Abstract
Kedong County is typical of the black soil region of northeast China in being highly susceptible to accelerated soil erosion by gullying. Using data sourced from Corona satellite imagery for 1965, SPOT5 for 2005 and GF-1 for 2015, the spatial distribution of gullies in the research area was mapped. Land use data for 1965, 2005, and 2015 were obtained from the topographic map of 1954, and from Landsat images for 2005 and 2015. Over the last 50 years, the extent of gully erosion in the study area has increased markedly, most notably on cultivated land, while gully density rose from 2,756.16 m2/km2 to 14,294.19 m2/km2. Cultivating land on slopes, especially on slopes greater than ∼4°, may rapidly aggravate gully erosion. The greatest increases in gully density occurred in situations when cultivated land and other/degraded land were transformed, which gully erosion density increased by 49,526.69 m2/km2. Other/degraded land is the most vulnerable land in the study area, with the highest gully erosion density. In these cases, gully density initially increases and, although the “Grain for Green” project has been implemented, gully erosion density has not always declined in the recent past.
Highlights
Over the 50 years, the planet faces the daunting task of feeding 3.5 billion additional people (Borlaug, 2007)
Validation and field verification of Landsat/TM images for 1965, 2005, and 2015, and this paper presents a detailed assessment of land use changes and its impact on soil erosion for a 50-year period in the black soil area in northeast China
The results show that: (i) In the past 50 years, gully erosion density in the black soil region has increased markedly
Summary
Over the 50 years, the planet faces the daunting task of feeding 3.5 billion additional people (Borlaug, 2007). How can the associated increased demand for agricultural commodities be accommodated? Presents us with a problem because it can dramatically alter the albedo and exacerbate climate change, accelerate rates of soil degradation and erosion, and cause loss of biodiversity. Soil erosion is one of the most prominent environmental impacts associated with land use change, and has resulted in extensive loss of productivity and ecosystem services at the global scale. The associated decline in habitat quality and fragmentation caused by development has a wide range of deleterious impacts on soil conditions. It has long been recognized that erosion in excess of soil production eventually results in decreased agricultural potential (Liu and Diamond, 2005; Mukai, 2017; Macias-Fauria, 2018; Xiong et al, 2019)
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