Soil surface crusts have been extensively studied in arid and semi‐arid regions, but not in the context of engineered urban green infrastructure (GI) systems, especially in temperate environments. Raindrop impulses can break up larger soil aggregates into smaller particles, dispersing them from their original position, and contributing to the formation of a crust at the soil surface. Crusts, in turn, can reduce infiltration and increase both runoff and the soil's susceptibility to erosion. Vegetation canopies can help to mitigate crust formation by dissipating some of the drops' kinetic energy, though the extent of protection provided by the plants has not been studied in GI systems. This paper presents laboratory research conducted using a rainfall simulator to determine the ability of artificial vegetation canopies to minimize soil crust formation, in comparison with a bare soil control. The mechanical resistance of the soil surface to penetration was measured after each of the 22 different simulated rain events. Over the experiment, the percent change in penetration resistance increased by 83.5% and 148%, in vegetated and bare soil control boxes, respectively. The bare soil control box also displayed statistically significant (p < .001) increase in the duration of post‐storm ponding, compared with the control vegetated box, suggesting a reduced infiltration rate. These results suggest that vegetation canopies can play a key role in protecting the soils found in GI systems from raindrop impact.

中文翻译：

---

工程城市绿色基础设施系统中连续降雨事件对植被冠层，入渗和补给之间动态关系的影响

在干旱和半干旱地区，已经对土壤表面结壳进行了广泛研究，但没有在工程化的城市绿色基础设施（GI）系统的背景下进行研究，特别是在温带环境下。雨滴冲动可以将较大的土壤团聚体分解成较小的颗粒，使其从原始位置分散开，并有助于在土壤表面形成结皮。反过来，地壳可以减少渗透，并增加径流和土壤的侵蚀敏感性。植被冠层可以通过消散水滴的动能来帮助减轻结皮的形成，尽管在胃肠道系统中尚未研究过植物提供的保护程度。本文介绍了与裸露土壤控制相比，使用降雨模拟器进行的实验室研究，以确定人造植被冠层将土壤结皮的形成降至最低的能力。在22个不同的模拟降雨事件中的每一个之后，测量土壤表面对渗透的机械阻力。在整个实验过程中，在植被和裸土控制箱中，抗穿透性的百分比变化分别增加了83.5％和148％。裸露的土壤控制框也显示出统计显著性（分别装在无植被和裸土控制箱中。裸露的土壤控制框也显示出统计显著性（分别装在无植被和裸土控制箱中。裸露的土壤控制框也显示出统计显著性（p <.001）与对照植被盒相比，暴风雨后思考的持续时间增加，表明渗透率降低。这些结果表明，植被冠层在保护胃肠道系统中发现的土壤免受雨滴影响方面可以发挥关键作用。