Abstract
Fish-scale pits, as one of the most important ecological engineering in semi-arid areas, especially in the Loess Plateau, China, effectively reduced water and soil loss by intercepting runoff. However, the water saved by the pits is mainly accumulated in the upper soil layer and thus easily loosed by ineffective evaporation. In this study, soil column simulation experiments were conducted to observe the effects of diversion holes on soil evaporation and soil water distribution in the loessial soil under two rainfall depths and different soil surface treatments. The soil samples were passed through a 2-mm sieve. The soil filling height and the soil volume was 140 cm and 54,652.17 cm3 in each soil column, respectively. For each treatment, there were three replicates. The results showed that gravel-mulching (GM), straw-mulching (SM), and diversion hole (DH) significantly decreased soil water evaporation compared with non-mulching (CK) under the different rainfall depths (P < 0.05). Under rainfall of 100 mm, the DH, GM, and SM caused an increase in the soil water content (SWC) in the 80–120 cm layer by 101.0%, 23.6%, and 65.5%, respectively. Under rainfall of 30 mm, CK increased SWC in the 0–40 cm layer, both GM and SM increased the SWC in the 0–60 cm layer, and the DH treatment allowed an increase in the 0–120 cm layer. Our results suggest that DH was a better measure to reduce soil evaporation and improve rainfall resource utilization, especially under high rainfall events. Our research provides scientific basis for the technology of soil deep spatiotemporal control and is of great significance to the balance and restoration of the ecological environment in the semi-arid Loess Plateau.Graphical Diversion hole has induced responses on soil water evaporation and distribution under two rainfall intensity
Highlights
IntroductionA series of soil and water conservation engineering measures have been popularized to solve these problems, and fishscale pit is one of the most effective measures among them in semi-arid areas of Loess Plateau (Li et al 2011; Zhang et al 2014; Yu et al 2017)
The effects of diversion hole on limiting soil water evaporation were better than those observed non-mulching, favoring an increase of the deep soil water content
Diversion hole was better than mulching measures for increasing the water content in the deep soil layer
Summary
A series of soil and water conservation engineering measures have been popularized to solve these problems, and fishscale pit is one of the most effective measures among them in semi-arid areas of Loess Plateau (Li et al 2011; Zhang et al 2014; Yu et al 2017). Zhang et al (2016a, b) found that the evaporation has increased considerably over the past 50 years by analyzing meteorological observation data from 1960 to 2010 in Dingxi, a typical semi-arid region of the Loess Plateau. The key to solve the problem of soil and water erosion in the Loess Plateau region is to prevent invalid water evaporation, control rainfall runoff and realize rainfall resource utilization (Hu et al 2014)
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