Red Soil (Sunjia) CZO

Location

28° 12' 20.88" N, 116° 55' 41.88" E
Brief Site Description: 
The CZO is located in Sunjia watershed, situated 4 km from the Ecological Experimental Station of Red Soil, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jiangxi province, China.
Detailed Site Description: 

 

From natural to anthropogenic evolution of Red Soil and its impact on ecosystem function in the Critical Zone

Background: 

  • Red Soils cover 2.18 million km2, 23% of China’ land (largest area of a single soil type).
  • Support food production for 40% of population.
  • Highly weathered, degraded and vulnerable.
  • Second largest area of soil erosion in China
  • Sunjia CZO established in 2001.

Scientific Questions:

  1. How do weathering, soil development and key elements cycling respond to natural and anthropogenic perturbation?
  2. What hydrological processes drive mass movement in multi-scales?
  3. How do plant, soil and water interact at the interfaces in CZ and improve soil productivity and water use efficiency?  
  4. How to integrate and model ecosystem processes at regional scale?

UK PI: Paul Hallett
Chinese PI: Ganlin Zhang

Programme Coordinator: Sarah Dennis, s.j.dennis@leeds.ac.uk

See also: Yingtan Red Soil Ecological Station

Field Site Type: 
International CZO
Registration: 
Unregistered
Network(s): 
NERC-NSFC
Study Start Date: 
2001
Mean Annual Precipitation: 
1 785 millimeters / year
Average Annual Temperature: 
18°C
Land Cover: 
Evergreen Forest
Grassland/Herbaceous
Agriculture- Crops
Geology: 
other sedimentary
Soil Order: 
Ultisol
Hydrology: Surface water stream order: 
Unknown
Hydrology: Surface water - Stream Flow Performance: 
Unknown
Hydrology: Groundwater: 
Unknown
Climate: 
Unknown
Sub-Climate: 
Unknown
Group visibility: 
Public - accessible to all site users