Soil erosion and loss of soil nutrients have been a crucial environment threat in Southwest China. The land use and its impact on soil qualities continue to be highlighted. The present study was conducted to compare soil erosion under four land use types(i.e.,forestland, abandoned farmland, tillage, and grassland) and their effects on soil organic carbon(SOC), total nitrogen(TN) and total phosphorus(TP) in the Shuanglong catchment of the Dianchi Lake watershed, China. There were large variations in the erosion rate and the nutrient distributions across the four land use types. The erosion rates estimated by137 Cs averaged 2 133 t km-2year-1under tillage and abandoned farmland over the erosion rate of non-cultivated sites, and the grasslands showed a net deposition. For all sites, the nutrient contents basically decreased with the soil depth. Compared with tillage and abandoned farmland, grassland had the highest SOC and TN contents within 0–40 cm soil layer, followed by forestland. The significant correlations between137 Cs, SOC and TN were observed. The nutrient loss caused by erosion in tillage was the highest. These results suggested that grassland and forestland would be beneficial for SOC and TN sequestration over a long-term period because of their ability to reduce the loss of nutrients by soil erosion. Our study demonstrated that reduction of nutrient loss in the red soil area could be made through well-managed vegetation restoration measures.
