Variations in runoff and sediment in watersheds in loess regions with different geomorphologies and their response to landscape patterns

In this study, two typical watersheds, i.e., the Dalihe watershed in the loess hilly–gully region of, and the Hailiutuhe watershed in the windy–sandy region of the Wudinghe Basin, were selected as study objects to evaluate the relationship between landscape indices and runoff and sediment, with the long-series data of runoff, sediment, and land use, using the GIS and Fragstats platforms. The results showed that between two watersheds showed that all of the contagion index, Shannon’s diversity index, and patch cohesion index exhibited an ascending trend in the Dalihe watershed, and a descending trend in the Hailiutuhe watershed. In the Dalihe watershed, only Shannon’s diversity index had a very significantly negative correlation with the runoff, whereas in the Hailiutuhe watershed, the contagion index had a significantly negative correlation with the runoff, and all of the Shannon’s diversity index, the Shannon’s evenness index, and the Simpson’s evenness index had a significantly positive correlation with the runoff. In respect of correlation of sediment with landscape pattern, the sediment had a very significantly negative correlation only with Shannon’s diversity index in the Dalihe watershed, whereas in the Hailiutuhe watershed, the sediment had a significantly negative correlation with all of the number of patches, the patch density, and the landscape shape index, and a very significantly positive correlation with the aggregation index. The importance of each landscape index in the regression equation and the positive or negative correlations indicated that erosion in watersheds could be reduced by strengthening the control function of the dominant patch, thoroughly improving the evenness of the landscape patch types, enriching the landscape types, reducing the physical connectivity between patches, and enhancing the degree of aggregation in landscape patches.