ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Sustainable and Intelligent Phytoprotection
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1629542
Quantifying the Impacts of Diverse Vegetation-covered Patterns on Hillslopes Soil Erosion: A Case Experiment of Alfalfa-covered Hillslopes
Provisionally accepted
- 1Xinyang Normal University, Xinyang, China
- 2Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China
- 3China railway siyuan survey and design group CO., LTD,, Wuhan, China
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The discrepancies in near soil surface hydrologic processes triggered by herbage spatial distribution pattern greatly influence variation in hillslopes erosion process. However, the knowledge about the influence of herbage spatial distribution pattern on hillslopes erosion is still limited. In current study, the runoff plots (length × width × depth, 2× 1 × 0.5 m) with slope gradient of 8.75~36.40% and a side-spray rainfall simulator with rainfall intensity of 90 mm h -1 were adopted to rainfall simulation.Four herbage spatial distribution patterns with vegetation coverage of 50% (US, upper hillslopes; MS, middle hillslopes; LS, downstream hillslopes; and SS, equally spaced planting) and bare soil (CK) were arranged to quantify the response of hillslopes erosion process to alfalfa spatial distribution pattern. The results indicated that the initial runoff generation time followed the order of CK, US, MS, LS, and SS. Compared to CK, the mean runoff rate and sediment yield rate for alfalfa-covered hillslopes decreased by 7.18% to 83.77% and 12.62% to 85.69%, and sediment concentration decreased by 0.26 to 2.22 g L -1 . The sediment reduction benefits (SRB) and runoff reduction benefits (RRB) followed the order of SS, LS, MS, and US. The average infiltration rates for CK and alfalfacovered hillslopes with slope gradient of 8.75%~36.40% were 0.17 to 0.50 and 0.28 to 1.35 mm m⁻² min⁻¹, respectively. As the results of shielding and protection effect of alfalfa, initial runoff generation time was delayed, infiltration rates was enhanced, and runoff and sediment yield rates were reduced, thus soil loss was lowed on alfalfa-covered hillslopes. The research provided scientific reference for understanding the anti-erosion of herbage spatial distribution pattern and theoretical guidance for formulating soil and water conservation planning.
Keywords: Soil erosion, Alfalfa-cover hillslopes, Rinafall simulation, RRB and SRB, The Loess Plateau
Received: 16 May 2025; Accepted: 28 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yao, Zhang, Chen, Zhang, Zhu, Gu, Yan and Wu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Chong Yao, Xinyang Normal University, Xinyang, China
Faqi Wu, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China
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