Large-Scale Soil Erosion Estimation Considering Vegetation Growth Cycle

• Main Authors: Hanchen Zhuang, Yixin Wang, Hang Liu, Sijia Wang, Wanqiu Zhang, Shuliang Zhang, Qiang Dai
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-05-01
• Series: Land
• Subjects: soil erosion; soil erodibility; rainfall erosivity; vegetation growth cycle; RUSLE
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/5/473

The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) was used to predict the potential soil erosion; it simply multiplies rainfall erosivity and land cover management factors; it does not consider the dynamics of these two factors during a given year or the effect of vegetation growth cycle on soil erosion estimates. This study developed a new method that considers the vegetation growth cycle in different periods of the year by matching monthly rainfall erosivity and a management factor using the entire surface of China as the study area. The data were input into the original equation, and the two methods to estimate soil erosion were compared. Finally, patterns and mechanisms of the influence of vegetation growth cycle on RUSLE estimations under different climatic conditions were obtained. The results show that vegetation coverage inhibits the effect of rainfall on soil erosion potential, which is related to the average and coefficient of variation of cover-management factor and the average of rainfall erosivity due to the significant variations in weather patterns in winter and summer in China. This article discusses the influence of the vegetation growth cycle on the estimation of large-scale soil erosion, which is a key to having a better estimation.