Impacts of land disturbance and restoration on runoff production and sediment yield in the Chinese Loess Plateau

Land disturbance and land restoration are important factors influencing runoff production and sediment yield in the semi-arid loess regions of China. This study compared the runoff production and sediment yield during the early stage after land disturbance（ESLD） with those during restoring stage aft...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of arid land 2017-02, Vol.9 (1), p.76-86
Main Authors: Ai, Ning, Wei, Tianxing, Zhu, Qingke, Qiang, Fangfang, Ma, Huan, Qin, Wei
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arid regions
Disturbance
Earth and Environmental Science
Environmental restoration
Geography
Grain
Hippophae rhamnoides
Loess
Physical Geography
Pine trees
Plant Ecology
Rain
Rainfall
Restoration
Runoff
Sediment
Sediment yield
Sediments
Slope
Soil
Sustainable Development
Topography
Topography (geology)
Vegetation
产流产沙
土地整治
影响因素
扰动
植被恢复
灰色关联分析方法
黄土地区
黄土高原
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Summary:Land disturbance and land restoration are important factors influencing runoff production and sediment yield in the semi-arid loess regions of China. This study compared the runoff production and sediment yield during the early stage after land disturbance（ESLD） with those during restoring stage after land disturbance（RSLD）. Grey relational analysis was used to analyse the importance of each one of the influencing factors（vegetation, rainfall, soil and topography） in affecting the runoff production and sediment yield. Our results showed that during ESLD, topography was the most critical factor controlling the runoff production, while soil was the most important factor controlling the sediment yield. During RSLD, vegetation was more important in affecting runoff production, while rainfall was more important in affecting sediment yield. In additional, this study demonstrated that both the runoff production and the sediment yield can be effectively reduced by restoring vegetation on severely-disturbed lands, thus providing an important theoretical basis for better implementations of the Grain for Green Program. Our results revealed that the vegetation types of Hippophae rhamnoides＋Pinus tabulaeformis and H. rhamnoides are better plant selections for land restoration in this area, especially for relatively gentle slopes（i.e., less than 20 degrees）.
ISSN:1674-6767
2194-7783
DOI:10.1007/s40333-016-0088-6