Catena最新文献

{"title":"Exploring the potential of radar vegetation indices for soil parameters retrieval: a case study of remote sensing soil salinity mapping","authors":"Aihepa Aihaiti ,&nbsp;Ilyas Nurmemet ,&nbsp;Yu Qin ,&nbsp;Bilali Aizezi ,&nbsp;Yang Xiang ,&nbsp;Meimei Zhang ,&nbsp;Yixin Zhang ,&nbsp;Ru Feng","doi":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109461","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109461","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Accurate and timely monitoring of soil parameters is fundamental for sustainable land management and ecosystem preservation. In recent years, advances in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology have opened new avenues for comprehensive, all-weather soil property characterization, enabling improved detection of key attributes such as soil moisture and salt content under diverse conditions. This study investigates the potential of radar vegetation indices (RVIs) derived from fully polarimetric RADARSAT-2 C-band SAR data to enhance soil parameter retrieval, focusing on soil salinity as a case study, along with supplemental analysis of soil moisture content (SMC) and pH, in the Yutian Oasis, northwestern China. Five RVIs (RVI_Kim, RVI_Freeman, RVI_VanZyl, Generalized RVI (GRVI), and Compact Polarimetric RVI (CpRVI)) were computed and contrasted with four multispectral optical indices (NDVI, SAVI, BSI, and SI_T). Using in-situ soil samples, we developed Random Forest (RF) and eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGB) models implementing two strategies: Strategy I incorporating optical NDVI, and Strategy II utilizing SAR-based CpRVI, both complemented by microwave, optical, topographic and texture covariates. Repeated 5-fold cross-validation demonstrated that Strategy II outperformed Strategy I (R² = 0.811 and MAE = 2.873 vs. R² = 0.797 and MAE = 2.942 dS/m). Model interpretability analysis (SHAP analysis) revealed CpRVI as the fourth most influential feature (13.9 % contribution), surpassing NDVI (6.0 %). Moreover, GRVI and CpRVI exhibited moderate negative correlations with soil pH (r ≈ –0.34, <em>P</em> &lt; 0.01), while RVIs showed generally weak correlations with SMC. The findings affirm that RVIs provide complementary and improved information beyond traditional optical indices, enabling cost-effective, operational soil parameter monitoring in arid, data-limited landscapes. This study establishes a referenceable framework integrating fully polarimetric SAR-derived vegetation structure metrics with interpretable machine learning to enhance precision salinity mapping and promote sustainable land use.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9801,"journal":{"name":"Catena","volume":"260 ","pages":"Article 109461"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145106616","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessment of 137Cs and 90Sr removal through the system “soil − rhizosphere – above-ground parts of plants” during annual flooding (Yenisei, KMCC near impact zone)","authors":"Marya Kropacheva,&nbsp;Aleksei Chuguevsky","doi":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109451","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109451","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Yenisei floodplain has long been impacted by the Krasnoyarsk Mining and Chemical Combine (KMCC), leading to significant accumulation of ¹³⁷Cs and ⁹⁰Sr isotopes in soils. Floodplain plants, particularly sedges (<em>Carex</em> L.) with root systems 20–40 cm deep, uptake these isotopes from contaminated layers, depositing them in above-ground parts. Annual floods leach isotopes from the “soil – rhizosphere – above-ground parts of plant” system into river water. This study assesses seasonal isotope removal from two model sites from the KMCC near impact zone: Atamanovskaya spit and Balchugovskaya channel, differing in hydrological conditions. The isotope removal calculation used data on isotope activities in system components, percentages of mobile isotope forms in in system components, component mass per area, and area flooded during normal annual flooding. Considered floods are seasonal rises determined by the operation mode of Krasnoyarsk HPP (40–60 cm in April-June; 30–40 cm in September-November), flooding coastal zones. Results show remobilization of 10⁸–10⁹ Bq per season, comparable to KMCC’s annual input into the Yenisei floodplain (10⁷–10⁹ Bq for ¹³⁷Cs; 10⁸–10¹⁰ Bq for ⁹⁰Sr). A quasi-steady state exists between input and output at the two model sites. No statistically significant correlations were found, except a weak negative one for ¹³⁷Cs specific activities (Bq∙kg⁻¹) in the above-ground parts of plants of the head of the Atamanovskaya spit and ¹³⁷Cs annual input into the Yenisei floodplain (Bq) from the KMCC (R² = 0.8251, p = 0.0122, ρ = -0.07). Secondary isotope migration may come not only from annual