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Research Articles

Soil macropores induced by plant root as a driver for vertical hydrological connectivity in Yellow River Delta

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  • 1School of Ecology and Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China, 2The Key Laboratory of Ecological Protection in the Yellow River Basin of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Beijing 100083, China, 3Centre for Water and Spatial Science, School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Perth 6009, WA, Australia

    *Corresponding author. E-mail: zhenmingzhang@bjfu.edu.cn

Received date: 2024-01-03

  Accepted date: 2024-03-14

  Online published: 2024-04-07

Supported by

This research was supported by the Young Scientists Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42307573) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in China (BLX202250).

Abstract

The protection and management of the wetland should consider the changes in hydrological connectivity (HC) caused by the structural modifications of the soil macropores. The main purpose of our work is to clarify and quantify the influence of the soil macropores volume on the vertical soil hydrodynamic process mechanically and statistically by taking the form of a case study in Yellow River Delta (YRD), and further reveal the vertical hydrological connectivity in this area. Based on X-ray computed tomography and constant head permeability test, the results showed a highly spatial heterogeneity of the soil structure in the YRD, hydraulic parameter (Ks) was negatively correlated with bulk density and positively with soil macropore volume, soil aeration and maximum water capacity. Using Hydrus 1-D software and the Green–Ampt model, we estimated the characteristics of the hydrodynamic process in the soil without macropores, then evaluated the effect of the soil macropore on soil hydrodynamic process by comparing the experimental results with the simulation results. We found that increasing soil microporosity improved the convenience of water movement, which would enhance the HC of the region. The results will further help to reveal the eco-hydrological process at a vertical scale in soil and provide a theoretical guide for wetland conservation and restoration.

Cite this article

Lumeng Xie, Jiakai Liu, Yi Li, Peisheng Huang, Matt Hipsey, Mingxiang Zhang, Zhenming Zhang . Soil macropores induced by plant root as a driver for vertical hydrological connectivity in Yellow River Delta[J]. Journal of Plant Ecology, 2024 , 17(5) : 1 -12 . DOI: 10.1093/jpe/rtae019

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