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Effect of W-OH, a hydrophilic polyurethane polymer, in controlling erosion of two typical erodible soils in southern China

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Abstract

A new hydrophilic polyurethane polymer, W-OH, has recently been widely used in southern China to control soil erosion, but the theory of its effectiveness lags behind the practice. We used two typically erodible soils, red clay soil (RCS) from sloping farmland and benggang sandy soil (BSS) from collapsing gullies, in southern China as test objects to analyze the effect of spraying W-OH on the characteristics of soil aggregates, infiltration, runoff, and sediment transport in indoor controlled experiments and outdoor simulated rainfall experiments. The mean diameter of the aggregate increased, the fractal dimension decreased, and the water-stable aggregate content increased in RCS and BSS as the concentration of W-OH increased from 0 to 7%. Spraying 5% W-OH significantly decreased the infiltration rate for both soils. Spraying W-OH increased the mean RCS and BSS runoff rates by 190 and 37.3% but decreased the sediment yields by 74.1 and 62.1%, respectively, and showed a good soil erosion control effect. Spraying W-OH also affected the leaching of nutrients, increasing total organic carbon content by 170 and 330% for RCS and BSS, respectively. This study provides theoretical supplementation for the application of W-OH for controlling soil erosion from sloping farmland and benggangs in southern China.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41807019), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20181109), the Science and Technology Services (STS) Network Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KFJ-STS-QYZD-093), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2019YFC1805104), the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Water Resources (2019039), and the Soil and Water Conservation and Ecological Environment Monitoring Station of Jiangsu Province (JSSW201911005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Xuchao Zhu, Yin Liang, Zhiyuan Tian & Xin Wang

  2. College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Xin Wang

  3. Soil and Water Conservation Bureau of Ganxian District, Ganxian, Ganzhou, 341100, China

    Xinzhen Qiu

Authors
  1. Xuchao Zhu
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  2. Yin Liang
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  3. Zhiyuan Tian
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  4. Xin Wang
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  5. Xinzhen Qiu
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Correspondence to Yin Liang.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Responsible Editor: Amjad Kallel

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Zhu, X., Liang, Y., Tian, Z. et al. Effect of W-OH, a hydrophilic polyurethane polymer, in controlling erosion of two typical erodible soils in southern China. Arab J Geosci 13, 1163 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-020-06191-z

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