[Factors influencing soil moisture at different scales of the Lhasa River basin, China]

The scale difference and role of factors influencing soil moisture regime are the basis of scale dependency study. This study, which selected farmland soils in the Lhasa River basin of the Tibetan Plateau as the research object, identified the main factors affecting the soil moisture using ecological redundancy analysis (RDA) and statistic analysis methods, based on data obtained by remote sensing technology and field surveys. The soil layers of 0-20, 20-40 and 40-60 cm were collected with the soil-drilling method at each of 115 sampling sites distributed in the whole basin of the Lhasa River and 49 sampling sites in one of its sub-watersheds. The results showed that soil moisture content in the Lhasa River basin, under the influence of climate and altitude, increased from southwest to northeast, and was higher in the lower soil layer than the upper layer due to water supplement by lateral seepage of the river. At sub-watershed scale, farmland soil water content decreased with increasing the altitude and slope, and soil water storage capacity decreased with increasing the gravel content. The results were a significant support for the farmland expansion to higher altitude, adjustment of cropping structure, land consolidation, and construction of irrigation facilities in the region.