Millennial scale erosion and sedimentation investigation in karst watersheds using dating and palynology

Cao, Zihao; Ke, Qihua; Zhang, Keli; Zhang, Zhuodong; Liu, Yingna; Xiao, Shizhen; Wei, Mengyao

doi:10.1016/j.catena.2022.106526

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…As a result, the advent of heavy rainfall could easily lead to flash floods and frequent disasters. In addition, soil erosion also increased the degree of rocky desertification [ 66 ]. The dramatic increase in population forced people to cultivate on more sloping lands and constantly clear the forest and shrubs since the 1950s [ 9 , 67 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Local people continued to expand agriculture in order to feed the growing population, coupled with continued government measures to encourage planting, the scope of agricultural reclamation continues to expand. During those periods, agricultural development was mainly achieved by changing natural landscapes [ 66 ], resulting in degradation of local environment. In particular, people began to clear and cultivate on a large number of steep slopes with forests when the arable land in flat areas was lacking.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Millennial Evolution of a Karst Socio-Ecological System: A Case Study of Guizhou Province, Southwest China

Zhang

2022

IJERPH

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The dynamic changes in socio-ecological system (SES) have exerted increasing pressures on the natural environment, leading to observable changes in terrestrial surface structure. Therefore, understanding the historical evolution mechanism of social ecosystems is crucial for the future sustainable management of karst regions. However, detailed quantitative analyses of karst socio-ecological system at a long-term scale are lacking. Here, we applied a comprehensive research framework for the SES of karst region to visually analyze the evolution of karst SES over the past 1000 years in Guizhou Province, defining five evolution stages of the karst SES. Concurrently, we characterized the interactive effects of drivers on karst socio-ecological system during every evolutionary stage, and then assess major influences between these stages. Despite rocky desertification as the main effect of karst SES driven by many indicators, the quantitative analysis indicated that human-dominated land-use change explained the expansion of rocky desertification. Although effective implementation of relevant policies partly compensated for increased environmental pressures, continued structure and function shifts in local ecosystem can challenge progress towards sustainability in karst region. Our findings provide scientific references for managers and policymakers to assist them to identify how environmental issues emerged in karst areas and how they should be addressed.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Millennial Evolution of a Karst Socio-Ecological System: A Case Study of Guizhou Province, Southwest China

Zhang

2022

IJERPH

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“…Watershed is the basic hydrological response unit, an ideal spatial scale for studying soil and water losses, and the fundamental unit for managing ecological environments. Studies on soil erosion at the watershed scale have focused on estimating soil erosion and sediment (Cao et al , 2022;Galdies et al , 2022;Lufira et al , 2022), assessing erosion susceptibility (Pandey et al , 2021;Tahouri et al , 2022;Tesema, 2022;Wang et al , 2022), and analyzing the factors affecting soil erosion (Aneseyeeet al , 2020;Choudhury et al , 2022;Guduru and Jilo, 2022;Zhao et al , 2022). However, most scholars chose typically representative ephemeral gullies or slopes as research objects to analyze changes in ephemeral gullies (Capra et al, 2009;Karydas and Panagos, 2020;Li et al, 2016;Wang et al 2021b;Zheng et al, 2006), but typical ephemeral gullies or slopes do not fully display changes in ephemeral gullies at a watershed scale.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution and Development of Ephemeral Gully Erosion in Hilly and Gully Region of the Loess Plateau in China

Liu

Zhang

Yin

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Ephemeral gully erosion is a primary mode of soil erosion that is highly visible, affecting soil productivity and restricting land use. Watershed is the basic unit of soil erosion control; existing research has focused on several typical ephemeral gullies or slopes, which do not fully display changes in ephemeral gullies at a watershed scale. This study analyzed the spatial-temporal evolution and development rate of ephemeral gully erosion at the watershed scale on the Loess Plateau from 2009 to 2021 using remote sensing images (0.5 m resolution), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), and field investigations. The results revealed that: (1) most ephemeral gullies occurred in southwestern parts of the watershed, with many hills and large slope gradients; (2) average growth rates of each ephemeral gully frequency, length, density, dissection degree, and width were 2.87 km y , 1.66 m y , 0.12 km km y , 0.0125% y , and 0.04 m y , respectively; (3) ephemeral gully erosion volume ( V) and length ( L) had a good power function relationship: V = 0 . 0842 L 1 . 1932 ( R 2 = 0 . 80 ) . The root mean square error (RMSE) and coefficient of determination (R ) between the measured and predicted ephemeral gully volumes suggest that the V–L relationship has a good predictive ability for ephemeral gully volume. Thus, the V–L model was used to evaluate the development rate of ephemeral gully erosion volume in small watersheds from 2009 to 2021, revealing an average value of 743.20 m y . This study proposed a feasible model for assessing ephemeral gully volume and volume changes at a watershed scale using high-resolution remote sensing images, providing a reference for understanding the development of ephemeral gully erosion in small watersheds over time.