KMCC input but also from mobilization of previously deposited inventories. Precise quantitative assessment requires further field studies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9801,"journal":{"name":"Catena","volume":"260 ","pages":"Article 109451"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145106617","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The 7.2 ka cold event and its societal impact: climate-induced hiatus in the Dadiwan Culture of the Chinese Loess Plateau","authors":"Yuqing Yang ,&nbsp;Xingxing Liu ,&nbsp;Yuan Li ,&nbsp;Liangcheng Tan ,&nbsp;Xulong Wang ,&nbsp;Long Ma ,&nbsp;Lele Ren ,&nbsp;Peng Cheng ,&nbsp;Yuda Chui ,&nbsp;Hongli Zhao ,&nbsp;Youbin Sun","doi":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109448","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109448","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Abrupt climate events in the Holocene have been recognized as critical factors influencing the evolution of human civilization. The Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP), as one of the cradles of Chinese ancient civilization, witnessed the emergence of numerous early cultures. The Dadiwan Culture (7800–4800cal yr BP), situated in the western CLP, represents one of the earliest centers for dryland agricultural domestication and cultivation systems in northern China. However, this cultural sequence exhibits a pronounced ∼500-year hiatus between its initial (Phase I: 7800–7300cal yr BP) and subsequent (Phase II: 6500–6000cal yr BP) developmental stages, with the causal relationship between this discontinuity and coeval climate variability remaining unresolved. Through high-resolution multiproxy (organic carbon, total nitrogen, grain size) analysis of a high-sedimentation-rate fluvial terrace loess-paleosol sequence in the Dadiwan region, we identified a pronounced weakening of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) concurrent with abrupt cooling and aridification at ∼7.2 ka. This climatic anomaly demonstrates temporal correspondence with two key forcing mechanisms: (1) enhanced freshwater fluxes into the North Atlantic Ocean, and (2) reduced solar irradiance during the mid-Holocene. Integrating paleoclimatic reconstructions with archaeological evidence, we infer that this abrupt climate transition likely precipitated the observed cultural discontinuity in the Dadiwan sequence. Our findings elucidate the critical role of centennial-scale climate variability in shaping Neolithic societal trajectories and agricultural adaptation strategies in semi-arid East Asia.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9801,"journal":{"name":"Catena","volume":"260 ","pages":"Article 109448"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145061223","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Depth-dependent drivers of soil organic carbon thermal stability across Tibetan alpine grasslands","authors":"Yazhen Li ,&nbsp;Xia Wang ,&nbsp;Yarong Zhang ,&nbsp;Yunfei Zhao ,&nbsp;Huawei Zhu ,&nbsp;Wenhui Duan ,&nbsp;Liujun Li ,&nbsp;Long Qian ,&nbsp;Ziyang Niu","doi":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109458","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109458","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The response of soil organic carbon (SOC) to climate warming is contingent on its stability. However, the mechanisms sustaining SOC stability across the soil profile in Tibetan alpine grassland ecosystems remain inadequately understood. This study investigated how mineral protection and molecular composition influence SOC thermal stability across soil depths under changing climatic conditions. We assessed SOC stability using thermogravimetric (TG-T50) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC-T50) analyses, characterized molecular composition via nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and evaluated mineral protection through targeted chemical extractions. The results showed that the TG-T50 and DSC- T50 values in the topsoil (363.24°C and 360.62 °C) were lower than those in the subsoil (373.09 °C and 363.16 °C), suggesting enhanced thermal stability at greater depths. Molecular characteristics and mineral protection explained 21 % and 43 % of SOC stability in the topsoil, and 29 % and 39 % in the subsoil, respectively. Molecular characteristics exerted a stronger influence on subsoil SOC stability, whereas mineral protection played a more dominant role in both the topsoil and subsoil. The complex interactions between minerals and the molecular characteristics that govern SOC stability were emphasized. Moreover, mean annual temperature significantly and directly influenced the molecular resistance in the subsoil. Despite the inherent thermal stability of subsoil SOC, climate change may undermine its biochemical stability and accelerate SOC losses in the subsoils of the Tibetan Plateau. These