Improving soil water retention capacity of economic forest using rock wool in hilly area
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DOI:10.7606/j.issn.1000-7601.2020.03.02
Key Words: rock wool  soil moisture conservation  economic forests  seasonal drought  hilly areas
Author NameAffiliation
GU Jiayue Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Carbon Cycling in Forest Ecosystems and Carbon Sequestration, Lin’an, Zhejiang 311300, China 
FANG Wei Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Carbon Cycling in Forest Ecosystems and Carbon Sequestration, Lin’an, Zhejiang 311300, China 
GAO Jing Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Carbon Cycling in Forest Ecosystems and Carbon Sequestration, Lin’an, Zhejiang 311300, China 
YAN Shuxian Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Carbon Cycling in Forest Ecosystems and Carbon Sequestration, Lin’an, Zhejiang 311300, China 
FENG Gelin Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Carbon Cycling in Forest Ecosystems and Carbon Sequestration, Lin’an, Zhejiang 311300, China 
LIU Caixia Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Carbon Cycling in Forest Ecosystems and Carbon Sequestration, Lin’an, Zhejiang 311300, China 
XU Qiufang Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Carbon Cycling in Forest Ecosystems and Carbon Sequestration, Lin’an, Zhejiang 311300, China 
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Abstract:
      In order to explore a novel and practical way to conserve soil moisture and alleviate the seasonal drought of soil in hilly area where irrigation is not available, rock wool (RW) was used as the test material. The water increasing potential of RW in different texture soil, the diffusing capacity of water absorbed by RW in soil, the water\|holding capacity of RW on different slope positions, and the effects on the growth of rapeseed in Carya cathayensis forest were studied through indoor simulation and field woodland experiments. Indoor simulation experiment results showed that the maximum volumetric water holding capacity of RW was 64.64%. When soil was replaced with RW, the water\|holding capacity characteristic of maximum effective water content (v%) increased by 54.02%, 50.67%, 41.41%, and 50.31% for loose sand, sandy loam, neutral loam, and light clay soil, respectively. The water diffusing speed from water\|saturated RW in soil reached a steady level in both vertical and horizontal directions. The maximum soil moisture content at the point of 5 cm apart from water\|saturated RW was 27.89% and 20.67% for vertical and horizontal directions respectively, and at 10 cm was 13.13% and 13.00%, respectively. Therefore, it was suggested that the embedding position of RW should be close to the roots. The forestland experiment showed that RW played a great role on soil water conservation in different slope of Taxus chinensis forest land. The soil moisture content of different points was following the order: near RW > near plant roots of RW > non\|RW (control) at both up and down slopes of T. chinensis forest during continuous sunny days. The soil moisture content near RW was 29.19% and 23.39% higher than that of non\|RW woodland in C. cathayensis woodland after long\|term drought and rain (P<0.05), respectively. The width of the base distribution of rapeseed was measured to be 80 cm, which was more than five times of RW itself. The stem diameter, plant height, leaf area, and fresh weight of flowering rape plants in buried RW land were 58.63%, 62.85%, 65.66%, and 44.51% higher than those in non\|RW land (P<0.05), respectively. It was concluded that using RW material was one of the effective measures to solve the problem of the seasonal drought in hilly land without irrigation.