5. Conclusions
The interacting effects of slope and vegetation cover on runoff and sediment yield characteristics of riparian slopes in the lower reaches of Yellow River, China, were investigated. The results indicated that runoff and sediment yield were greatly influenced by slope gradient at steep slope gradients (15° and 20°), and they mainly were affected by vegetation cover at medium slope gradients (5° and 10°). The enriched particle size of the eroded sediment showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing with the increasing slope gradients. Regarding different slope gradients, Dx (10), Dx (50), and Dx (90) mainly were made up of silt, coarse powder grains and very fine sand, and very fine sand and fine sand, respectively.
Slope gradient had an extremely significant effect on the three sediment yield characteristics (runoff sediment concentration, accumulative sediment yield, and erosion sediment yield), and vegetation cover had an extremely significant effect on accumulative sediment yield and erosion sediment yield. Further, the effect of vegetation cover on the slope erosion sediment yield weakened gradually with increasing slope gradient (at medium slope gradients of 5° and 10°), while the effect of slope gradient increased at steep slope gradients (15° and 20°).