Fish-Scale Pits with Diversion Holes Enhance Water Conservation in Semi-arid Loess Soil: Experiments with Soil Columns, Mulching, and Simulated Rainfall

Abstract

Fish-scale pits, as one of the most important ecological engineering in semi-arid areas, especially in the Loess Plateau, China, effectively reduced water and soil loss by intercepting runoff. However, the water saved by the pits is mainly accumulated in the upper soil layer and thus easily loosed by ineffective evaporation. In this study, soil column simulation experiments were conducted to observe the effects of diversion holes on soil evaporation and soil water distribution in the loessial soil under two rainfall depths and different soil surface treatments. The soil samples were passed through a 2-mm sieve. The soil filling height and the soil volume was 140 cm and 54,652.17 cm 3 in each soil column, respectively. For each treatment, there were three replicates. The results showed that gravel-mulching (GM), straw-mulching (SM), and diversion hole (DH) significantly decreased soil water evaporation compared with non-mulching (CK) under the different rainfall depths (P < 0.05). Under rainfall of 100 mm, the DH, GM, and SM caused an increase in the soil water content (SWC) in the 80-120 cm layer by 101.0%, 23.6%, and 65.5%, respectively. Under rainfall of 30 mm, CK increased SWC in the 0-40 cm layer, both GM and SM increased the SWC in the 0-60 cm layer, and the DH treatment allowed an increase in the 0-120 cm layer. Our results suggest that DH was a better measure to reduce soil evaporation and improve rainfall resource utilization, especially under high rainfall events. Our research provides scientific basis for the technology of soil deep spatiotemporal control and is of great significance to the balance and restoration of the ecological environment in the semi-arid Loess Plateau.

Innovative Soil Management and Micro-Climate Modulation for Saving Water in Peach Orchards

“…These results emphasize that the detrimental effect of water shortage could be balanced by suitable modulation of the microclimate and contrasting the extra water losses (Losciale et al, 2011;Lopez et al, 2018;Zheng et al, 2019). Recent research suggested that deficit irrigation (75% ETc) can improve WP I with a minimal (less than 10%) reduction in yield (Zhou et al, 2017).…”

Effect of using an infiltration hole and mulching in fish‐scale pits on soil water, nitrogen, and organic matter contents: Evidence from a 4‐year field experiment

“…Both gravel mulching and straw mulching can avoid direct solar radiation and reduce soil evaporation by setting physical barrier layers on the soil surface. Nevertheless, gravel mulching is the blocked channel of the water cycle between soils and the atmosphere due to gravel can block soil pores and prevent capillary water from rising (Zheng et al, 2019). That can partially explain why the gravel mulching increased soil water storage compared with straw mulching.…”

“…An Infiltration hole is a supplemental measure of slope engineering. It is vertically drilled on the ground of the installed slope engineering measures and can be fillled with a certain volume to improve infiltration (Wang et al, 2020; Zheng et al, 2019). Runoff can rapidly and directly infiltrate into the deeper soil layer via the bottom and sidewall of the hole, rather than just through the ground surface.…”

Effects of Long-Term Vegetation Restoration on Distribution of Deep Soil Moisture in Semi-arid Northwest of China

“…From the perspective of increasing soil moisture and sustainable development of vegetation, planting arbors and bushes is a preferred vegetation restoration method in the semi-arid northwest of China. Certainly, some watersaving measures should be considered for vegetation restoration, such as precipitation collection with fish-scale pits and gravel mulching (Zheng et al 2019). Furthermore, soil compaction caused by machines is one common problem (Varol et al 2020), which may also affect the soil moisture status.…”