Variability in Soil Hydraulic Conductivity and Soil Hydrological Response Under Different Land Covers in the Mountainous Area of the Heihe River Watershed, Northwest China

Understanding the variability in soil hydraulic conductivity in the mountainous headwaters is critical to the modeling of mountainous runoff and the water resources management of river basins, especially in the arid and semiarid areas. In this study, a total of 32 soil profiles with five layers within 0–70 cm were sampled under different land cover types: forest, meadow, high coverage grassland (HCG), medium coverage grassland (MCG), and barren land in the upper stream of the Heihe river watershed, Northwest China. Saturated hydraulic conductivity (KS) was measured for each sample. The vertical variation of KS and soil hydrological response under different land covers were analyzed. Results show that KS value in layer 5 was significantly lower than the values of above four layers. KS decreased in the order of forest, meadow, HCG, MCG, and barren land, corresponding to the degree of vegetation degradation. The KS decreased with depth under forest, HCG, and barren land, but increased first and then decreased under meadow and MCG. The dominant stormflow paths for different land covers were different: forest was dominated by deep percolation, HCG was dominated by subsurface flow (SSF), meadow was prevailed by Hortonian overland flow and had no SSF, while MCG and barren land were also dominated by Hortonian overland flow, but still formed SSF. This result provides important information for improving the accuracy of mountainous hydrological modeling and, in turn, leading to sustainable management of water resources in the study watershed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[1]  Hongsong Chen,et al.  Hydraulic properties of karst fractures filled with soils and regolith materials: Implication for their ecohydrological functions , 2016 .

[2]  Youzhi An,et al.  Vegetation greenness response to water availability in northern China from 1982 to 2006 , 2016 .

[3]  H. Khosravi,et al.  Desertification of forest, range and desert in Tehran province, affected by climate change , 2016 .

[4]  Jie Tian,et al.  Comparison of SWAT and DLBRM for Hydrological Modeling of a Mountainous Watershed in Arid Northwest China , 2016 .

[5]  Shulan Zhang,et al.  The Effects of Long‐term Fertiliser Applications on Soil Organic Carbon and Hydraulic Properties of a Loess Soil in China , 2016 .

[6]  Chansheng He,et al.  Modelling the impacts of spatial heterogeneity in soil hydraulic properties on hydrological process in the upper reach of the Heihe River in the Qilian Mountains, Northwest China , 2015 .

[7]  H. McMillan,et al.  Characteristics and controls of variability in soil moisture and groundwater in a headwater catchment , 2015 .

[8]  H. Franssen,et al.  Soil hydrology: Recent methodological advances, challenges, and perspectives , 2015 .

[9]  Hong Yang,et al.  Economic Impacts of Total Water Use Control in the Heihe River Basin in Northwestern China—An Integrated CGE-BEM Modeling Approach , 2015 .

[10]  Hongsong Chen,et al.  Vertical distribution of soil saturated hydraulic conductivity and its influencing factors in a small karst catchment in Southwest China , 2015, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.

[11]  N. Persaud,et al.  Soil Quality Indicators in Relation to Land Use and Topography in a Small Catchment on the Loess Plateau of China , 2015 .

[12]  A. Ilek,et al.  A laboratory method to determine the hydraulic conductivity of mountain forest soils using undisturbed soil samples , 2014 .

[13]  H. McMillan,et al.  Controls and characteristics of variability in soil moisture and groundwater in a headwater catchment , 2014 .

[14]  M. Zimmermann,et al.  Vertical variations of soil hydraulic properties within two soil profiles and its relevance for soil water simulations , 2014 .

[15]  M. Strack,et al.  Saturated hydraulic conductivity in Sphagnum‐dominated peatlands: do microforms matter? , 2014 .

[16]  J. McDonnell,et al.  Debates—The future of hydrological sciences: A (common) path forward? A call to action aimed at understanding velocities, celerities and residence time distributions of the headwater hydrograph , 2014 .

[17]  D. Leitner,et al.  Root induced changes of effective 1D hydraulic properties in a soil column , 2014, Plant and Soil.

[18]  L. Junfeng,et al.  Field Experimental Research on Hydrological Function over Several Typical Underlying Surfaces in the Cold Regions of Western China , 2014 .

[19]  M. Bonell,et al.  The effects of sustained forest use on hillslope soil hydraulic conductivity in the Middle Mountains of Central Nepal , 2014 .

[20]  M. Shenker,et al.  Effects of land use on structure and hydraulic properties of Vertisols containing a sodic horizon in northern Ethiopia , 2014 .

