Abstract
Previous studies have suggested that runoff reduces with slope length, and the scaling trend diminishes with the degree of land degradation. This study further hypothesized that runoff is scale-independent and spatially uniform in extremely degraded landscapes. We tested the hypothesis on the Chinese Loess Plateau. Runoff data were collected from a densely rilled and gullied loess headwater with soil erosion intensity close to 20,000 t km−2 yr−1. The data included observations from seven arable experimental plots of various lengths (20 to 164 m) and gradients (9 to 32°), as well as the headwater outlet. The results showed that the erosion-induced network of rills and gullies lowered runoff reinfiltration and resulted in exceptional high flow connectivity, thus obscuring the effects of other environmental conditions (mainly topography) and contributing to uniform runoff from the upper hillslope to the headwater outlet. The observations held at the event, annual, and mean annual time scales, suggesting that the investigated watershed is simply the sum of individual slopes. This study highlights the effect of erosion processes on the ensuing runoff yield and suggests that scale-independent runoff is typical of highly degraded slope systems.11SSY (t km−2), area-specific sediment yield.
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