Spatial variability of soil moisture on slope-land under different land uses on the Loess Plateau

To understand the spatial patterns of soil moisture in different land uses, spatial variability of soil moisture of grassland and cropland slope were comparatively studied by means of statistics in the wind-water erosion crisscross region on the Loess Plateau. Results show that the differences of average soil moisture in the same layers between grassland and cropland are significant at the 0.01 level, but they have the same variable extent in profile and slope length direction, respectively. The profile change of soil moisture of grassland is different from that of cropland, the former was decreasing, while the latter was fluctuant(0～100 cm) and stable(100～200 cm), respectively. The soil moisture strongly fluctuated with the increase of slope length for grassland and cropland. At different slope lengths and soil layers, the soil moisture has the same change trend at profile and slope length direction, and the increase of scale could obtain more information about soil moisture at larger scale.