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Soil water depletion depth by planted vegetation on the Loess Plateau

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Abstract

Evapotranspiration of much planted vegetation exceeds precipitation, and this can deplete soil water and cause a deep dry layer in the soil profile, which is a serious obstacle to sustainable land use on the Loess Plateau, China. This study aimed to determine water depletion depth of planted grassland, shrub, and forest in a semiarid area on the Loess Plateau. Soil moisture of five vegetation types was measured to >20 m in depth. The vegetation types were crop, natural grasse, seven-year-old planted alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), 23-year-old planted caragana (Caragana microphylla Lam.) shrub, and 23-year-old planted pine (Pinus tabulaeformis L) forest land. Through comparing moisture of planted alfalfa grass, caragana shrub, and pine forest to crop and natural grassland, the depth and amount of soil water consumed by grassland, caragana brush and pine forest was determined. The depth of soil water depleted by alfalfa, caragana brush, and pine forest reached 15.5, 22.4 and 21.5 m, respectively.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, School of Geography, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    ZhiQiang Wang, BaoYuan Liu, Gang Liu & YongXuan Zhang

Authors
  1. ZhiQiang Wang
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  2. BaoYuan Liu
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  3. Gang Liu
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  4. YongXuan Zhang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to BaoYuan Liu.

Additional information

Supported by National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2007CB407204) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 40471082)

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Wang, Z., Liu, B., Liu, G. et al. Soil water depletion depth by planted vegetation on the Loess Plateau. Sci. China Ser. D-Earth Sci. 52, 835–842 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-009-0087-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-009-0087-y

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