Controlling factors of soil saturated hydraulic conductivity in Taihang Mountain Region, northern China

In this study, 152 undisturbed soil samples from the 0–10 cm and 10–20 cm soil depths along two transects across the Taihang Mountain Region in northern China were investigated. The effect of soil properties (bulk density (BD), capillary porosity (CP), non-capillary porosity (NCP), soil organic carbon (SOC), and sand, silt, and clay contents) and environmental properties (land use type, topographical location, and elevation) on the Ks was determined. Moreover, the direct and indirect effects of these factors on the Ks were determined using the structural equation modeling (SEM). The results show that the Ks of the 0–10 cm soil depth (4.48 m/d) is significantly (p