Soil Hydrology Process and Rational Use of Soil Water in Desert Regions

Zhongsheng Guo

doi:10.3390/w13172377

Abstract

There is a balanced plant–water relationship in the original vegetation in the desert area. With the increase in the population and social development of the desert area, people need the goods and services of the forest vegetation ecosystem. To meet the growing demand for plant community goods and services, more original vegetation has been changed into non-native vegetation, such as in the Loess Plateau in China. However, with the plant growth, sometime soil drying happens and becomes gradually serious with time in most desert regions. Serious drying of soil eventually results in soil quality degradation, vegetation decline, and crop failure, which influence the produce and supply of forest vegetation goods and services in the market in dry years or waste of soil water resources in wet years, which wastes precious natural resources. In order to use soil water rationally, soil water must be used in a sustainable way and the plant–water relationship has to be regulated for the Soil Water carrying capacity for vegetation in the key period of plant–water relationship regulation to carry out a sustainable use of natural resources, high-quality sustainable development of forest and grass, and high-quality production of fruit and crops in desert regions.

Highlights

Climate change will decrease precipitation and increase evaporation, causing severe and worldwide drought
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the theory of the ULSWRP and the carrying capacity of soil moisture for vegetation (CCSMV) in order to carry out rational use of soil water resources and promote high-quality and sustainable development of forests, grasslands, and crops in desert regions
To meet the increasing needs of people for special goods and services and the diversity that original vegetation cannot provide, more and more original vegetation has been changed into non-native forestland, grassland, and cropland in moisture-limited regions, which increase canopy interception, soil water use depth, and soil water consumption and change soil hydrological characteristics, but non-native forestland, grassland, and cropland have a lower capacity to regulate the soil water and plant growth relationship, which results in soil degradation, vegetation decline, and crop failure in dry years or the waste of soil water resources in wet years

Summary

Introduction

Climate change will decrease precipitation and increase evaporation, causing severe and worldwide drought. With the increase in population and social development in desert areas, people’s need for forest vegetation ecosystem’s goods and services have changed. To meet the increasing needs of people for some special goods and services and diversity that original vegetation cannot provide, more and more original vegetation has been changed into non-native forest land, grassland, and cropland in water-limited areas such as in the Loess Plateau in China [6]. With the growth of plants, plant canopy closure, and root system development, soil drying appeared and sometimes soil drying becomes gradually serious with time in most forest land, grassland, and cropland in desert regions such as in China’s Loess Plateau because these desert regions feature low and highly variable seasonal and annual rainfall without irrigation. The goal of afforestation is to increase vegetation cover while increasing canopy interception, soil water consumption, yield and services of plant community systems, and changing soil hydrological characteristics such as runoff, soil water consumption, and deep leakage

Objectives

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Results

Conclusion