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Forests
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Forest Soil Erosion in Karst Areas: Patterns, Processes and Mechanisms
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Forest Soil Erosion in Karst Areas: Patterns, Processes and Mechanisms

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Soil".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 April 2025 | Viewed by 2634

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Youjin Yan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Forestry and Grassland & College of Soil and Water Conservation, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210000, China
Interests: global climate change; ecological restoration; soil carbon; soil erosion; ecohydrology
Prof. Dr. Quanhou Dai

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Forestry, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China
Interests: soil erosion; soil and water conservation; soil hydrology; underground leakage; rainfall runoff; nutrient loss; karst hydrology; rocky desertification; ecological restoration
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Fengling Gan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Chongqing Key Laboratory of Surface Process and Environment Remote Sensing in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing 401331, China
Interests: hydrological; ecological restoration; soil carbon; soil erosion; ecohydrology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleague,

Karst areas are highly fragile environments that account for approximately 12% of the world’s total land area. Nevertheless, natural factors (such as extreme rainfall, drought, karst rocky desertification and wildfire events) and unreasonable human activities cause forest degradation, resulting in severe soil erosion, which presents unparalleled challenges for the functionality and stability of forest soil ecosystems in karst areas. Despite years of research on soil erosion in karst regions, there remains a dearth of understanding regarding the patterns, processes and mechanisms of forest soil erosion within these areas. Additionally, it is crucial to investigate the impact of forest management techniques and ecological engineering measures, such as restoration and afforestation, on forest soil properties, hydrological processes and erosion features. This research is vital for comprehending forest soil erosion patterns, processes and mechanisms, and facilitating the regeneration and restoration of ecological functions in mountainous forest soils.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Soil characteristics under erosion environment;
  • Hydrological processes;
  • Soil erosion process and mechanism;
  • Soil erosion model;
  • Role of forestry measures in preventing soil erosion;
  • Forestry strategies for preventing soil erosion.

Dr. Youjin Yan
Prof. Dr. Quanhou Dai
Dr. Fengling Gan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • forest soil
  • soil erosion
  • processes and mechanisms
  • hydrological process
  • soil erosion reduction
  • soil and water conservation

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 3071 KiB  
Article
The Effects of Different Vegetation Restoration Models on Soil Quality in Karst Areas of Southwest China
by Han-Biao Ou, Xiong-Sheng Liu, Shuo-Xing Wei, Yi Jiang, Feng Gao, Zhi-Hui Wang, Wei Fu and Hu Du
Forests 2024, 15(6), 1061; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15061061 - 19 Jun 2024
Viewed by 771
Abstract
Rocky desertification is a devastating process in Karst areas of Southwest China and induces serious fragmentation in ecosystems. Therefore, vegetation restoration and the scientific evaluation of soil quality are key restorative strategies in these areas. In this study, a natural closed forest and [...] Read more.
Rocky desertification is a devastating process in Karst areas of Southwest China and induces serious fragmentation in ecosystems. Therefore, vegetation restoration and the scientific evaluation of soil quality are key restorative strategies in these areas. In this study, a natural closed forest and a disturbed forest with three restoration models, including an evergreen broad-leaved forest, mixed forest, and deciduous forest, were investigated in Huanjiang County. More than nineteen soil properties (including physical, chemical, and biotic properties) were analyzed across treatments, and principal component analyses (PCA) were combined with a minimum data set (MDS) applied to evaluate the soil quality. Our study sought to identify a vegetation restoration model to improve the soil quality in this area. We demonstrated that soil physical and chemical properties, microbial biomass, and enzyme activities significantly differed across all of the models. Soil water content, capillary porosity, total porosity, organic carbon, total phosphorus, available phosphorus, and urease activity were high in the mixed forest, leading to better physical soil properties. Also, relatively high soil total nitrogen, total potassium, available nitrogen, available potassium, microbial biomass C and N, catalase, sucrose, and alkaline phosphatase levels were observed in the deciduous broad-leaved forest, resulting in improved soil chemical properties. Based on the minimum data set (MDS) method, six indicators, including non-capillary porosity, organic carbon, total phosphorus, pH, microbial biomass nitrogen, and urease activity, were selected to evaluate the soil quality across the models. Our data showed that, among the five models, the deciduous broad-leaved forest had the highest soil quality index (0.618), followed by the mixed forest (0.593). Stepwise regression analysis showed that soil organic carbon explained 79.9% of the variations in the soil quality indices, suggesting it was a major factor affecting the soil quality. Thus, vegetation restoration models mainly comprised of native tree species effectively improved the soil quality in Karst rocky desertification areas, with deciduous broad-leaved forests displaying the best effects, followed by mixed forests. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Soil Erosion in Karst Areas: Patterns, Processes and Mechanisms)
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23 pages, 28227 KiB  
Article
Effect of Vegetation Restoration on Soil Humus and Aggregate Stability within the Karst Region of Southwest China
by Yuanfeng Yang, Hui Wei, Liwen Lin, Yusong Deng and Xiaoqian Duan
Forests 2024, 15(2), 292; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15020292 - 3 Feb 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1281
Abstract
This study aims to investigate the impact of vegetation restoration on soil humus and aggregate stability within the karst region of Southwest China. This study focused on soils at five vegetation succession stages (abandoned land, grassland, shrub rangeland, shrubland, and secondary forest) in [...] Read more.
This study aims to investigate the impact of vegetation restoration on soil humus and aggregate stability within the karst region of Southwest China. This study focused on soils at five vegetation succession stages (abandoned land, grassland, shrub rangeland, shrubland, and secondary forest) in the typical karst region, and the aggregate stability was determined using wet sieving and the Le Bissonnais method. Simultaneously, the Pallo method and separation extraction were used to determine the humus composition, aiming to analyze the distribution of humus content in the soil aggregates and its effect on aggregate stability. The results revealed the following: (1) The mean weight diameter of soil aggregates significantly increased with vegetation restoration stages. Soil water-stable aggregates at each vegetation stage mainly included particles over 2 mm in size. (2) The humic acid and fulvic acid contents consistently increased with vegetation restoration, and the precipitation quotient value of the humification degree showed an increasing trend. At each vegetation restoration stage, the percentage of each humus component was, from highest to lowest, as follows: insoluble HM, fulvic acid, humic acid, clay-bound HM, and iron-bound HM. (3) Through stepwise regression analysis, humic acid content in >2 mm aggregates, fulvic acid and clay-bound HM contents in 1–2 mm aggregates, and insoluble HM content in <0.25 mm aggregates were the dominant factors affecting soil aggregate stability in the karst region. These results aim to provide novel insights for a more in-depth comprehension of the restoration and rehabilitation of vegetation within the karst region of Southwest China, thereby laying a robust foundation for scientific theories and further investigations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Soil Erosion in Karst Areas: Patterns, Processes and Mechanisms)
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