[21]  Pute Wu,et al.  EFFECTS OF LAND USE ON SOIL MOISTURE VARIATIONS IN A SEMI‐ARID CATCHMENT: IMPLICATIONS FOR LAND AND AGRICULTURAL WATER MANAGEMENT , 2014 .

[22]  Pute Wu,et al.  Changes of soil hydraulic properties under early-stage natural vegetation recovering on the Loess Plateau of China , 2014 .

[23]  Zhenliang Yin,et al.  Simulation of hydrological processes of mountainous watersheds in inland river basins: taking the Heihe Mainstream River as an example , 2014, Journal of Arid Land.

[24]  J. Moeys,et al.  Influence of soil, land use and climatic factors on the hydraulic conductivity of soil , 2013 .

[25]  M. Bonell,et al.  Reforesting severely degraded grassland in the Lesser Himalaya of Nepal: Effects on soil hydraulic conductivity and overland flow production , 2013 .

[26]  M. Bonell,et al.  Soil characteristics and landcover relationships on soil hydraulic conductivity at a hillslope scale: a view towards local flood management , 2013 .

[27]  S. Yao,et al.  Saturated hydraulic conductivity of soils in the Horqin Sand Land of Inner Mongolia, northern China , 2013, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.

[28]  Robert Horton,et al.  Regional-scale variation and distribution patterns of soil saturated hydraulic conductivities in surface and subsurface layers in the loessial soils of China , 2013 .

[29]  F. Qi,et al.  Ecohydrological Transect Survey of Heihe River Basin , 2013 .

[30]  Mingan Shao,et al.  Vertical distribution and influencing factors of soil water content within 21-m profile on the Chinese Loess Plateau , 2013 .

[31]  Fan Zhang,et al.  Impact of alpine meadow degradation on soil hydraulic properties over the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau , 2013 .

[32]  Lawrence E. Band,et al.  Ecosystem processes at the watershed scale: Hydrologic vegetation gradient as an indicator for lateral hydrologic connectivity of headwater catchments , 2012 .

[33]  Luca Brocca,et al.  Catchment scale soil moisture spatial–temporal variability , 2012 .

[34]  Hu Liu,et al.  Effect of forest on annual water yield in the mountains of an arid inland river basin: a case study in the Pailugou catchment on northwestern China's Qilian Mountains , 2012 .

[35]  Mingan Shao,et al.  Pedotransfer Functions for Predicting Soil Hydraulic Properties of the Chinese Loess Plateau , 2012 .

[36]  W. Wagner,et al.  Soil moisture estimation through ASCAT and AMSR-E sensors: An intercomparison and validation study across Europe , 2011 .

[37]  Willis Gwenzi,et al.  Field-scale spatial variability of saturated hydraulic conductivity on a recently constructed artificial ecosystem , 2011 .

[38]  Tomáš Orfánus,et al.  Evaluation method dependency of measured saturated hydraulic conductivity , 2011 .

[39]  M. Bonell,et al.  The Impact of forest use and reforestation on soil hydraulic conductivity in the Western Ghats of India: Implications for surface and sub-surface hydrology , 2010 .

[40]  M. Bierkens,et al.  Climate Change Will Affect the Asian Water Towers , 2010, Science.

[41]  Katie Price,et al.  Variation of Surficial Soil Hydraulic Properties Across Land Uses in the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains , 2010 .

[42]  A. Giménez-Morera,et al.  The impact of cotton geotextiles on soil and water losses from Mediterranean rainfed agricultural land , 2010 .

[43]  Zongxue Xu,et al.  Parameter estimation and uncertainty analysis of SWAT model in upper reaches of the Heihe river basin , 2009 .

[44]  Xi Chen,et al.  The impact of land use and land cover changes on soil moisture and hydraulic conductivity along the karst hillslopes of southwest China , 2009 .

[45]  H. Elsenbeer,et al.  The near-surface hydrological consequences of disturbance and recovery: A simulation study , 2009 .

[46]  J. Benjamin,et al.  Organic Carbon Effects on Soil Physical and Hydraulic Properties in a Semiarid Climate , 2008 .

[47]  H. Bormann,et al.  Seasonal and land use dependent variability of soil hydraulic and soil hydrological properties of two Northern German soils , 2008 .

[48]  V. Zlotnik,et al.  Spatial trends in saturated hydraulic conductivity of vegetated dunes in the Nebraska Sand Hills: Effects of depth and topography , 2008 .

[49]  Li Ren,et al.  Assessing the Size Dependency of Measured Hydraulic Conductivity Using Double-Ring Infiltrometers and Numerical Simulation , 2007 .

