Xu et al. (2025) Soil Texture Controls Terrestrial Water Storage Anomalies in the Chinese Loess Plateau

Identification

• Journal: CATENA
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-11-29
• Authors: Shuangyi Xu, Wende Zheng, Tianfeng Gu, Xi-Pin Wu, Kang-Jun Huang
• DOI: 10.1016/j.catena.2025.109583

Research Groups

• State Key Laboratory of Continental Evolution and Early Life, Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi’an, China
• Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling, China
• University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
• Key Laboratory of Resource Biology and Biotechnology in Western China (Ministry of Education), Northwest University, Xi’an, China

Short Summary

This study investigates the influence of soil texture on terrestrial water storage anomalies (TWSA) in the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP), revealing that soil texture critically controls TWSA dynamics, decline rates, and precipitation-related hysteresis effects across different loess types.

Objective

• To explore and quantify the influence of soil texture on terrestrial water storage anomalies (TWSA) across the Chinese Loess Plateau, specifically categorizing the region into clay loess, typical loess, and sandy loess zones.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP), categorized into clay loess, typical loess, and sandy loess zones.
• Temporal Scale: 2003 to 2022, with specific analyses for a long-term trend (2004–2019) and a short-term period (2019–2022).

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Water balance perspective for TWSA quantification; Random Forest (mentioned as a keyword, implying its use in analysis).
• Data sources: GRACE satellite data (for Terrestrial Water Storage Anomalies), precipitation data, and groundwater change data (implied as primary driver). Original research data.

Main Results

• Spatially, TWSA exhibits a decreasing trend from the southeast to the northwest of the CLP.
• The long-term TWSA decline rate (2004–2019) is strongly linked to soil texture:
  • Clay loess: −11.61 mm yr⁻¹
  • Typical loess: −7.80 mm yr⁻¹
  • Sandy loess: −6.57 mm yr⁻¹
• In the short term (2019–2022), TWSA variations are a result of combined climatic and soil property effects.
• Groundwater changes were identified as the primary driver of TWSA decline, with infiltration rate differences shaping spatial TWSA patterns.
• Soil texture modulates precipitation-related hysteresis in TWSA, with the strongest effect in clay loess, followed by typical loess, and the weakest in sandy loess.

Contributions

• Provides new insights into the critical role of soil texture in controlling TWSA dynamics, clarifying a previously unclear aspect of hydrological processes in the CLP.
• Offers a detailed quantification of TWSA decline rates and hysteresis effects across different soil texture zones, which has implications for global water cycle research and water resource management strategies.

Funding

• Not specified in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Xu2025Soil,
  author = {Xu, Shuangyi and Zheng, Wende and Gu, Tianfeng and Wu, Xi-Pin and Huang, Kang-Jun},
  title = {Soil Texture Controls Terrestrial Water Storage Anomalies in the Chinese Loess Plateau},
  journal = {CATENA},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1016/j.catena.2025.109583},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2025.109583}
}