Combined role of ground cover management in altering orchard surface‒subsurface erosion and associated carbon-nitrogen-phosphorus loss.

The combined role of ground cover management in controlling soil erosion and nutrient loss from new orchards is still less understood. In this study, four ground cover management practices, orchard with grass cover (OG), orchard with interplant cover (OI), orchard with straw cover (OS), and orchard with bare ground (OB), were designed to identify their impacts on soil erosion and associated carbon-nitrogen-phosphorus loss in new orchards by rainfall simulation tests with rainfall intensities of 60, 90, and 120 mm h-1 and 90 min rainfall duration. The results showed that OS had the lowest surface flow coefficient (6.6%) and highest subsurface flow coefficient (32.5%). The highest soil loss rate occurred in the OB plot (65.4 g m-2 min-1), and the lowest soil loss rate occurred in the OS plot (0.5 g m-2 min-1). OS plot showed better effectiveness in improving soil erosion. However, the increased infiltration capacity was facilitated in terms of causing non-point source pollution. The C-N-P ratios of surface flow in different cover measures (OB, OI, OG, and OS) were 1.4:1.2:0.9:1, 1.8:1.7:1.2:1, and 2.3:1.9:1.2:1, respectively. The ratios of sediment in different cover measures were 7.3:9:2.3:1, 2:1.5:1.2:1, and 1.2:1:0.8:0.7, respectively. Cover management plots play an active role in reducing nutrient loss in surface flow and sediment, but the increased infiltration in covered management plots is associated with the risk of groundwater contamination in subsurface flow. The C-N-P ratios of subsurface flow in OB and covered managed plots (OI, OG, and OS) were 1:3.3:1.6:2.7, 1:1.5:2.2:2.4 and 1:1.2:1.5:1.3, respectively. Therefore, when managing the phenomenon of soil erosion through ground cover measures, attention should also be focused on the function of cover measures in regulating non-point source pollution underground, such as subsurface flow. This research recommends a combination of cover management measures to further mitigate erosion and the risk of groundwater contamination.

Vegetation Dynamics and Food Security against the Background of Ecological Restoration in Hubei Province, China.

A series of ecological restoration projects have been proposed to solve ecological problems resulting from human activities. The project of returning farmlands to forests, initiated in 1999, was the most widely implemented ecological restoration project in China. Large amounts of cropland with steep slopes have been converted to forests or grasslands to promote vegetation restoration, reduce soil erosion, and control nonpoint source pollution. Therefore, identifying the dynamics of vegetation and food security is crucial for further decision making. Based on the mean normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and grain yield data, this study explored the vegetation dynamics and food security of Hubei Province against the background of ecological restoration. The results show that, on a whole, the NDVI significantly increased from 2000 to 2018. The spatial agglomeration of the NDVI decreased between 2000 and 2008 and then increased from 2009 onwards. High-high NDVI agglomerations were more concentrated in mountainous areas. Food security was not threatened, and the grain yield in Hubei Province and most of the cities exhibited significant upward trends, as a whole. The change trend of the grain yield was not stable during the period from 2000 to 2018. The grain yield for Hubei Province and almost all of the cities decreased during the first 5 to 11 years, probably due to the sharp decrease in the sloping cropland areas against the background of ecological restoration. Grain yield was more sensitive and had a longer downward trend in regions with steeper slopes. Increasing trends in grain yield were detected during the last 6 to 10 years for most of the cities, and this can mainly be attributed to the newly added croplands that were created from land with other kinds of land uses, the increase in grain productivity, and strict cropland protection policies. The project of returning farmlands to forests is suggested as a long-term policy from the perspective of ecological restoration, and effective measures should also be continuously taken to maintain grain production and food security.

[Spatial heterogeneity of soil moisture and its relationships with environmental factors at small catchment level].

Taking the Wulongchi catchment of Danjiangkou in central China as a case, the soil moisture regime in the observation period from April to October, 2008 was divided into different dry-wet time periods by two way indicator species analysis (TWINSPAN), and the environmental factors that had significant effects on the spatial pattern of soil moisture in different dry-wet time periods were selected by forward selection and Monte Carlo tests. The redundancy analysis (RDA) was adopted to identify the relationships between the distribution pattern of soil moisture and the environmental factors in different time periods, and the partial RDA was applied to quantitatively analyze the effects of environmental factors, spatial variables, and their interactions on the variation pattern of the soil moisture. The soil moisture regime in the observation period was divided into 7 types, and grouped into 4 time periods, i. e. , dry, semi-arid, semi-humid, and humid. In dry period, land use type was the dominant factor affecting the spatial pattern of soil moisture, and the soil thickness, relative elevation, profile curvature, soil bulk density, and soil organic matter content also had significant effects. In semi-arid period, soil thickness played dominant role, and land use type, topographic wetness index, soil bulk density, and profile curvature had significant effects. In semi-humid period, topographic wetness index was the most important affecting factor, and the land use type and the sine value of aspect played significant roles. In humid period, the topographic compound index and the sine value of aspect were the dominant factors, whereas the relative elevation and catchment area were the important factors. In the four time periods, there was a better consistency between the spatial distribution pattern of soil moisture and the environmental ecological gradient. From dry period to humid period, the independent effects of environmental factors on soil moisture pattern decreased but were still in dominant, the independent effects of spatial location had less change and maintained at lower level, while the interactions between environmental factors and spatial location contributed more and more.