Abstract
Permanent gullies are a serious type of soil erosion. A special type of permanent gully, called “Benggang” severly affects agricultural production in hilly areas. To reveal the influence of Benggang erosion on granitic soil restoration and fertility, we selected three stages (active, semi-stable and stable) of Benggang recovery in the subtropical granite hilly region, and corresponding soil samples were collected to analyze the spatial variation in the soil physical and chemical qualities in the early stage of recovery. The soil physical properties and nutrients were significantly different in the runoff direction of each Benggang gully. There were significant differences in soil chemical properties and no obvious differences in physical properties among the different Benggang recovery stages. The results of principal component analysis showed that the level of soil fertility in the different Benggang recovery stages, ranked from high to low, was as follows: stable, semi-stable and active. Benggang vegetation restoration was an important factor for soil fertility restoration. Benggang ecological restoration can significantly improve the physicochemical properties and fertility of the soil. However, the soil fertility in gully erosion areas in this study still needs to be improved.
Highlights
Soil degradation is a major threat to agricultural sustainability and has seriously threatened food security, biodiversity, water resource safety, and the human living environment in China [1,2]
The coefficients of variation of saturated hydraulic conductivity, cation exchange capacity and available potassium were greater than 50%, and their coefficients of variation varied and fluctuated greatly in space
The results showed that the comprehensive score of each part in each stage of Benggang restoration increased with the development of Benggang restoration, especially in the upper catchment, and the values of the scour channel and alluvial fan increased significantly, which indicated that the Benggang restoration was helpful to the improvement of soil fertility and the productivity of land
Summary
Soil degradation is a major threat to agricultural sustainability and has seriously threatened food security, biodiversity, water resource safety, and the human living environment in China [1,2]. Improving the productive capacity of degraded soil is important for sustainable agriculture. Permanent gullies are defined as deep channels that cannot be ameliorated by normal tillage operations. They are landform created through incision into alluvial or colluvial deposits caused by overland or subsurface flows; these features are generally formed by a combination of the effects of intense runoff and gravity [11,12]
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