SOIL PROPERTIES AND SOIL WATER CONDITIONS IN THE YANGJUANGOU CATCHMENT OF THE CHINESE LOESS PLATEAU

摘要

Soil properties and soil water conditions were assessed for different land use (forest, arable alnd, grassland) on a silty Calcaric Regosol in the Yangjuangou Catchment of the Chinese Loess Plateau. The loess here is unimodal, poorly sorted with abundant coarse silt, has very low dry bulk density (1.11 -1.38 g cm~(-3)) and little organic carbon content (1.6-3.7 g kg~(-1)). The soils are hydrophilic, have high porosity (0.5-0.55 cm~3 cm~(-3)), unsaturated hydraulic conductivity, and plant available water content (0.34-0.4 cm~3 cm~(-3)). Soil properties are quite uniform in space. Land use had no significant effects on soil properties and soil water conditions.