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Spatiotemporal characteristics of soil erosion in a typical watershed consisting of different landscape: A case study of the Qin River Basin

PLoS One. 2022 Oct 3;17(10):e0275470. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0275470. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Soil erosion has a severe impact on habitat and productivity. It is considered to be a major environmental threat prevalent in ecosystems. However, few researchers have studied the spatial distribution of soil erosion intensity among different geographic environmental factors. The Qin River Basin is a geographical unit consisting of mountains, hills, and plains with significant regional characteristics, and it has a basin area of 14,810.91 km2. This study uses the Geographical Information Systems, Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation model to analyze the spatiotemporal changes in the soil-erosion intensity in the Qin River Basin from 1990 to 2018. Different environmental factors of land use, slope and altitude on erosion intensities of 19 secondary land types were analyzed. It can better reflect the soil erosion under different environmental factors and different land use types. Results show that the soil erosion modulus of Qin River Basin were 10.25 t hm-2 a-1, and it belong to slight erosion from 1990 to 2018. Soil erosion intensity is greater in grassland and woodland than in cropland. The strongest soil erosion occurred in the sparse forestland, and the lowest was in beach land. Soil erosion was the highest for a slope of 15~25° and an altitude of 1200~1500 m. Rainfall and slope are important factors lead to soil erosion, indicating weak water and soil conservation implemented in these areas. Therefore, priority should be given to these geomorphic units to formulate and implement soil-erosion control and ecological restoration policies in the Qin River Basin. This study provides a good reference for preventing and controlling soil erosion in river basins.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • China
  • Conservation of Natural Resources
  • Ecosystem
  • Environmental Monitoring / methods
  • Rivers*
  • Soil
  • Soil Erosion*
  • Water

Substances

  • Soil
  • Water

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 41601175, 41801362), the Young Backbone Teachers Foundation from Henan Province (grant number 2018GGJS019, 2020GGJS114), the Program for Innovative Research Talent in University of Henan Province (grant number 20HASTIT017), 2021 Project of Henan Soft Science Funds (grant number 212400410250), 2020 Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project of Henan Province(grant number 2020BJJ020) all awarded to PZ. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.