Abstract:Soil moisture and temperature change sharply in the gully bank of the Dry-hot Valley Region, and vegetation restoration is extremely difficult in this area. Based on field investigation and in situobservation in the gully bank under the coverage of Kudzu, we set four treatments depending on the biomass of Kudzu cover (T1:309.70g/m2 fresh Kudzu; T2, T3, and T4:594.34, 1103.43, and 1693.27g/m2 withered Kudzu, respectively), and used plots without Kudzu coverage as control. The effect of the different extents of Kudzu coverage on soil moisture and temperature in the gully bank were studied in situ. The results showed that (1) soil water content in the gully bank under fresh coverage of Kudzu (T1) was 8.68%, which was 4.47% lower than that in the bare gully bank. However, soil water content in areas under withered Kudzu coverage (i.e., T2, T3, and T4) was 14.91%, 16.75%, 19.44%, respectively, which were greater than that in the bare gully bank by 1.76%, 3.60%, 6.29%, respectively. (2) Fresh coverage of Kudzu resulted in larger active layer, range ability, and variation degree than those in the bare gully bank, whereas withered coverage of Kudzu revealed the opposite trend. (3) In the soil moisture-supplying period, the soil moisture increased with increase in Kudzu biomass. However, the rate of soil moisture loss decreased with increase in Kudzu biomass during this period. Furthermore, with increase in biomass of withered Kudzu, the rate of soil moisture waveform reduced, fluctuation decreased, and wavelength increased. (4) With increase in the biomass of Kudzu, soil temperature fluctuation in the surface layer of the gully bank decreased. Our findings have potential applications in vegetation restoration and habitat improvement of the gully bank.