findings highlight the critical role of mineral-molecule interactions in controlling carbon persistence, and offer process-based insights for forecasting SOC dynamics in vulnerable alpine ecosystems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9801,"journal":{"name":"Catena","volume":"260 ","pages":"Article 109458"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145061224","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effects of nitrogen and phosphorus addition on phytolith carbon sequestration in alpine grassland","authors":"Jiahao Qin ,&nbsp;Xiaodong Zhang ,&nbsp;Shikui Dong ,&nbsp;Changxun Yu ,&nbsp;Xiaomin Yang ,&nbsp;Zimin Li ,&nbsp;Danghui Xu ,&nbsp;Hailong Wang ,&nbsp;Zhaoliang Song","doi":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109447","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109447","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Alpine grassland ecosystem plays a vital role in regulating global carbon (C) cycle, being of great importance for mitigating global warming. Applying nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertilizers illustrates significant effects on alpine grassland service function in Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP), especially on grassland ecosystem C sink. Phytolith C sequestration, as an important C sink mechanism, has significant contribution to global long-term stable C sink. However, the effects of N and P addition on phytolith C sequestration in alpine grassland ecosystem of QTP are still unclear. We conducted a field experiment with N and P addition treatments in alpine grassland of QTP to analyze their effects on soil properties, plant biomass, phytolith contents, and the occluded C (PhytOC) contents in alpine grassland ecosystem. Experimental results showed that adding N fertilizers (72 kg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹) significantly increased the grass phytolith content, with an increase of 29.5 ± 17.5 % compared to the control, and with a 12.9 ± 9.1 % increase with adding P fertilizers (36 kg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹). In contrast, the co-addition of N and P increased the soil phytolith and PhytOC contents (0–10 cm) by 40.9 ± 14.4 % and 58.9 ± 1.6 %, respectively. Yet excessive N addition reduced the contents of soil phytolith and PhytOC due to soil acidification and nutrient imbalances. In addition, both soil organic C and soil available silicon had significant positive correlation with soil phytolith contents, while soil pH and ammonium N had significant negative correlation with soil phytolith contents. These findings reveal that adding N and P regulates the long-term stable C sequestration in alpine grassland ecosystem via promoting the accumulation of phytoliths and phytolith C storage. Our findings provide the main scientific reference for the management of alpine grassland ecosystem on the QTP.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9801,"journal":{"name":"Catena","volume":"260 ","pages":"Article 109447"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145047057","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Climatic and topographic controls on soil organic carbon distribution across continents","authors":"Yong Li ,&nbsp;Shufeng Zheng ,&nbsp;Xiangtian Meng ,&nbsp;Liping Wang ,&nbsp;Yunfei Yu ,&nbsp;Yu Zhang ,&nbsp;Guowei Zhang ,&nbsp;Shenqi Zhang ,&nbsp;Xilong Dai ,&nbsp;Weimin Ruan ,&nbsp;Changkun Wang ,&nbsp;Huanjun Liu ,&nbsp;Chong Luo","doi":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109435","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109435","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Soil organic carbon (SOC) plays a crucial role in the global carbon cycle, representing the largest terrestrial organic carbon reservoir. However, the spatial distribution patterns of SOC content and their relationships with environmental factors in the black soil regions of Northeast China (NEC) and the Mississippi River Basin in North America (MNA) remain unclear. This study aims to characterize the spatial distribution of SOC content in these two black soil regions and to investigate its associations with multiple environmental drivers across various spatial scales. We employed a multi-scale random forest modeling framework combined with interpretability techniques, including SHAP values and partial dependence plots, to identify the dominant climatic and topographic drivers of SOC variability. In NEC, SOC is predominantly in the 30–40 g/kg range (27.32 % of the area) with a broader distribution across lower ranges, while MNA shows greater dominance in the same range (35.92 % of the area). Spatial variability differs by scale: NEC exhibits higher heterogeneity at finer scales (5–10 km), whereas MNA shows increased variability at larger scales (20–50 km). At smaller scales (≤20 km), terrain factors such as slope and elevation primarily