Improvement of land surface vegetation ecology inhibited precipitation-triggered soil erosion in the alpine-cold river source area - A case study in Southern Gansu, China

Study region: Southern Gansu Plateau (SGP), located in the northeastern region of the Qinghai -Tibet Plateau, is a representative alpine-cold water source area for China's large rivers, such as the Yellow River and Yangtze River.Study focus: Identifying the contributions of dominant factors to the regional soil erosion rate (A) is important for understanding the environmental processes and benefits of water and soil con-servation, although related studies have seldom been conducted in alpine-cold regions such as the SGP. Accordingly, the main objectives of this study are (1) to determine the spatiotemporal dy-namics of soil erosion and its driving factors in the SGP area; (2) to quantify the relationship between the main influential factors and soil erosion; and (3) to separate the contributions of the above factors to variations in regional soil erosion on the SGP.New hydrological insights for the region: The multiyear average regional A for the SGP region was calculated as 24.18 t & sdot;hm-2 & sdot;a- 1, corresponding to an overall low intensity of regional soil erosion. The contributions of various time-varying factors, such as rainfall, vegetation cover, and conservation practices, to the reduction in A were-20.01%, 81.07%, and 21.95%, respectively, indicating that the improvement in land surface vegetation ecology dominated the decrease in A under the background of climate warming. The findings are expected to contribute to soil and water conservation in alpine-cold river source regions.