Abstract
Soil infiltrability controls precipitation input to soil and plays a crucial role in regulating soil eco-hydrological processes and ecosystem production in water-limited areas worldwide. The effects of root traits on soil infiltrability have been widely investigated at individual sites, but root-soil interactions and their effects on soil water infiltration over large spatial scales remain poorly understood. This study aimed to identify the unique characteristics of soil infiltration processes and different contributions of soil texture and root morphological traits to soil infiltrability. For this purpose, 153 plots of natural revegetated land with two contrasting plant species (Artemisia gmelinii Web. with tap root systems and Stipa bungeana Trin. with fibrous root systems) and bare land were selected in three regions along a texture gradient in the Loess Plateau of China. The results showed a distinct spatial variability of soil infiltration rates across the three regions with soil texture explaining the variability more strongly than plant species at several infiltration stages. Rooted soils had higher infiltration rates than bare soils, with nonsignificant inter-species difference under three soil texture types. Furthermore, soil texture and root morphological traits explained 92.03% and 74.75% of the total variance of soil properties (soil organic matter, aggregate stability, and soil porosity), and their interaction effects (73.09%), accounted for a considerable proportion. These findings suggest that soil texture and root morphological traits indirectly affect soil infiltrability by modulating soil properties, with soil texture having a higher contribution. In addition, the effects of root morphological traits on soil infiltrability were found to be dependent of soil texture on the regional scale. Therefore, the effects of soil texture and root-soil interaction deserves further attention in assessing soil hydrological processes on large spatial scales in the future.
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