How Is Overland Flow Sediment Transport Capacity Affected by Biological Crusts?
- 1State Key Laboratory of Soil and Water Conservation and Desertification Control Northwest A&F University Yangling China
- 2State Grid (Xi'an) Environmental Protection Technique Center Co. Limit Xi'an China
Abstract
Overland flow sediment transport capacity (Tc) governs soil detachment and sediment deposition processes, yet its regulation by biological soil crusts (BSCs), particularly across varying algae–moss community compositions, remains poorly quantified. In this study, five BSC community compositions spanning an algal‐ to moss‐dominated gradient were selected on the Loess Plateau. Tc was measured using a scouring flume under six slope–discharge combinations (10°–25° and 0.2–1.0 L·s−1). The results showed that Tc ranged from 0.99 to 12.30 kg·m−1·s−1 and was reduced by 11.47%–23.07% relative to bare soil, with progressively greater reductions from algae‐dominated to moss‐dominated crusts. Among the measured BSC characteristics, surface roughness showed the strongest negative correlation with Tc and accounted for the largest unique fraction of its variation (59%) in the variation‐partitioning analysis of BSC characteristics. The relative contributions of BSC characteristics and hydraulic parameters varied with increasing hydraulic forcing, suggesting a transition toward greater hydraulic influence near a shear stress of 10 Pa. Two empirical power‐law equations incorporating surface roughness and shear stress provided good fits to the observed Tc under the lower‐ and higher‐shear‐stress conditions, respectively. These findings demonstrate that BSC‐induced changes in surface roughness govern sediment transport under shallow overland flow conditions and provide a mechanistic framework for improving erosion prediction and ecological restoration in semi‐arid regions.
Related
- Fe Isotope Fractionation during Early Diagenetic Pyrite Formation: Constraints from Reaction-Transport Modeling of the Santa Barbara Basin Sediment
- The effects of late Pleistocene sea-level fluctuations and sediment transport processes on the sequestration of fresh and brackish water in continental shelf environments
- Variability of suspended sediment transport dynamics between seasons and flow pathways in a small agricultural catchment
- Dynamics and sediment transport in a path-induced blowout in opposing wind conditions
- Computational and experimental study of multi-grain-size sediment transport and sorting process
BibTeX
@article{wang2026overland,
title = {{How Is Overland Flow Sediment Transport Capacity Affected by Biological Crusts?}},
author = {Jing Wang and Xiaobing Yu and Yanfen Yang and Yu Liu and Guobin Liu and Zhijian Zhang and Bing Wang and Heng Liu},
journal = {Water Resources Research},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1029/2026wr044098},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1029/2026wr044098},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - How Is Overland Flow Sediment Transport Capacity Affected by Biological Crusts?
AU - Jing Wang
AU - Xiaobing Yu
AU - Yanfen Yang
AU - Yu Liu
AU - Guobin Liu
AU - Zhijian Zhang
AU - Bing Wang
AU - Heng Liu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/31
JO - Water Resources Research
DO - 10.1029/2026wr044098
UR - https://doi.org/10.1029/2026wr044098
AB - Overland flow sediment transport capacity (Tc) governs soil detachment and sediment deposition processes, yet its regulation by biological soil crusts (BSCs), particularly across varying algae–moss community compositions, remains poorly quantified. In this study, five BSC community compositions spanning an algal‐ to moss‐dominated gradient were selected on the Loess Plateau. Tc was measured using a scouring flume under six slope–discharge combinations (10°–25° and 0.2–1.0 L·s−1). The results showed that Tc ranged from 0.99 to 12.30 kg·m−1·s−1 and was reduced by 11.47%–23.07% relative to bare soil, with progressively greater reductions from algae‐dominated to moss‐dominated crusts. Among the measured BSC characteristics, surface roughness showed the strongest negative correlation with Tc and accounted for the largest unique fraction of its variation (59%) in the variation‐partitioning analysis of BSC characteristics. The relative contributions of BSC characteristics and hydraulic parameters varied with increasing hydraulic forcing, suggesting a transition toward greater hydraulic influence near a shear stress of 10 Pa. Two empirical power‐law equations incorporating surface roughness and shear stress provided good fits to the observed Tc under the lower‐ and higher‐shear‐stress conditions, respectively. These findings demonstrate that BSC‐induced changes in surface roughness govern sediment transport under shallow overland flow conditions and provide a mechanistic framework for improving erosion prediction and ecological restoration in semi‐arid regions.
SN - 1944-7973
SN - 0043-1397
ER -