Globally, the hillslope currently supporting sugarcane production is accelerating soil erosion and nutrient losses that degrade agroecosystem services and increase water pollution. However, sugarcane planting patterns (SPP), involving the arrangement of perennial (P) and newly planted (N_P) sugarcane along hillslopes, may influence hillslope erosion and nutrient losses due to changes in root density and litter cover. Yet, no study to date has investigated the contribution of SPP to rill/and ephemeral gully (EG) erosion and associated nutrient losses. Thus, we investigated changes in EG erosion and losses of total nitrogen (TN), phosphorus (TP) and soil organic carbon (SOC) in response to SPP and the underlying mechanisms on hillslopes. Five hillslopes with different SPPs (P–P–P, N_P–P–P, P–N_P–P, N_P–N_P–P and P–N_P) were identified in a sugarcane growing watershed. Annual EG erosion rates ranged from 56.6–96.1 Mg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ in the order of P–P–P < P–N_P–P < P–N_P < N_P–P–P < N_P–N_P–P. The average EG erosion and associated TN, TP and SOC losses from the newly planted sugarcane fields were 2–3-fold of the perennial fields. The average annual yield of newly planted sugarcane was 10 % higher than the perennial sugarcane, but the increased yield benefit was dwarfed by significant increase in EG erosion and nutrient losses. Simple regression analyses indicated that EG erosion was inversely correlated with sugarcane litter cover and fine root density (root diam. < 1 and 1–2 mm), but positively correlated with slope-length factor. The principal component regression (PCR) showed that fine root density, litter cover, and slope-length were the main predictors for EG erosion. The results of this study revealed that appropriate SPP that replaces perennial sugarcane, at ≤30 % on different slope positions, with newly planted sugarcane, could minimize rill and EG erosion and nutrient losses as well as maintaining the annual yield.

在全球范围内，目前支持甘蔗生产的山坡正在加速土壤侵蚀和养分流失，从而降低了农业生态系统的服务水平并增加了水污染。然而，甘蔗种植方式（SPP），包括多年生（P）和新种植（N _P）甘蔗沿山坡的布置，可能会由于根系密度和凋落物覆盖率的变化而影响山坡侵蚀和养分流失。然而，迄今为止，尚无研究调查SPP对小溪/临时沟渠（EG）侵蚀和相关养分流失的贡献。因此，我们研究了响应于SPP的EG侵蚀和总氮（TN），磷（TP）和土壤有机碳（SOC）损失的变化以及山坡的潜在机制。五个山坡具有不同的SPP（P-P-P，N _P–P–P，P–N _P –P，N _P –N _P –P和P–N _P）在一个甘蔗生长流域中被确定。每年的EG侵蚀率范围为56.6–96.1 Mg ha - ¹年^-1，范围为P–P–P <P–N _P –P <P–N _P <N _P –P–P <N _P –N _P–P。新种植甘蔗田的平均EG侵蚀和相关的TN，TP和SOC损失是多年生田的2-3倍。新种植的甘蔗的年平均产量比多年生甘蔗高出10％，但由于EG侵蚀和养分流失的显着增加，单产增加的收益却相形见war。简单的回归分析表明，EG侵蚀与甘蔗垫层覆盖和良好的根系密度（根直径<1和1-2 mm）呈负相关，而与坡长因子呈正相关。主成分回归（PCR）表明，良好的根系密度，凋落物覆盖率和坡度是EG侵蚀的主要预测因子。这项研究的结果表明，适当的SPP可以替代新种植的甘蔗，在不同的坡度位置上，多年生甘蔗在不同的坡度位置上的替代率≤30％，