Overland flow pathways probably play a key role in linking vegetation to its effects on runoff generation and soil loss on the hillslope. However, there is little empirical work testing the links. This study aims to address how flow pathway characteristics vary with plant spacing and determine their relationships with infiltration and soil loss. Upslope inflow experiments were carried out on 10 vegetated

Runoff farming is a key hydro-agricultural strategy that has proven efficient in arid areas. Research in Arabia on the function, development, maintenance, durability and abandonment of this technology is scarce. A multiproxy investigation (cartography, sedimentology, pedology, geochemistry, paleo-ecology and chronology) was conducted on a recently abandoned terraced area in Rustaq, Northern Oman. The

The Central Plains of China witnessed a crucial cultural transformation towards the end of the Longshan period from a chiefdom-like society to a state-level society that has been speculated to be associated with regionally favorable environmental conditions. However, this speculation has not yet been substantiated. We first compiled the information on human migrations and extreme floods during the

In order to examine direct interactions of mosses and rocks before soil formation, boundary portions between a moss species (Homomallium japonica-adnatum) and a limestone have been measured by visible, Raman and infrared (IR) micro-spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDS), Field Emission (FE) SEM with EDS and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Bacterial

The headstream area is an important channel segment for investigating the self-organization mechanism of a stream channel or the occurrence characteristics of stream bed morphology owing to its sediment source and low anthropogenic impact such as that from check dams or channel modifications. However, less work has been conducted on the transition of stream bed morphology in channels with very high

Saturated soil hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) and the soil water characteristic curve have been predicted from soil texture, bulk density, and other soil physical properties. These previous functions do not account for soil clay mineralogy or soil solution composition. The objectives of this study were to: (1) analyze the performance of previously developed pedotransfer functions (PTFs) on saline and

The different soil organic matter (SOM) pools were isolated from the surface horizons of Haplic Chernozem in contrast variants of land use: (a) free particulate OM, (b) occluded particulate OM, (c) clay-associated OM, and (d) OM of the fraction of the Residue (Res). The features of the chemical structure studied by solid-state 13C NMR spectroscopy of these SOM pools in virgin Chernozem were used to

The conversion of land use from agricultural land to forests is considered an effective measure of mitigating atmospheric CO2, but the impacts of long-term afforestation on soil organic carbon mineralization (Cm) and its temperature sensitivity (Q10) remain uncertain. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of different afforestation ages on OC contents and Cm and Q10 in bulk soils and aggregates

The fast growing exotic Sonneratia apetala has been widely used to increase the mangrove area in China. Despite of the rapidly accumulated biomass, S. apetala does not increase the soil organic carbon (SOC) storage comparing with native mangroves. The belowground biomass of mangrove, especially its fine roots, plays an important role in SOC sequestration. Here, the soil physicochemical properties,

Soil biota populations are good indicators for the evaluation of soil quality, which is in line with the nutrient cycles in forest ecosystems. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, responses of belowground biota to forest removal intensity have received little attention. The present study aimed to study the effect of low, moderate and high intensities of forest degradation, based on the density of

Drought is one of the most damaging but least understood environmental disasters. The time-varying multivariate drought risk and its dynamics have remained unresolved in a changing environment. To this end, a Bayesian framework with time in its location parameter as a covariate was introduced in this study to conduct time-varying distributions of duration and severity. Besides, the joint distribution

Although the Ganga is an important fluvial system of India, the isotopic investigations of its water are limited and not reported for the whole length of the river. This limits the understanding of the hydrological processes of the river whose flow characteristics have been changed considerably over the years due to changes in the climate and land use/land cover patterns of the region. This study intends

Both climate warming and plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) exert considerable impacts on carbon cycling in alpine ecosystems on the Tibetan Plateau. However, the interaction of warming and pika disturbance on soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics in alpine ecosystems remains largely unknown. Here, we measured plant, soil and microbial properties after four-year warming in a swamp meadow (with or without

