ABSTRACT
Soil erosion is to-day one of the most serious economic problems in the world but especially on the Loess Plateau in China (Xiao et al. 2011). Improved knowledge of the effect of grass and shrub cover on resisting soil erosion can provide valuable information for soil and water conservation programs (Neave & Abrahams, 2002). Numerous studies have been conducted to document the effects of vegetation in reducing runoff and soil loss, but little research has been done to study soil erosion mechanical process on vegetation covered plots (Neris, et al. 2012, Hu et al. 2009). So, soil shear strength on different vegetation-covered slope was important to study the mechanical effects of vegetation on soil conservation and soil erosion reduction (LI, et al. 2013). The experiments were conducted at the hilly-gully region and water-wind erosion crisscross region in of North part of shaanxi Prov., China, where is a highly erosion-prone region that is covered with thick, highly erodible loess material.