regulate SOC, while at larger scales (&gt;20 km), climatic factors like temperature and precipitation dominate. Regionally, SOC in NEC shows high sensitivity to temperature, with a sharp decline between 1 °C and 5 °C, whereas SOC in MNA remains relatively stable across lower temperature ranges (−4 °C to 5 °C), exhibiting notable decreases only beyond 8 °C. Geographically, SOC peaks at higher latitudes (&gt;47°N) and elevations (up to 1700 m) in NEC, but at mid-latitudes (43°–45°N) and mid-elevations (400–600 m) in MNA. These findings highlight the necessity of scale-dependent and region-specific strategies for SOC assessment and management in black soil regions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9801,"journal":{"name":"Catena","volume":"260 ","pages":"Article 109435"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145047053","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Series capillary bundle model for simultaneously estimating the hydraulic conductivity for saturated frozen soil and unfrozen unsaturated soil","authors":"Lei Chen ,&nbsp;Xiyan Zhang ,&nbsp;Feng Ming ,&nbsp;Xiaolong Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109438","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109438","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Estimation of the hydraulic conductivity of saturated frozen soil (SFS) and unsaturated unfrozen soil (UUS) is crucial for understanding the water flow process. This study proposed a new model for simultaneously estimating the hydraulic conductivity of the SFS and UUS based on a series capillary bundle model wherein the radius of the capillaries varies along the length and an assumption that the soils in different temperature or suction conditions were regarded as a series of independent porous media. The model does not require consideration of the probability of the connection between the pores with different diameters. Given the relation between the pore size distribution (PSD) and the soil freezing characteristic curve (SFCC) and the soil water characteristic curve (SWCC), the model was expressed as a function of temperature, suction, liquid water content, and saturation. To examine the model’s validity, the predictions of 12 SFS and 18 UUS samples were calculated and compared with the measured data. The results revealed the model validity and significance of tortuosity. To attain appropriate tortuosity, empirical formulas for the SFS and UUS were determined by the inversion method and performed better than the previous three tortuosities. Additionally, the influences of hysteresis, saturated water content, and ice lens on hydraulic conductivity are discussed. The proposed model is more realistic and proves that the model developed based on the PSD can simultaneously predict hydraulic conductivity for the SFS and UUS.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9801,"journal":{"name":"Catena","volume":"260 ","pages":"Article 109438"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145047056","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Logjam controls the fluvial channel morphology: Interception and blockage characteristics of large wood and its influence on sedimentary dynamics","authors":"Jiangang Chen ,&nbsp;Dandan Li ,&nbsp;Gaogao Fei ,&nbsp;Lu Zeng ,&nbsp;Haitao Liu ,&nbsp;Jinshui Wang ,&nbsp;Ziqin Tao ,&nbsp;Chenyuan Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109440","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109440","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Large pieces of wood can be seen everywhere in vegetation-developed gullies, whose transportation, deposition, and logjam in channels significantly affect the processes of debris flows. However, little is known about the characteristics of sediment deposition induced by the accumulation of large amounts of wood in naturally blocked wood, check dams, and bridges. In this study, small-scale experimental tests were carried out to investigate the characteristics of the interception rates, sediment deposition volume, and energy dissipation. The results revealed that the obstacles in the channel changed the large wood transport process, and the large wood interception rate gradually increased with increasing large wood relative length among the three obstacles; however, different characteristics of different obstacles were also observed. In addition, logjam and fluid density caused changes in <span><span>channel morpholog</span><svg><path></path></svg></span>y, and the length and depth of the sediment deposition volume gradually increased with increasing fluid density. Moreover, different trends in the depth change rate (Δ<em>H</em>/<em>H</em>₀) and Froude number (<em>F</em>₀) were observed. Δ<em>H</em>/<em>H</em>₀ was significantly influenced by the dimensionless large wood accumulation factor and fluid density, and the greater the fluid density was, the faster the