Spatial Variation of Soil Organic Matter in Gully Bed with the Seabuckthorn Flexible Dam: A Case Study of EG1 in Zhun-Ge-Er County of Inner Mongolia, China

Abstract

In this paper, based on geostatistics and GIS techniques, spatial variation characteristics of soil organic matter (acronym: SOM) on a small scale were analyzed and discussed in east-one-branch gully (EG1) bed with the seabuckthorn flexible dam and the contrastive gully bed (which is non-vegetated any vegetation) located in zhun-ge-er county, Erdos, inner Mongolia, which belongs to the typical Pisha Sandstone area. The results show that the seabuckthorn can significantly increase SOM in the small catchment gully bed in the Pisha sandstone area, and the mean SOM content in gully bed with the seabuckthorn flexible dam is approximate 1.75 times that in the contrastive gully. Apparent spatial variation characteristics of SOM were found in the gully with the seabuckthorn flexible dam and the contrastive gully bed, moreover, the medium spatial autocorrelation of SOM was detected in gully bed with the seabuckthorn flexible dam, and the spatial variation of SOM was together led to by the structural and random variation at 1-6.5 m range, and of which the random variation accounts for 40%. Additional, the spatial autocorrelation of SOM in the contrastive gully bed is higher, the spatial variation of SOM was dominantly brought about by the structural variation at 1-4.5 m range, and of which the random variation accounts for 37%. Furthermore, the fractal dimension values reveal that dependence of SOM of the gully bed with the seabuckthorn flexible dam on spatial is weaker than that of the contrastive gully bed. It is judged that the seabuckthorn has an obvious effect on spatial distribution patterns and heterogeneity of SOM on a small scale.