Abstract
Land surface roughness (LSR) has profound effects on hydrological and erosion processes. Vegetation restoration may greatly affect LSR via altering the near-soil surface characteristics and soil erosion intensity and its spatial heterogeneity in arid and semi-arid regions. Nevertheless, little is yet known about the potential effects of plant communities on LSR at steep slopes. Therefore, this study was performed to investigate the variations in LSR under different plant communities and identify the primary influencing factors attribute to these variations on steep gully slopes. LSR was measured by the photogrammetric method in one bare land (as control), two typical shrub communities (Caragana korshinskii and Hippophae rhamnoide), and four typical grass communities (Artemisia sacrorum, Artemisia giraldii, Bothriochloa ischaemum, and Carex lanceolata). The results showed that LSR significantly increased on steep gully slopes after re-vegetated. Compared to control, the relative increases of LSR ranged from 122.3% to 237.1% for different plant communities, which was mainly attributed to the micro-topography induced by the spatial heterogeneity of soil erosion and vegetation jointly. LSR varied greatly between different plant communities. Artemisia sacrorum had the maximum LSR (19.03 mm) and was significantly greater than other five plant communities (p < 0.05). The mean LSR of grass community (15.05 mm) was greater than that of shrub community (13.05 mm), but not significant. The variations in LSR were closely related to the near-soil surface characteristics and soil erosion and its spatial heterogeneity. LSR significantly increased with sand content and soil erosion intensity, while it significantly decreased with clay content and plant canopy and litter coverages. The spatial heterogeneity of soil erosion was the dominant factor controlling LSR between different plant communities on steep slopes. The results of this study improve our understanding of the potential effects of vegetation growth and soil erosion on LSR on steep slopes in arid and semi-arid regions.
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