Abstract
Impact of land use and land cover change on soil erosion is still imperfectly understood, especially in northeastern China where severe soil erosion has occurred since the 1950s. It is important to identify temporal changes of soil erosion for the black soil region at different spatial scales. In the present study, potential soil erosion in northeastern China was estimated based on the Revised Universal Loss Equation by integrating satellite images, and the variability of soil erosion at different spatial scales following land use changes in 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2017 was analyzed. The regionally spatial patterns of soil loss coincided with the topography, rainfall erosivity, soil erodibility, and use patterns, and around 45% of soil loss came from arable land. Regionally, soil erosion rates increased from 1980 to 2010 and decreased from 2010 to 2017, ranging from 3.91 to 4.45 Mg ha−1 yr−1 with an average of 4.22 Mg ha−1 yr−1 in 1980–2017. Areas with a rate of soil erosion less than 1.41 Mg ha−1 yr−1 decreased from 1980 to 2010 and increased from 2010 to 2017, and the opposite changing patterns occurred in higher erosion classes. Arable land continuously increased at the expense of forest in the high-elevation and steep-slope areas from 1980 to 2010, and decreased from 2010 to 2017, resulting in increased areas with erosion rates higher than 7.05 Mg ha−1 yr−1. At a provincial scale, Liaoning Province experienced the highest soil erosion rate of 9.43 Mg ha−1 yr−1, followed by Jilin Province, the eastern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and Heilongjiang Province. At a county scale, around 75% of the counties had a soil erosion rate higher than the tolerance level. The county numbers with higher erosion rate increased in 1980–2010 and decreased in 2010–2017, resulting from the sprawl and withdrawal of arable land.
Highlights
Soil determines the biological and geochemical cycles of the earth system and provides basic services such as food, clean water, and goods for humankind
Forest was distributed in mountainous areas, and arable lands in the three plains (Figure 1)
Assessment of the impact of regional land use and land cover (LULC) change on soil loss is of paramount importance to appropriately regulate land use
Summary
Soil determines the biological and geochemical cycles of the earth system and provides basic services such as food, clean water, and goods for humankind. Severe soil erosion can influence soil fertility, sustainable agriculture, and the functions of soil systems [1,2]. The rapid expansion of arable land at the expense of natural vegetation induces severe soil erosion and environmental problems such as land degradation, river and reservoir sedimentation, and freshwater pollution. A deep understanding of land use and land cover (LULC) change-induced spatiotemporal patterns of soil erosion is of great importance to land use management and sustainable development [2]. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 7378; doi:10.3390/ijerph17207378 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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