Gully development drives sediment transport efficiency of forest road-stream pathways in mountainous watershed

IF 5.4 1区农林科学 Q1 GEOSCIENCES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Catena Pub Date : 2025-06-14 DOI:10.1016/j.catena.2025.109229

Jinhai Yu , Qinghe Zhao , Shengyan Ding , Zaihui Yu , Yi Liu

{"title":"Gully development drives sediment transport efficiency of forest road-stream pathways in mountainous watershed","authors":"Jinhai Yu , Qinghe Zhao , Shengyan Ding , Zaihui Yu , Yi Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109229","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Forest roads are a major source of sediment in many mountainous watersheds. The majority of road-eroded sediment is transported to streams via different kinds of pathways (e.g., gullied, partially gullied, and diffuse pathways) on the road-stream hillslopes, which leads to serious hydrological and ecological consequences both on-site and off-site of roads. However, limited research has focused on the transport dynamics of road-eroded sediment on road-stream pathways is crucial for reducing the negative impacts of road erosion. Based on simulated sediment-laden runoff scouring experiments conducted along forest roads in the Xiangchagou watershed located in the Dabie Mountains of China, we examined the effect of gully development of road-stream pathways on the hydrodynamic characteristics and sediment transport characteristics of sediment-laden runoff with different concentrations (0, 5, 10 and 15 g L<sup>−</sup><sup>1</sup>) by manually setting pathways with different gully proportions (0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100%) on the road-stream hillslope. The results showed that as gully development increased, average runoff velocity and energy grew exponentially, while runoff power and shear stress displayed linear increases. The road-stream pathways with fully developed gullies exhibited greater hydrodynamic forces of sediment-laden runoff. In addition, the degree of gully development significantly impacted sediment erosion–deposition ratio (SER, dimensionless parameter) and sediment transport efficiency (STE, %). The SER approached 1 as gully proportions increased, indicating a dynamic balance between erosion and deposition processes, and decreased toward 0 with higher sediment concentrations conversely, at which point sediment deposition dominates the transport process. The STE of road-stream pathways increased linearly with gully development and decreased with higher sediment concentrations indicating that both jointly affect STE. Ultimately, we developed a prediction model (STE = 0.575 – 0.014S<sub>C</sub> + 0.490G<sub>P</sub>, R<sup>2</sup> = 0.915, <em>p</em> < 0.05) to estimate the STE of road-stream pathways for sediment-laden runoff. These findings provide a basis of evidence for reducing the transport of eroded sediment from forest roads to streams in mountainous watershed from the perspective of controlling gully development of transport pathways.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9801,"journal":{"name":"Catena","volume":"258 ","pages":"Article 109229"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Catena","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0341816225005314","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"GEOSCIENCES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Forest roads are a major source of sediment in many mountainous watersheds. The majority of road-eroded sediment is transported to streams via different kinds of pathways (e.g., gullied, partially gullied, and diffuse pathways) on the road-stream hillslopes, which leads to serious hydrological and ecological consequences both on-site and off-site of roads. However, limited research has focused on the transport dynamics of road-eroded sediment on road-stream pathways is crucial for reducing the negative impacts of road erosion. Based on simulated sediment-laden runoff scouring experiments conducted along forest roads in the Xiangchagou watershed located in the Dabie Mountains of China, we examined the effect of gully development of road-stream pathways on the hydrodynamic characteristics and sediment transport characteristics of sediment-laden runoff with different concentrations (0, 5, 10 and 15 g L⁻¹) by manually setting pathways with different gully proportions (0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100%) on the road-stream hillslope. The results showed that as gully development increased, average runoff velocity and energy grew exponentially, while runoff power and shear stress displayed linear increases. The road-stream pathways with fully developed gullies exhibited greater hydrodynamic forces of sediment-laden runoff. In addition, the degree of gully development significantly impacted sediment erosion–deposition ratio (SER, dimensionless parameter) and sediment transport efficiency (STE, %). The SER approached 1 as gully proportions increased, indicating a dynamic balance between erosion and deposition processes, and decreased toward 0 with higher sediment concentrations conversely, at which point sediment deposition dominates the transport process. The STE of road-stream pathways increased linearly with gully development and decreased with higher sediment concentrations indicating that both jointly affect STE. Ultimately, we developed a prediction model (STE = 0.575 – 0.014S_C + 0.490G_P, R² = 0.915, p < 0.05) to estimate the STE of road-stream pathways for sediment-laden runoff. These findings provide a basis of evidence for reducing the transport of eroded sediment from forest roads to streams in mountainous watershed from the perspective of controlling gully development of transport pathways.

查看原文本刊更多论文

沟壑发育对山地流域森林路-河通道输沙效率的影响

森林道路是许多山地流域沉积物的主要来源。道路侵蚀泥沙大部分通过路流山坡上的不同路径（如沟道、部分沟道和漫漫式路径）进入河流，导致道路现场和场外严重的水文和生态后果。然而，道路侵蚀泥沙在道路水系路径上的运移动力学对于减少道路侵蚀的负面影响至关重要，这方面的研究有限。在大别山相岔沟流域森林道路含沙径流模拟冲刷试验的基础上，通过人工设置不同沟壑比例（0%、20%、40%、60%、10%）的路径，研究了沟壑发育对不同浓度（0、5、10和15 g L−1）含沙径流水动力特性和输沙特性的影响。80%和100%)在公路-溪流山坡上。结果表明：随着沟谷发育程度的增加，平均径流速度和能量呈指数增长，径流功率和剪应力呈线性增长；沟壑充分发育的道路-河流路径表现出更大的含沙径流水动力。此外，沟壑发育程度显著影响泥沙冲淤比（SER，无量纲参数）和输沙效率（STE, %）。随着沟谷比例的增加，SER接近于1，表明侵蚀和沉积过程处于动态平衡状态；随着泥沙浓度的增加，SER向0减小，此时泥沙沉积主导了输运过程。道路-河流路径的STE随沟壑发育呈线性增加，随沉积物浓度增加而降低，表明两者共同影响STE。最终，我们建立了一个预测模型(STE = 0.575 - 0.014SC + 0.490GP, R2 = 0.915, p <；0.05)来估计含沙径流的道路-河流路径的STE。研究结果为从控制林道沟槽发育角度减少山地流域林道向河流输沙提供了依据。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Catena 环境科学-地球科学综合

CiteScore

10.50

自引率

9.70%

发文量

816

审稿时长

54 days

期刊介绍： Catena publishes papers describing original field and laboratory investigations and reviews on geoecology and landscape evolution with emphasis on interdisciplinary aspects of soil science, hydrology and geomorphology. It aims to disseminate new knowledge and foster better understanding of the physical environment, of evolutionary sequences that have resulted in past and current landscapes, and of the natural processes that are likely to determine the fate of our terrestrial environment. Papers within any one of the above topics are welcome provided they are of sufficiently wide interest and relevance.