Effect of soil moisture on soil disintegration characteristics of different weathering profiles of collapsing gully in the hilly granitic region, South China

Dong Xia, Bingqin Zhao, Daxiang Liu, Yusong Deng, Hu Cheng, Yujie Yan, Shuwen Ding and Chongfa Cai

PLOS ONE, 2018, vol. 13, issue 12, 1-19

Abstract: Collapsing gully erosion is the main important and specific soil erosion type in the red soil region of tropical and subtropical South China. Knowledge of the soil disintegration characteristics within different weathering profiles (surface layer, red soil layer, sandy soil layer and detritus layer) and its relationships with soil particle size distribution and soil properties is important in understanding the mechanism of the forming process and development of the collapsing gully. In this paper, we conducted an experiment on four collapsing gullies located four counties (Tongcheng County, Gan County, Anxi County and Wuhua County) in the hilly granitic region of southern China. The anti-disintegration ability of the different weathering profiles with two different moisture conditions (the air-dried condition and the natural state condition) were determined by the anti-disintegration index (Kc) and measured by the submerging test. The results show that the coarse particles are higher in the sandy soil layer and the detritus layer of collapsing gully than that in the surface layer and the red soil layer, but the finer particles show the inversed order. The Kc values reduce significantly from the surface layer to the detritus layer. In the surface layer and the red soil layer, the Kc values in the natural state condition are much higher than that in the air-dried condition. The results highlight that, the sandy soil layer and the detritus layer are easily to disintegrate compare with the surface layer and the red soil layer, and in the case of low soil water content, the soil in any layer of collapsing gully is easy to disintegrate. The regression equation shows a very significant and positive relationship between the Kc values and the

Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0209427

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0209427

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