Abstract
The Grain for Green Program (GGP) initiated by Chinese government significantly impacts mitigating environmental degradation. Soil water resources probably constrain large-scale vegetation restoration projects in arid and semi-arid regions. Characterizing soil water dynamics after the GGP’s implementation is essential in assessing whether vegetation restoration can be sustained as part of ecological restoration. In this study, four sites were selected for field investigation: original natural grassland (NG) and grassland that was reconverted from cropland 12 years (12-year site), 8 years (8-year site), and 6 years (6-year site) before. Soil water at five depths was measured continuously at 10 min intervals at four sites. The findings showed that less rainfall infiltrated a deeper soil layer as the time after restoration augmented, and the 12-year site had the shallowest infiltration depth and soil water storage. Younger restored grassland (8-year and 6-year sites) had a higher soil water content than older restored grassland (12-year site) and NG. The soil water content decreased steadily with restoration age after an immediate initial rise, and the highest soil moisture was in the 8-year site. The results suggest that soil water dynamics varied with GGP and a soil water deficit could be formed after the GGP’s implementation for 12 years in semi-arid grassland.
Highlights
The Grain for Green Program (GGP) was initiated by the Chinese government in 1999 [1] in order to curtail environmental degradation [2]
The changes of daily soil water contents were closely related to precipitation in all sites (Figure 4)
Remarkable increases in soil water were observed at the 100 cm soil depth for the 8-year and 6-year sites after 40.4 mm rainfall on 24–25 July, indicating that rainfall can replenish into deep soil layer in younger reconverted grasslands during rainy seasons
Summary
The Grain for Green Program (GGP) was initiated by the Chinese government in 1999 [1] in order to curtail environmental degradation [2]. The GGP is an essential ecological restoration program in China [1,3,4,5], and is the largest forest ecological construction project in the world [6]. Vegetation influences soil water dynamics after rainfall by altering interception [13,30], infiltration [31], root water uptake [32], and evaporation processes [33]. Such an impact changes with plant species and leads to soil water temporal variations. It is important to quantify soil water content under different vegetation characters (plant species, coverage, and biomass) across the temporal scale [34]
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