Soil loss
The total soil loss in Cm, Hr, Vr+Cm, and Hr+Cm was significantly lower than CK at the maize seedling stage (Figure 5). Vr significantly augmented the soil loss amount by 7.03- and 2.29-fold at the rainfall intensities of 50 and 100 mm h-1, respectively. However, the total soil loss of CK was greater than that of Cm, Hr, and Vr+Cm, exceeding by 11.87-, 5.99-, and 7.79-fold at 50 mm h-1 and by 11.10-, 4.37-, 16.18-, and 20.47-fold at 100 mm h-1, respectively. Like the effect on runoff amount, Hr+Cm also showed the best performance for preventing runoff and soil loss at 50 mm h-1 (Table 3 and Figure 4). The total soil loss was not different among the other three conservation measures of Cm, Hr, and Vr+Cm at 50 mm h-1, although the ridges of Hr were breached; meanwhile, Cm, Vr, and Hr+Cm showed no significant difference, but Hr showed a significantly different soil loss from the three treatments because of ridge rupturing at 100 mm h-1. The results indicated that the conservation measures were useful in reducing soil loss; in particular, mulching was more effective than contour ridging, as seen in the case where the soil loss caused by Hr increased more than that caused by other conservation measures, especially under high rainfall intensity conditions, when contour ridges were destroyed.