Relationship between farmland shelterbelt and water erosion in rolling-hill area of black soil region in Northeast China

The distribution of farmland shelterbelts and their effects on different manners of water erosion in the lands between them were analyzed on the basis,of three years field. investigations and two years plot observations of runoff and sediment yields. The results showed that tillage direction of the area was decided by distribution pattern of the shelterbelts because of the local special topographical characteristics and the tillage practices by big machines, which led to about 1/3 of the lands in the small catchments under up and down slope cultivation, and made rill erosion in the furrows more severely, meanwhile, the shelterbelts played an important role in alleviating the intensity of ephemeral gullies and gullies. So the conclusion is that the shelterbelts will exert positive effects on soil and water conservation only when their distributions are reasonable.