摘要：Vegetation is one of effective methods for soil and water conservation. How to select suitable vegetationspecies is a key problem in the practice. In this study. through 7 years observations on the rainfall, vegetationcover, total runoff and sediment in the plots, results indicated that the benefit of the vegetative cover on runoffand sediment dominated on all plots. The accumulative sediment yield from bare plot was 7 times to thatfrom Astragalus absurgens + Caragana korshindkii plots, also over 4 times to that from the Medicagosativa, Medicago sativa + Caragana korshindkii and Astragalus absurgens plots. Among all the vegetationtypes, Caragana korshindkii was the most efficient in reducing the runoff, and the combination of shrub andgrass also had better effect in reducing the runoff. The accumulative runoff from bare plot was 2.57 times tothat from the C. korshindkii, and over 2 times to that from M. sativa, M. sativa + C. korshindkii, A. absurgens+ C. korshindkii and Vicia amucena + C. korshindkii. This study is of great importance for the selection ofsuitable species for vegetation reconstruction in arid and semi-arid areas.
