Improving soil conservation and stream quality in rubber dominated watershed by integrated land management
- Publication Type
- Contribution to conference
- Authors
- Hongxi Liu, Sergey Blagodatskiy, Xueqing Yang, Carsten Marohn, Marcus Giese, Georg Cadisch
- Year of publication
- 2016
- Conference name
- EcoSummit
- Conference location
- Montpellier
Rubber plantations are expanding now to non-traditional production areas and thus threatening local ecosystem services, in such regions as Xishuangbanna, South-West China. The induced land cover change may markedly affect quantity and quality of surface runoff, which serves as the most important source for drinking water in the mountainous area; therefore can further threaten water security of local villages. Our study aimed at clarification of approaches enhancing ecosystem function of rubber plantations by improving soil conservation at plot level and ameliorating water quality by better landscape planning at watershed level. We evaluated sediment yields and runoff production at plot level with different rubber plantations ages; different herbicide application schemes; and total suspended solids export at rubber dominated watershed by continuously measuring water discharge and turbidity. Highest soil loss was measured in mid-age rubber plantation as 277 g m-2, which implicated potential water pollution (threshold 100 g m-2). Reduced herbicide can efficiently decrease sediment yields to 50 g m-2. Soil loss in rubber dominated watershed was estimated 0.3 t ha-1 y-1 while high frequency (over 15% time in rainy season) of medium high turbidity (>30 NTU) and turbidity over 1200 NTU appeared in storm events still strongly threatened security of local drinking water resource. Measures at plot (reduced herbicide) and watershed level (buffer zone) should be taken to supply better ecosystem service. Size and location of the filter strip needs to decide how much areas dedicated to environmental protection. Therefore, the Land Use Change Impact Assessment (LUCIA) model is used to simulate different scenarios of integrated land management (reduced herbicide + buffer zone) to identify best management practices for improved ecosystem function (stream turbidity) as well as maintained economic profitability (latex production). The results can further assist in cost-benefit analysis and decision-making in land management and landscape planning.