An Assessment of Soil Loss by Water Erosion in No-Tillage and Mulching, China

Abstract

Soil erosion poses a global threat to arable land and its sustainability, particularly in China, where the most severe soil erosion exists worldwide. No-tillage (NT) and mulching (NTS) are considered the most effective soil management techniques for reducing erosion, but only 10% of the global area utilizes them. Therefore, in comparison to conventional tillage (CT), we conducted a comprehensive national assessment of NT and NTS to evaluate their impact on water erosion across China’s croplands for the period spanning 2000 to 2018, through using Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE); subsequently, we projected the temporal and spatial erosion distribution, and examined their effects of various underlying driving factors by using a random-forest model. Nationally, the average soil loss rates were 1085, 564, and 396 t km−2 a−1 for the CT, NT, and NTS, respectively, across the entire arable land over a span of 18 years. This represents a reduction of 48% and 64% in the NT and NTS, respectively, compared to CT. From 2000 to 2018, water erosion-induced soil loss exhibited a slightly increasing trend with a wavelike pattern in CT, NT, and NTS. The spatial distribution of water erosion in China’s arable land was primarily influenced by local precipitation, accounting for 45% to 52% of the total impact on CT, NT, and NTS. Additionally, the soil slope degree played a role, contributing 29% to 36% of the erosion patterns. Overall, NT and NTS demonstrated superior performance in mitigating the soil erosion in the southern regions of China, including the Central South, Southwest, and East China, owing to the substantial local rainfall and steep terrain. In contrast, NT and NTS exhibited a lower but still significant reduction in soil loss in the northern regions of China due to the flat topography and limited rainfall. However, considering the trade-off between economic losses (yield) and ecosystem benefits (erosion control), we recommend implementing NT and NTS primarily in the northern parts of China, such as the Northeast, North China, and Northwest.

Effect of Land Use Change on Soil Loss by Water Erosion in the Niyang River Basin of Tibet from 1990 to 2020

“…The proportion of very severe and destructive soil erosion areas in grassland and forest was much higher than the proportion of grassland and forest areas in all land use types. From 2010 to 2020, nearly 3% of the enhancement in soil erosion grade was caused by changes of cropland, forest, and grassland, and in particular, the conversion of various land use types to cropland caused the enhancement in soil erosion grade, which aligns well with previous studies by Liu et al [33], Jiang et al [50], Guo et al [56], Ding et al [57] and Cao et al [58], but the amount of soil loss was not significant. This was due to the fact that the Niyang River Basin was sparsely populated, and limited human activity activities were concentrated on construction land in the gentle valley terraces, and the utilization of cropland has not had a significant impact on soil erosion.…”