[50]  D. Murdiyarso,et al.  The effect of afforestation on water infiltration in the tropics: A systematic review and meta-analysis , 2007 .

[51]  Thomas E. Croley,et al.  Application of a distributed large basin runoff model in the Great Lakes basin , 2007 .

[52]  Huiyan Cheng,et al.  Influences of alpine ecosystem responses to climatic change on soil properties on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China , 2007 .

[53]  M. Meybeck,et al.  Mountains of the world, water towers for humanity: Typology, mapping, and global significance , 2007 .

[54]  H. Elsenbeer,et al.  The influence of land-use changes on soil hydraulic properties: Implications for runoff generation , 2006 .

[55]  Jean Poesen,et al.  Impact of plant roots on the resistance of soils to erosion by water: a review , 2005 .

[56]  Y. Coquet,et al.  Vertical variation of near-saturated hydraulic conductivity in three soil profiles , 2005 .

[57]  E. E. Alberts,et al.  Soil Hydraulic Properties Influenced by Stiff‐Stemmed Grass Hedge Systems , 2004 .

[58]  R. Ibbitt,et al.  Re-scaling the topographic index to improve the representation of physical processes in catchment models , 2004 .

[59]  Felix Naef,et al.  A decision scheme to indicate dominant hydrological flow processes on temperate grassland , 2003 .

[60]  F. Ghidey,et al.  Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity and Its Impact on Simulated Runoff for Claypan Soils , 2002 .

[61]  H. Elsenbeer,et al.  The soil hydrologic response to forest regrowth: a case study from southwestern Amazonia , 2002 .

[62]  Demetris Koutsoyiannis,et al.  A mathematical framework for studying rainfall intensity-duration-frequency relationships , 1998 .

[63]  L. Wilding,et al.  Spatial variability: its documentation, accommodation and implication to soil surveys , 1985 .

[64]  F. E. Grubbs.  Sample Criteria for Testing Outlying Observations , 1950 .

[65]  R. Horton.  The Rôle of infiltration in the hydrologic cycle , 1933 .

[66]  WU Zheng-l.  Change of Vegetation Coverage in the Qilian Mountains in Recent 10 Years , 2014 .

[67]  Hu Liu,et al.  Self-organized vegetation patterning effects on surface soil hydraulic conductivity: A case study in the Qilian Mountains, China , 2013 .

[68]  Hao Zhen-chu.  Land Use and Land Cover Change Analysis in the Upper Reaches of the Heihe River , 2013 .

[69]  Zhao Chuan-yan.  Annual base flow change and its causes in the upper reaches of Heihe River , 2011 .

[70]  Dang Suzhen.  Baseflow Separation and Its Characteristics in the Upper Reaches of the Heihe River Basin , 2011 .

[71]  Thomas,et al.  Hydrologic modeling of the Heihe watershed by DLBRM in Northwest China , 2009 .

[72]  H. Lin.  Earth ’ s Critical Zone and hydropedology : concepts , characteristics , and advances , 2009 .

[73]  D. Viviroli,et al.  Mountains of the World - Water Towers for the 21st Century , 2009 .

[74]  D. Chakraborty,et al.  Spatial variability of soil properties and its application in predicting surface map of hydraulic parameters in an agricultural farm , 2008 .

[75]  Wang Junbo,et al.  Comparison of lake sediment grain size results measured by two laser diffraction particle size analyzers , 2007 .

[76]  M. Shao,et al.  Change of soil physical properties under long-term natural vegetation restoration in the Loess Plateau of China , 2006 .

[77]  Che Ren-sheng.  A Distributed Water-Heat Coupled (DWHC) Model for Mountainous Watershed of An Inland River Basin(II): Model Results Using the Measured Data at the Meteorological & Hydrological Stations , 2006 .

[78]  Hubert H. G. Savenije,et al.  Water demand management: A case study of the Heihe River Basin in China , 2005 .

[79]  M. Lado,et al.  Organic Matter and Aggregate-Size Interactions in Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity , 2004 .

[80]  C. Ren.  A DISTRIBUTED DAILY RUNOFF MODEL OF INLAND RIVER MOUNTAINOUS BASIN , 2003 .

[81]  Wen Ya.  The Climate Features and Regionalization of Vertical Climatic Zones in the Northern Slope of Qilian Mountains , 2001 .

[82]  L. Pfister,et al.  Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Assessing Winter Storm Flow Generation by Means of Permeability of the Lithology and Dominating Runoff Production Processes , 2022 .