Habitat fragmentation has transformed many once contiguous habitats into smaller patches varying in size, especially in forest ecosystems. However, while the consequences of habitat fragmentation for biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (e.g., productivity) have been widely documented, we know much less about how habitat fragmentation affects litter decomposition, a key component of biogeochemical

Susceptibility assessments are crucial in identifying hazards in densely populated mountain areas featuring active internal and external dynamic geological processes. A comprehensive analysis of the interactions among ecological, hydrological, and geotechnical factors was performed to develop a quantitative method for assessing regional landslide susceptibility based on slope failure and landslide

Soil salinization occurs naturally in coastal areas owing to seawater intrusion and upward salt accumulation. High soil salinity limits most plants and the plant community in coastal salt marsh is mainly composed of salt-tolerant plants. The resilience of ecosystem is largely determined by the standing vegetation. However, little is known about how pioneer vegetation impacts on soil environment in

The utilization of local saline groundwater plays an important role in agricultural production in saline area to overcome freshwater shortage. Three-year field experiment was conducted in Hetao Irrigation District of China to evaluate the variation in water, ECe and SAR in heavy saline-alkali soil under freezing saline water irrigation (FSWI) in winter. Two treatments, FSWI and non-irrigation (CK)

The objective of this study was to better understand the functional links between soil quality, erosion, geomorphology and land-use. This was done for the Kan catchment of the Tehran province, central Iran. Soil quality was assessed by using the integrated quality index (IQI) and the Nemoro quality index (NQI): this enabled the total and minimum datasets (TDS) to be obtained by using the principal

Part of the gravitational potential energy of a landslide is converted into heat or other forms of energy via irreversible processes such as inelastic collisions and fragmentation between particles. In this study, we define the gravitational potential energy component as additional work W, which is numerically equivalent to Mgc. Based on the model proposed by Heim (1932), we conceptualize landslide

The drainage basin of the upper Nysa Szalona river in the West and Middle Sudetes shows polygenetic topography considered representative for the low- to medium-altitude mountain belt of Central Europe. It consists of mountain ridges and massifs, uplands and intramontane basins, with total relief energy up to 400 m. Geology is diverse and includes pre-Variscan basement rocks, here represented mainly

In eastern Africa, ecologists have found that when mobile pastoralists abandon their temporary encampments, the accumulation of burned animal dung, wood, and other organic waste enriches the concentration of nutrients (e.g., calcium, phosphorous, magnesium) essential to soil health, in comparison to other soils without prior human habitation. These nutrient-enriched soils promote glade development

Beach morphologies, primarily include shape, surface changes/variation, and beach volume along with slope, are very dynamic and believed to be largely controlled by waves and currents (Komar, 1998). Contrary to this general notion, results presented in this paper suggest a strong control of the local morpho-tectonic frame-work on foreshore sedimentation. In the 20 km long study area between Bhatkal

Landform instability of the abandoned Nuria kaolin mine, surrounding the Alto Tajo Natural Park in Spain, has caused frequent and severe environmental impacts due to deficient mining practices, environmental mismanagement and closure planning. Geomorphic instability has caused widespread soil erosion and elevated sediment yields with off-site effects. We quantified such land instability, the evolution

Climate change on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and its response to the atmosphere circulation has been widely concerned. The extremely cold-dry area of the central-northern TP is vulnerable and particularly sensitive to the variations of Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) and the Westerlies. However, records from the central-northern TP are still scarce, limiting our understanding of the natural variability of

Soil aggregate stability is a key indicator of soil quality and susceptibility to water erosion. The water level fluctuation zone (WLFZ) of Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) experiences hydraulic disturbances induced by rainfall, reservoir wave, and water-level fluctuation. Soil aggregate in this region has a unique mechanism of disintegration different from other terrestrial soils. The traditional methods

Exploring the feedback of the soil microbial community and associated processes to global warming represents a major global challenge. To date, the focus has been placed on the direct effects of warming on soil microbial communities, overlooking how concurrent changes in plant communities may mediate these effects. Additionally, few studies have examined long-term effects of warming in more than one

