A reliable correlation between crop yields and soil erosion is critical for the assessment of soil loss tolerance and loss of future food production in eroded farmlands. However, the heterogeneity between experiments in terms of soil properties, crop types, and farming management makes it difficult to compare and extrapolate results from different studies. This study is the first to compile data from 290 observations of crop yields from topsoil removal experiments worldwide, to conduct a hierarchical mixed-effects meta-analysis to quantify the relationship between erosion depth and crop yields, and to explore the influence of grain types and agricultural management measures. We found that crop yields did not decrease significantly when the remaining A horizon depth was greater than 25 cm or when the erosion depth was less than 5 cm. This provided evidence that a remaining A horizon depth of 25 cm may be a threshold for sustainable soil productivity in eroded soils and that the widely accepted linear equation does not describe the relationships of crop yield and soil erosion well. We also found that the sensitivity of crop yield to erosion varied with crop type, with decreasing sensitivity from soybean to maize and then to wheat. When the erosion depth was greater than 20 cm, crop yields cannot be restored to their pre-erosion levels, although conventional fertilization and irrigation increase crop yields on eroded soil. These findings are useful for better assessing soil erosion tolerance, selecting effective soil erosion control strategies, and quantitatively evaluating the impact of soil erosion on global food production.

作物产量与土壤侵蚀之间的可靠相关性对于评估侵蚀农田的土壤流失耐受性和未来粮食生产的损失至关重要。然而，实验之间在土壤特性、作物类型和农业管理方面的异质性使得很难比较和推断不同研究的结果。本研究首次收集了全球 290 次表土清除实验作物产量的观测数据，进行分层混合效应荟萃分析以量化侵蚀深度与作物产量之间的关系，并探讨谷物类型和作物产量的影响。农业管理措施。我们发现当剩余 A 层深度大于 25 cm 或侵蚀深度小于 5 cm 时，作物产量没有显着下降。这提供了证据表明，剩余的 25 厘米 A 层深度可能是侵蚀土壤中可持续土壤生产力的阈值，并且广泛接受的线性方程并没有很好地描述作物产量和土壤侵蚀的关系。我们还发现作物产量对侵蚀的敏感性因作物类型而异，从大豆到玉米，然后到小麦，敏感性降低。当侵蚀深度大于 20 cm 时，作物产量无法恢复到侵蚀前的水平，尽管常规施肥和灌溉可以增加侵蚀土壤上的作物产量。这些发现有助于更好地评估土壤侵蚀耐受性、选择有效的土壤侵蚀控制策略以及定量评估土壤侵蚀对全球粮食生产的影响。