LAUSR

Abstract Many erodible and unstable bare soil slopes were exposed under rainfall during the tidal flat reclaimed to be farmland in the coastal provinces of China. There is an urgent need for erosion control methods that are not only efficient and effective long term but also economical and environmentally friendly for slopes with saline-sodic soils. A combination of rock fragment cover (RC) and polyacrylamide (PAM) might be a potential choice. We investigated the synergistic effect of RC and PAM amendment rates on infiltration, runoff, and erosion processes for slopes of 15° with saline-sodic soils that were subjected to two 60-min simulated rainstorms with an intensity of 60 mm/ h under laboratory conditions. Nine treatments with three RC (0%, 15%, and 30%) and three PAM applied rates (0, 0.4, and 1.0 g/kg) in the upper soil layer were all exposed to two sequential rains of deionized water, and these two rainfall events (E1 and E2) were 4 h apart. The results showed that the embedded rock fragment cover decreased the infiltration rate (IR) and increased the runoff rate, which increased sediment yield rate (Rs) in rainfall E1. In E2, RC had a significant (P