How can terracing impact on soil moisture variation in China? A meta-analysis
2020
Chen, Die | Wei, Wei | Chen, Liding
Soil moisture plays a key role in vegetation restoration and ecosystem stability. Terracing modulates hydrological processes by lowering the slope gradient and shortening the slope length. The response of soil moisture variation to terracing is strongly influenced by land use, climate, topography and terracing characteristics. In this study, we conducted a meta-analysis to examine the response of soil moisture to terracing in China. For China’s landscapes, terracing generally improved the soil moisture by 12.9%. Relative to other terracing structures, level ditches showed the greatest water conservation benefits, especially on steep slopes. Terracing had higher water storage benefits in the northern plains and the southern dry-hot valleys of China. The benefits of water storage by terracing rose with increasing slope gradients above 15° and fell with increasing depth of soil layers. Soil moisture in the 0–100 cm depth differed among terracing structures but not among land uses, mainly due to the differences in evapotranspiration under different micro-topographical conditions. In contrast, soil moisture at the depth of 100–200 cm differed among land use types but not among terracing structures, only because root water uptake always differed across land use types. Regarding climatic factors, precipitation played a dominant role in soil moisture variation.
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