Vegetation root system, soil erosion and ecohydrology system: A review

DOI

10.2991/ifeesm-15.2015.52How to use a DOI?

Keywords

infiltration rate (IR); organic matter (OM); root system; soil erosion, vegetation species.

Abstract

Soil erosion has been a severe environmental problem all over the world. Vegetation significantly affects soil properties, organic matter, infiltration, runoff, and soil organisms which further influence soil erosion. Canopy and roots are the main two parts that vegetation affects soil erosion. Canopy and roots can increase the infiltration rate, reduce runoff, increase soil organic matter, and then reduce soil erosion. However, how root affects soil erosion and hydrology system has not been fully understood. The roots create water channels, improve soil structure, hold soil, and on the other hand, it can decrease the infiltration rate by taking up macropores, increase bulk density. This study analyzes the results from previous researches, summaries the effects of vegetation roots (fine roots and taproots system) on infiltration, organic matter, bulk density, and further talks about how roots affect soil erosion directly and indirectly.

Copyright

© 2015, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Bing Liu
AU  - Gang Xie
AU  - Xiaoming Zhang
AU  - Yang Zhao
AU  - Xiaolin Yin
AU  - Chen Cheng
PY  - 2015/09
DA  - 2015/09
TI  - Vegetation root system, soil erosion and ecohydrology system: A review
BT  - Proceedings of the 2015 International Forum on Energy, Environment Science and Materials
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 271
EP  - 279
SN  - 2352-5401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/ifeesm-15.2015.52
DO  - 10.2991/ifeesm-15.2015.52
ID  - Liu2015/09
ER  -