Abstract
The hilly areas of China have experienced soil erosion and are also typical land consolidation (LC) regions. Using the RUSLE model and the multiple regression model, this study evaluated the soil erosion of agricultural land and assessed the effects of LC on soil erosion in Lishui District, a typical district in the Ning-Zhen-Yang hilly area. The soil erosion of agricultural land ranged from 0 to 385.77 t·ha−1·yr−1 with spatial heterogeneity due to the topography, land cover, and vegetation cover. Overall, carrying out LC reduced soil erosion due to the construction of protection forests, farmland shelterbelts, and different kinds of land engineering. Furthermore, the different types of LC had different impacts on soil erosion, where farmland consolidation resulted in more serious soil erosion than land development. Nevertheless, the potential risks brought by LC to soil erosion reduction could not be overlooked, and more attention should be paid to ecological environment protection during the process of LC. This study presents findings regarding the positive impacts and potential risks of LC for soil erosion reduction in agricultural land in hilly areas.
Highlights
Soil erosion is a global ecological issue that threatens ecosystem health and sustainable development
The construction of protection forests, farmland shelterbelts, or vegetation protection systems is one of the basic requirements for land consolidation (LC) [17,46,47], and the retention and increase of vegetative cover of soil is a vital factor for maintaining soil stability [48] and for reducing the dynamics of runoff [49], it is conducive to soil and water conservation
Taking Lishui District, Nanjing City, as the study area, this study quantitatively evaluated the soil losses in the study area
Summary
Soil erosion is a global ecological issue that threatens ecosystem health and sustainable development. It is an important cause of reservoir sedimentation and soil nutrient loss, it has a significant impact on the eutrophication of water bodies and freshwater pollution, and is a major threat to soil quality and agricultural productivity [1,2,3,4,5,6]. The first issue raised in the study of soil erosion is how to quantitatively estimate the intensity of soil erosion and its spatial distribution.
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