[Litter storage and water-holding capacity of typical forests in mountainous area of Southwest China].

Ying Yong Sheng Tai Xue Bao

State Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mountain River Engineering/College of Water Resource and Hydropower, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China.

Published: August 2022

Current studies on water conservation capacity of litter in the mountainous area of Southwest China (MASC) mainly focus on local scale. Such results are difficult to evaluate the storage and water-holding capacity of litter in the whole MASC. In this study, the results of site-scale research in the MASC from 2004 to 2021 were collated (a total of 16 research sites and 70 data), as well as the storage and water-holding characteristics of litters of three typical forests in the MASC were compared and analyzed. The results showed that the water-holding processes of litter in coniferous forest, broadleaved forest and mixed forest were similar, which could be divided into three stages: rapid water absorption, gradual slowing, and stable. The absorption rate and duration of different forests were different in each stage. The broadleaved forest had the fastest water absorption rate, while coniferous forest had the slowest with the longest duration to reach stability. There was no significant difference in litter storage among diffe-rent forest types. The total litter storage of coniferous forest, broadleaved forest and mixed forest ranged from 8.26 to 8.82 t·hm. The significant spatial variations of litter storage in semi-decomposed layer resulted in that of total litter storage. The total maximum water-holding capacity of litters of the three forests ranged from 17.85 t·hm to 19.87 t·hm, and the maximum water-holding rate of litter ranged from 200.6% to 228.0%. There was a positive correlation between the maximum water-holding capacity and litter storage in different forests. The total effective retention capacity of three forest litters ranged from 11.66 to 12.29 t·hm, while the total effective retention rate of three forests ranged from 128.1% to 145.2%. There were no significant differences in litter storage and water holding capacity among three forest types with two decomposition degrees in MASC.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.13287/j.1001-9332.202208.014DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

litter storage
24
water-holding capacity
16
storage water-holding
12
capacity litter
12
coniferous forest
12
broadleaved forest
12
maximum water-holding
12
forest
11
litter
10
typical forests
8

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!