Slope is the basic unit of the catchment. Research on the process and influencing factors of water and soil loss at slope scale is the very important component of water and soil loss in small catchment. Karst landform is well developed in southwest of China which usually have a dual hydrological system of ground and underground drainage influencing the process and paths of surface runoff generation and soil loss.

Professor WANG Shijie and his research group from the State Key of Laboratory of Environment Geochemistry (SKLEG) at Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGCAS) have carried out surface runoff and soil loss monitoring on limestone slopes at Chenqi catchment, Puding, Anshun for the last 4 years. Their work was published on Catena ('Effects of land use, land cover and rainfall regime on the surface runoff and soil loss on karst slopes in southwest China' , Volume:90Pages:53-62Published:MAR 2012).

Based on the rainfall depth, intensity and duration, land use/coverage and water and soil loss monitoring results, their paper indicated that the runoff and soil loss at limestone slopes were affected by the land use management and vegetation coverage, the runoff and soil loss exhibited remarkable variances among different rainfall regimes, and the limestone fissures and fractures play important roles in surface runoff generation on karst limestone slopes. The above research will help us not only to better understand the process and mechanism of water and soil loss on karst limestone slopes, but also to improve the water and soil loss protection management.

(By PENG Tao)