences,while NROC content increased significantly with the stand age.This finding implied that the SOC accumulation observed in these forests resulted from the accumulation of NROC in the soil,a mechanism for SOC accumulation in the mature forests of southern China.Moreover,NP treatment led to significant reductions in both ROC and NROC content and therefore reduced the total SOC content in all of the studied forests.Such decreases may be due to the lower plant-derived C inputs(C quantity)and to the changes in SOC components(C quality)indicated by C functional groups analyses under NP treatment.DP treatment in all the forests also tended to decrease the SOC content,although the decreases were not statistically significant with the exception of SOC and ROC content in PF.This finding indicated that soils in MF and in BF may be more resistant to precipitation increases,possibly due to less water limitations under natural conditions in the two forests.Our results therefore highlight the different responses of SOC and its fractions to precipitation changes among the forests and suggest that further studies are needed to improve our understanding of SOC dynamics in such an important C sink region.