Climate and Environmental Change

Effect of grass coverage on sediment yield in the hillslope-gully side erosion system

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  • 1. Yellow River Institute of Hydraulic Research, Key Lab of Yellow River Sediment Research of Ministry of Water Resources, Zhengzhou 450003, China|
    2. Yangtze River Scientific Research Institute, Wuhan 430010, China

Received date: 2008-06-23

  Revised date: 2008-09-20

  Online published: 2009-06-25

Supported by

National Basic Research Program of China, No.2007CB407201; National Key Technology R&D Program, No.2006BAB06B01-06; Science and Technique Development Foundation of YRIHR, No.200603

Abstract

By scouring experiments, the changeable process and characteristics of sediment yield in the hillslope-gully side erosion system with different coverage degrees and spatial locations of grass were studied. Five grass coverage degrees of 0, 30%, 50%, 70%, 90%, three spatial locations of grass (upslope, mid-slope, low-slope) and two water inflow rates of 3.2 L/min, 5.2 L/min were applied to a 0.5 by 7 m soil bed in scouring experiments. Results showed that the sediment yield decreased with the increase of grass coverage degree at 3.2 L/min water inflow rate in scouring experiments and the sediment yield with different grass locations on the sloping surface was in the order of upper > middle > lower. At 5.2 L/min water inflow rate, the differences of sediment yield among various grass coverage degrees were increased, whereas the changeable tendency of sediment yield with different grass locations on the whole sloping surface was not very obvious. The proportion of sediment yield from the gully side increased in an exponential relationship with the increase of grass coverage degree. When the grass was located on the lower position of hillslope, the influence for accelerating gully erosion is the greatest.

Cite this article

LI Mian, YAO Wenyi, DING Wenfeng, YANG Jianfeng, CHEN Jiangnan . Effect of grass coverage on sediment yield in the hillslope-gully side erosion system[J]. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 2009 , 19(3) : 321 -330 . DOI: 10.1007/s11442-009-0321-8

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