The Research of Chinese Karst Ecological Hydrology

Karst environment is very common in southwest China. Soil and vegetation are the most sensitive elements for the variation of karst environment. The weathering of carbonate is important soil formation mechanism in karst area. But its soil forming ability is so poor that the thickness of soil layer becomes thin by the water erosion, though the soil loss is insignificant but serious. The karst process, the ecology process, the hydrology process are three important circulation mechanisms in the karst multiple media environment. In the Chinese North and South karst area, the eco-environmental protection and restoration has already been the important part as the national territorial resources and the environmental comprehensive development and management. The character of karst plants mainly depends on the environmental conditions, i. e. lack of water, richness of Ca, poor soil and shortage of organic matter. The plants have low growth pace and low life-form resource; it is vulnerable under the disturbance of irrational human activities. Therefore, the rocky desertification is the final result of karst ecosystem degradation. But ecological condition is severe in the North and South karst area, especially in the south karst stone mountainous area and the north arid karst area. There are many problems with the eco-environmental protection and restoration. This paper takes the karst multiple media environment as a core, comprehensively discusses the relations of the three processes-karst, hydrology, and ecology, and puts forward direction of the research on karst ecology hydrology and the future.