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“…As a basic hydrological response unit, the watershed provides an ideal spatial scale for studying soil and water losses and is a fundamental unit for managing ecological environments. Studies on soil erosion at the watershed scale have focused on estimating soil erosion and sediment (Cao et al, 2022; Galdies et al, 2022; Lufira et al, 2022), assessing erosion susceptibility (Pandey et al, 2021; Tahouri et al, 2022; Tesema, 2022; Wang et al, 2022), and analyzing the factors affecting soil erosion (Aneseyee et al, 2020; Choudhury et al, 2022; Guduru & Jilo, 2022; Zhao et al, 2022); however, these studies often chose typical ephemeral gullies or slopes as research objects to analyze changes in ephemeral gullies (Capra et al, 2009; Karydas & Panagos, 2020; Li et al, 2016; Wang, Zhang, et al, 2021; Zheng et al, 2006), which may not fully represent the changes occurring at a watershed scale; therefore, there is a need to clarify the temporal and spatial development processes of ephemeral gullies at the watershed scale, as this can provide valuable insights for determining soil and water conservation practices and understanding the characteristics of each ephemeral gully and other geomorphologic processes related to ephemeral gully erosion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ephemeral gully development in the hilly and gully region of China's loess plateau

Liu,

Zhang,

Yin

et al. 2023

Land Degrad Dev

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Ephemeral gully erosion is a significant form of soil erosion that visibly impacts soil productivity and restricts land use. While watersheds are fundamental for controlling soil erosion, past studies have focused on individual ephemeral gully or slope types, which do not fully represent changes in ephemeral gullies at the watershed scale. This research used remote sensing images (0.5 m resolution), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), and field investigations to analyze the spatial–temporal evolution and development rate of ephemeral gully erosion at the watershed scale on the Loess Plateau from 2009 to 2021. Using spatial information and morphological parameters of ephemeral gullies obtained from the SegNet model, we found that: (1) ephemeral gully numbers decreased from 4495 in 1999 to 2312 in 2021 due to improved vegetation coverage; (2) average growth rates of ephemeral gully frequency, length, density, dissection degree, and width were 2.87 km−2 year−1, 1.66 m year−1, 0.12 km km−2 year−1, 0.01% year−1, and 0.04 m year−1, respectively; (3) ephemeral gully erosion volume (V) and length (L) had a good power function relationship: . The root‐mean‐square error (RMSE) and coefficient of determination (R2) between measured and predicted ephemeral gully volumes indicated that the V–L relationship has a good predictive ability for ephemeral gully volume; thus, the V–L model was used to evaluate the development rate of ephemeral gully erosion volume in small watersheds from 2009 to 2021, revealing an average value of 743.20 m3 year−1. This study presents an empirical model for assessing ephemeral gully volume and volume changes at a watershed scale using high‐resolution remote sensing images, providing a reference for understanding the development of ephemeral gully erosion in small watersheds over time.

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Millennial scale erosion and sedimentation investigation in karst watersheds using dating and palynology

Cited by 4 publications

References 52 publications

Millennial Evolution of a Karst Socio-Ecological System: A Case Study of Guizhou Province, Southwest China

Millennial Evolution of a Karst Socio-Ecological System: A Case Study of Guizhou Province, Southwest China

Evolution and Development of Ephemeral Gully Erosion in Hilly and Gully Region of the Loess Plateau in China

Ephemeral gully development in the hilly and gully region of China's loess plateau

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