Vascular plant communities and biocrusts act as controlling factors in mitigating soil erosion on the Great Wall in a semi-humid area of Northwestern China

被引：5

作者：

Liu, Yanping ^{[1
,2
]}

Jia, Rongliang ^{[1
]}

Wang, Wanfu ^{[3
,4
,5
]}

Wan, Yuchen ^{[1
,2
]}

Gao, Yanhong ^{[1
]}

Zhan, Hongtao ^{[3
]}

Ren, Jing ^{[5
]}

Chen, Zhang ^{[3
]}

Qiu, Fei ^{[3
]}

Zhu, Jing ^{[3
]}

机构：

[1] Chinese Acad Sci, Northwest Inst Ecoenvironm & Resources, Shapotou Desert Res & Expt Stn, Lanzhou 730000, Peoples R China

[2] Univ Chinese Acad Sci, Beijing 100049, Peoples R China

[3] Dunhuang Acad, Natl Res Ctr Conservat Ancient Wall Paintings & Ea, Dunhuang 736200, Gansu, Peoples R China

[4] Chinese Acad Sci, Key Lab Extreme Environm Microbial Resources & Eng, Northwest Inst Ecoenvironm & Resources, Lanzhou 730000, Peoples R China

[5] Lanzhou Univ, Coll Ecol, State Key Lab Herbage Improvement & Grassland Agro, Lanzhou 730000, Peoples R China

来源：

SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT | 2024年 / 918卷

基金：

中国国家自然科学基金;

关键词：

Community functional composition; Wall habitat; Erosion control strategies; Plant-soil interactions; Trait-based approach; FUNCTIONAL DIVERSITY; ECOSYSTEM PROCESSES; INTERRILL EROSION; SLOPE STABILITY; LOESS PLATEAU; VEGETATION; CRUSTS; BIODIVERSITY; FRAMEWORK; DESERT;

D O I：

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170515

中图分类号：

X [环境科学、安全科学];

学科分类号：

08 ; 0830 ;

摘要：

The Great Wall, a World Heritage Site and a vertical wall habitat, is under threat of soil erosion. The role of vascular plants and biocrust in controlling soil erosion has attracted attention, yet our knowledge of the underlying mechanism is limited, and there is a lack of systematic strategies for erosion prevention and control. In this study, we quantified the vascular plant community functional composition (including species diversity, functional diversity, and community -weighted mean), biocrust coverage, and soil erosion levels associated with seven different zones (lower, middle, and upper zones on East and West faces, plus wall crest) of the Great Wall. We then employed a combination of linear regression analysis, random forest model, and structural equation model to evaluate the individual and combined effects, as well as the direction and relative importance of these factors in reducing soil erosion. The results indicated that the vascular plant species richness, species diversity, functional richness, community -weighted mean, and moss crust coverage decreased significantly from the crest to the lower zone of the Great Wall (P < 0.05), and were negatively correlated with the soil erosion area and depth on both sides of the Great Wall (P < 0.05). This suggests that higher zones on the wall favored the colonization and growth of biocrusts and vascular plants and that biocrusts and vascular plants reduced soil erosion on the wall. Based on these findings, we propose a "restoration framework" for managing soil erosion on walls, based on biocrust and vascular plant communities (namely target species selection, plant community construction, biocrust inoculation, and maintenance of community stability), which aims to address the urgent need for more effective soil erosion prevention and control strategies on the Great Wall and provide practical methods that practitioners can utilize.

引用

页数：14