Effect of Vegetation Cover Types on Soil Infiltration Under Simulating Rainfall

In this study, simulated rainfall was applied to study the process of runoff generation and water infiltration under the cover of herbaceous vegetation at the preliminary succession stages. Results indicated that at the preliminary succession stages, as soil texture was loose, water infiltration was high. With the vegetation succession and the accumulation of organic matter in the soil, both physical and chemical properties of the soil were improved, which made the soil texture tight, and water infiltration rates decrease. With the progress of the rainfall, parts of the microbiotic soil crust were destroyed by raindrop impact, and water infiltration rates were improved. This result indicated that the existence of microbiotic soil crust reduced the soil infiltration rate. Thus, it is of great importance to improve soil infiltration by destroying the microbiotic soil crust with proper measures such as grazing in arid and semi-arid areas.