The Shijiahe Culture (ca. 4800–4100 yr BP), which originated in the middle Yangtze Basin, was a milestone of prehistoric Chinese civilization. To reveal the interactions between climatic changes and human activities during this time interval, the geochronology and multiple proxies (pollen and heavy metals) of samples from a 220-cm-deep outer wall at the Sanfangwan Site (a typical site of the Shijiahe

Throughout the Podravina region, NE Croatia, over one hundred locations with signs of iron production, dating to the late Antique period and the Middle Ages, have been discovered in the last 30 years. Recently, signs of various bog iron ore types and formations were discovered throughout the area. This study investigates the mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of local bog iron and roasted

This study investigated the roles of variable daily discharges in controlling processes of composite bank erosion in alpine meandering rivers located in the Zoige basin on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of China using Bank Stability and Toe Erosion Model (BSTEM). BSTEM was calibrated from compiled daily discharges, field measurements, and pre-determined model parameters for modeling fluvial erosion (FE)

The concept of connectivity aims to understand the hydrosedimentological (water and sediments) processes that occur in the catchment and influence the water and sediment transfer at different spatial-temporal scales. Connectivity is often assessed through connectivity indexes, commonly considering only structural features of the landscape. The present study proposes the insertion of the precipitation

Thin loess deposits are widespread soil parent materials and important archives for paleoenvironmental reconstruction. The origin of loess in SW Poland is attributed to the Great Odra Valley (GOV), following the general concept that large rivers play a major role in regional silt supply. Yet, the precise provenance (glacier sources and/or local rocks) of silts, possibly deflated from dry GOV braided

Little information is available on soil N cycling in the grasslands of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau under different grazing regimes, which is required to evaluate management practices with respect to soil N availability and dynamics. In this study, a 15N-labeled (15NH4NO3 and NH415NO3) incubation experiment was conducted to investigate gross N transformation rates in soils of the southeast region of the

With acceleration of urban expansion, urban soils are increasingly becoming critical in the global carbon cycle. However, spatial variations and distributions of soil organic carbon (SOC) across urban centers are rarely investigated. Here, 1018 soil samples were collected from the upper 20 cm soil layer in Xi'an — a typical historical city under rapid urbanization in China. The aims were to: i) determine

The relationship between erodibility (susceptibility to erosion) and soil biological parameters has not been thoroughly investigated in Palomas Valley (PV), a region in San Luis Potosí, México that includes gully-eroded microcatchments. Previous reports have shown the potential of Glomalin-related soil protein (GRSP) as an erodibility marker. Thus, our first goal was to develop an optimized autoclaving-free

After the Wenchuan earthquake, a large number of landslides in debris flow basins continued to provide loose debris for channels and further affected the occurrence of debris flows. Evaluating the landslide sediment supply capacity in debris flow basins requires understanding the landslide activity and the coupled relationship between the landslide and the channel. In this study, we proposed a model

In this paper, a new method for determining the cross-section limits in rills and ephemeral gullies is proposed. This method is based on the estimate of the actual depth ha of each cross-section, which is the particular depth distinguishing the channel from the hillslope areas. The analysis showed that the actual depth corresponds to a particular bank slope sta occurring for the maximum value of the

Permafrost peatlands are important pools of soil carbon. Soil organic carbon (SOC) mineralization and its temperature sensitivity in permafrost peatlands are crucial for predictions of soil carbon-climate feedback. However, little is known about the changes in SOC mineralization and its mechanism in response to environmental change in the permafrost peatlands of Northeastern China. We collected seven

Despite the relevant literature on the advantages of no-till (NT) management, the world area under NT is only 10% of the arable land, probably due to several limiting factors as climate, soil types, farming systems and yield. Soil conservation practices and particularly NT soil management are able to provide many ecosystem services (ESs). This paper suggests a framework to determine the area distribution

The anthropogenic activities and natural changes might cause side effects on fragile karst landscapes. A good knowledge of the complex interrelationships between external factors and karst landscape is the basis for proper conservation strategies. However, there is little empirical evidence on local resident’s perceived impacts on karst landscape in the world heritage sites. In this study, the multiple