Soil Anti-Scourabilities of Four Typical Herbaceous Plants and Their Responses to Soil Properties, Root Traits and Slope Position in Northeast China

Xueshan Wang, Mingming Guo, Jielin Liu (), Xiaolei Kong, Daqing Peng and Qiang Zhang
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Xueshan Wang: Department of Herbage Breeding, Prataculture Research Institute, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150081, China
Mingming Guo: Key Laboratory of Mollisols Agroecology, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Harbin 150081, China
Jielin Liu: Department of Herbage Breeding, Prataculture Research Institute, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150081, China
Xiaolei Kong: Department of Herbage Breeding, Prataculture Research Institute, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150081, China
Daqing Peng: Department of Herbage Breeding, Prataculture Research Institute, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150081, China
Qiang Zhang: Department of Herbage Breeding, Prataculture Research Institute, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150081, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 24, 1-13

Abstract: Vegetation has been proven to be an effective measure to mitigate soil erosion in most regions and climates. However, it is not clear how some herbaceous plants affect the ability of soil to resist slope flow erosion in the Mollisol region of Northeast China. In this study, four herbaceous plant plots of 50 m × 4.5 m, including Zea mays L., Sorghum bicolor × Sudanense , Avena sativa L. and Lolium multiflorum Lam., were established in a sloping land with an abandoned land as the control to detect the effect of herbaceous plants on soil anti-scourability (ANS). A hydraulic flume experiment was carried out to determine the soil ANS, and the root traits and soil properties were also measured at different slope positions. The results showed that the mean soil ANS ranged from 17.55 to 94.77 L g −1 among different herbaceous plants, of which the Lolium multiflorum Lam. showed the strongest controlling effect on soil ANS (259.87%), followed by Sorghum bicolor × Sudanense (66.87%) and Avena sativa L. (18.12%), while the soil ANS of Zea mays L. decreased by 33.37% compared with the control. Soil ANS varied with slope position, and the mean soil ANS at the upslope was 116.50–134.21% higher than that of the middle slope and downslope. Additionally, soil ANS was positively related to root mass density (RMD), root length density (RLD), root surface area density (RSAD), soil total porosity and field capacity but was negatively related to soil bulk density ( p < 0.05). Furthermore, the Lolium multiflorum Lam. exhibited better root distribution (i.e., high RSAD, RLD, RMD, and low root diameter) and soil physical structure (i.e., high soil porosity structure, water-holding capacity and low bulk density) than other plant species. Thus, the Lolium multiflorum Lam. is beneficial for enhancing soil erosion resistance to overland flow, especially at the up and middle slopes, and it could be preferred to control sloped soil erosion in Northeast China.

Keywords: slope erosion; soil anti-scourability; herbaceous plants; root traits; mollisols (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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