Characteristics of soil and water loss of different slope land uses in small watershed on the Loess Plateau

The study on the relationship between land uses and soil and water loss was of great significance to the soil and water conservation and the ecosystem restoration of small watersheds on the Loess Plateau. In the Liudaogou catchment located in Shenmu County, north Shaanxi, China, five standard runoff plots were built on the five natural slopes with different land use patterns on them for observing the runoff and sediment yield produced under these slope land uses (caragana, soybean, millet, artificial grassland and de-farming grassland ). The results showed that the runoff yields produced in millet, soybean, de-farming grassland, natural grassland and caragana runoff plots within the experiment duration were 2.1, 2.2, 1.5, 1.2 and 0.9 m3, respectively, the runoff coefficients in these five plots were 4.1%, 4.6%, 2.9%, 2.4% and 1.9%，respectively, and the order of the runoff yield in the five plots was soybean>millet>de-farming grassland>natural grassland>caragana, with the maximum runoff yield being 2.4 times greater than the minimum. The sediment yields produced in these five plots were 196.6, 228.6, 27.2, 23.3 and 10.4 kg, respectively, and the order of the sediment yields in the five plots was soybean>millet>de-farming grassland>natural grassland>caragana, with the maximum sediment yield being 2.4 times greater than the minimum. The results showed that the grass and shrubs had better effects on soil and water conservation than the cultivated slope land, and this can provide basic data references for evaluating the effects of vegetation construction and restoration.