growth rate was. Furthermore, stable logjams can dissipate fluid energy, but this effect is almost negligible for relatively large wood lengths, and natural and engineering logjams are conducive to reducing erosion in gullies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9801,"journal":{"name":"Catena","volume":"260 ","pages":"Article 109440"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145047055","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The constraining effects of rocky desertification on ecosystem services in the South China karst region have diminished over time","authors":"Ling Xiong,&nbsp;Rui Li,&nbsp;Benjin Yu,&nbsp;Kangning Xiong","doi":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109437","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109437","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Over the past two decades, the Chinese government has implemented extensive ecological protection and restoration programs in the karst regions of South China, mitigating rocky desertification (RD) and transforming the area into a global hotspot for greening. However, within the context of rocky desertification management, the nonlinear relationships between RD and ecosystem services, as well as their constraining effects, have not been effectively addressed. Moreover, the application of RD threshold in adaptive management of karst areas is still limited. This study focuses on various karst geomorphological regions in South China to elucidate the mechanisms by which RD impacts ecosystem services and to investigate the constraining effects and thresholds across different karst landscapes. Our results indicate that since the implementation of rocky desertification control projects, the regional ecological environment has significantly improved. The thresholds at which RD affects ecosystem services have increased over time, suggesting that its constraining effects have diminished. Among the four quantified ecosystem services, the thresholds for the impact on grain production services are lower in most geomorphological regions, indicating that RD imposes stronger constraints on grain production compared to other services. By evaluating ecological projects from the perspective of these constraining effects, this study provides a scientific basis for developing differentiated strategies for RD prevention and control.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9801,"journal":{"name":"Catena","volume":"260 ","pages":"Article 109437"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145047050","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Alley width and slope position influence soil carbon storage, nutrient dynamics and hydrology at a mature silvoarable site, SW England","authors":"Josiah B. Judson ,&nbsp;Pippa J. Chapman ,&nbsp;Joseph Holden ,&nbsp;Marcelo V. Galdos","doi":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109439","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109439","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Optimising benefits from agroforestry requires better understanding of spatial factors such as alley width and slope position. We sampled soil (0–50 cm) from a mature organic silvoarable site in SW England with tree rows at 12 and 24 m spacing to determine the impact of these factors on soil physical properties, carbon (C) storage and fertility. We consider how functioning differs in cropped alley and tree-row components, and how alley width influences trade-offs in ecosystem benefits. Benefits from rows extended into alleys which were 8.8 % less compacted and contained 70 % more available P than an adjacent, treeless control. Competition for nutrients and moisture was observed at the row-alley boundary, with lower subsoil concentrations attributable to tree root uptake. Agroforestry mitigated soil erosion despite being parallel to slope: in the control area 0.8 % more soil organic matter and a 3.5 % higher clay fraction was observed downslope than upslope, with no equivalent effect under agroforestry. Fertility traded off with alley width, with more N and P stored in 12 m alleys. Soil and tree-biomass C differences (700 kg C ha⁻¹ year⁻¹) compared with the control were only significant in the 12 m system (110 stems ha⁻¹) and three times lower than estimated silvoarable contributions to future UK C budgets. Moreover, planting at lower densities (∼50 stems ha⁻¹) is likely due to constraints of modern farm machinery. Assessment of silvoarable contributions to temperate ecosystem service provision must therefore consider additional benefits beyond C sequestration if agroforestry is to contribute to future landscape resilience.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9801,"journal":{"name":"Catena","volume":"260 ","pages":"Article 109439"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145047051","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}