Monitoring and Evaluation on Ecological Restoration for Water and Soil Conservation of Typical Small Watershed in Yao' an County

The man-induced ecological restoration of degraded ecosystem caused by water erosion within typical small watersheds on purple soil area in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in Yao' an County, Yunnan Province has been monitored and evaluated.It was showed by the results that the structure and function of the degraded ecosystem with natural recovery potential has been improved after 4-year-long period of man-induced ecological restoration.Both the ecosystem types and the area covered by more stable and positively successive ecosystem types apparently increased.The vertical structure of the ecosystem types restored with artificial measures was appearing, the biodiversity and biomass were promoted, the physical and chemical properties of local soil were improved along with the reduction of water erosion and increment of forest coverage, representing significant restoring effects.The quantities of water and soil erosion of the disturbed wasteland, artificial plantation, natural restoration area and terrace land reclaimed from steep slopes were decreased by 46.9 %~50.1 %, 49.6 %~59.3 %, 29.5 %~66.4 % and 65.1 %~76.1 % respectively within 3 years