Abstract
As a consequence of global change and human activities, processes of soil erosion are expected to increase in forested areas, resulting in exposed roots. Dendrogeomorphic research was conducted by analyzing exposed roots of Picea wilsonii subjected to continuous denudation along a main road in Tulugou National Forest Reserve, eastern Qilian Mountains, to reconstruct the local soil erosion dynamics. We determined the start of the exposure by examining the shifts in the ring-growth patterns from concentric to eccentric and by analyzing the detailed changes of wood anatomical features of exposed roots. We also find that the width of growth ring, the percentage of latewood and the average cell size of earlywood tracheids are all remarkable signs for soil lowering. According to the analysis of ANOVA (Fisher’s least significant difference method), the reduction of the cell size of earlywood tracheids is verified to be the key indicator for dating the first year of exposure and occurs prior to the other two indicators. Using 40 roots from 23 trees spread along the road, it has been found that erosion rates vary between 3.3 and 13.5 mm/year with an average value about 5.3 ± 2.1 mm/year. The intensity and occurrence of soil erosion may be influenced by the increase of human activities.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alestalo J (1971) Dendrochronological interpretation of geomorphic processes. Fennia 105:1–139
Antonova GF, Stasova VV (1993) Effects of environmental factors on wood formation in Scots pine stems. Trees 7:214–219
Barefoot, Hankins (1982) Identification of modern and tertiary woods. Clarendon Press Oxford, UK
Bodoque JM, Díez-Herrero A, Martín-Duque JF, Rubiales JM, Godfrey A, Pedraza J, Carrasco RM, Sanz MA (2005) Sheet erosion rates determined by using dendrogeomorphological analysis of exposed tree roots: two examples from central Spain. Catena 64:81–102
Bodoque JM, Lucía A, Ballesteros JA, Martín-Duque JF, Juan RubialesM, Genova M (2011) Measuring medium-term sheet erosion in gullies from trees: a case study using dendrogeomorphological analysis of exposed pine roots in central Iberia. Geomorphology 134:417–425
Bridges EM, Hannan ID, Oldeman LR, Penning de Vries FWT, Scherr SJ, Sombatpanib S (eds) (2001) Response to land degradation. The soil and water conservation society of Thailand (SWCST) and others. Department of Land Development, Bangkok
Carrara PE, Carroll TR (1979) The determination of erosion rates from exposed tree roots in the Piceance Basin, Colorado. Earth Surf Process 4:307–317
Chartier MP, Rostagno CM, Roig FA (2009) Soil erosion rates in rangelands of northeastern Patagonia: a dendrogeomorphological analysis using exposed shrub roots. Geomorphology 106:344–351
Corona C, Lopez-Saez J, Rovéra G, Stoffel M, Astrade L, Berger F (2011) High resolution, quantitative reconstruction of erosion rates based on anatomical changes in exposed roots at Draix, Alpes de Haute-Provence—critical review of existing approaches and independent quality control of results. Geomorphology 125:433–444
Danzer SR (1996) Rates of slope erosion determined from exposed roots of ponderosa pine at Rose Canyon Lake, Arizona. In: Dean J, Meko DM, Sewtnam TW (eds) Tree rings, environment, and humanity. Department of Geosciences, The University of Arizona, Tucson pp 671–678
Dotterweich M, Schmitt A, Schmidtchen Ggd, Bork HR (2003) Quantifying historical gully erosion in northern Bavaria. Catena 50:135–150
Dunne T, Dietrich WE, Brunengo J (1978) Recent and past erosion rates in semi-arid Kenya. Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie (NF supplement band) 29:130–140
Eardley AJ, Viavant W (1967) Rates of denudation as measured by Bristlecone pines, special studies, vol 21. Utah Geological and Mineralogical Survey, Cedar Breaks, Utah
Fantucci R (2007) Dendrogeomorphological analysis of shore erosion along Bolsena lake (central Italy). Dendrochronologia 24:69–78
Huang L, Shao Q, Liu J (2011) Spatial-temporal analysis of soil erosion in grassland over the past three decades in Sanjiangyuan region, Qinghai Province China. J Geo Inf Sci 13:12–21 (in Chinese)
Krause C, Eckstein D (1993) Dendrochronology of roots. Dendrochronologia 11:9–23
LaMarche V (1963) Origin and geologic significance of buttress roots of bristlecone pines, White Mountains, California. US Geol Surv Prof Pap 475C:C149–C150
LaMarche V (1968) Rates of slope degradation as determined from botanical evidence, White Mountains, California. US Geol Surv Prof Pap 32:341–377
Lopez Saez J, Corona C, Stoffel M, Rovéra G, Astrade L, Berger F (2011) Mapping of erosion rates in marly badlands based on a coupling of anatomical changes in exposed roots with slope maps derived from LiDAR data. Earth Surf Proc Landf 36:1162–1171
McAuliffe JR, Scuderi LA, McFadden LD (2006) Tree-ring record of hillslope erosion and valley floor dynamics: landscape responses to climate variation during the last 400 yr in the Colorado Plateau, northeastern Arizona Global Planet. Change 50(3–4):184–201
Pan B, Geng H, Hu X, Sun R, Wang C (2010) The topographic controls on the decadal-scale erosion rates in Qilian Shan Mountains, NW China. Earth Planet Sci Lett 292:148–157
Pelfini M, Santilli M (2006) Dendrogeomorphological analyses on exposed roots along two mountain hiking trails in the central Italian Alps. Geogr Ann Ser A 88(3):223–236
Pérez-Rodríguez R, Marques MJ, Bienes R (2007) Use of dendrochronological method in Pinus halepensis to stimulate the soil erosion in the south east of Madrid (Spain). Sci Total Environ 378:156–160
Rubiales JM, Bodoque JM, Ballesteros JA, Diez-Herrero A (2008) Response of Pinus sylvestris roots to sheet-erosion exposure: an anatomical approach. Nat Hazards Earth Syst Sci 8:223–231
Schweingruber FH (1990) Anatomie Europäischer Hölzer. Haupt, Bern
Stoffel M, Bollschweiler M (2008) Tree-ring analysis in natural hazards research—an overview. Nat Hazards Earth Syst Sci 8:187–202
Stoffel M, Casteller A, Luckman BH, Villalba R (2012) Spatiotemporal analysis of channel wall erosion in ephemeral torrents using tree roots. An example from the Patagonian Andes 40:247–250
Su J, Gou X, Cao Z, Zhou F (2011) Diurnal course of photosynthesis and relationship with the eco-physiological factors of Qilian. Juniper 31:1011–1017 (in Chinese)
Toy TJ, Foster GR, Renard KG (2002) Soil erosion: processes, prediction measurement and control. Wiley, New York
Xie Y, Chen H, Xu K (2002) Application of digital remote sensing image method in soil erosion survey. J Lanzhou Univ (Nat Sci) 38:157–162 (in Chinese)
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the kind assistances form Zihong Man and his colleagues in the fieldwork. We also thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions and comments in improving the manuscript. This research was supported by National Science Foundation of China (Nos. 40971119, 40671191), Chinese 111 Project (No. B06026).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by A. Braeuning.
Special topic: Dendroecology in Asia.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhou, F., Gou, X., Zhang, J. et al. Application of Picea wilsonii roots to determine erosion rates in eastern Qilian Mountains, Northwest China. Trees 27, 371–378 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-012-0773-9
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-012-0773-9