Soil and water conservation benefits of two economic forests under different types of rainfall

Abstract

The rapid development of the economy in low mountain regions has resulted in a shortage of land resources and serious reclamation of steep slopes of land, as well as regional soil and water loss. To explore the soil and water loss control mode of economic forest in low mountainous and hilly regions, and provide a reference for the high-quality development of economic forest ecosystem, this study selected two kinds of economic forests to build runoff plots in typical low mountainous and hilly regions of eastern Zhejiang, carried out runoff and soil loss monitoring, and compared and analyzed the differences of soil and water conservation functions under different rainfall conditions by using the benefit analysis method of soil and water conservation. The results showed that the average water conservation benefit of natural Phyllostachys forest was 54% and the average soil conservation benefit was 58%. The average water conservation benefit of natural Myrica rubra forest was 27% and the average soil conservation benefit was 53%. It can be seen that disturbance activities are an important inducement leading to soil and water loss of economic forests in low mountain regions, and reducing unnecessary production disturbance can enhance the function of soil and water conservation of economic forests.