Figure captions
Fig. 1 Soil erosion along an alpine meadow hillslope in spring influenced by soil freeze-thaw and snowmelt waterflow.
Fig. 2 The variations of air temperature and soil temperatures of different depths (Ts) at the Yakou metrological station during Mar. to Jun; where the shaded part is the time to conduct the experiments.
Fig. 3 Field experiments of concentrated flow erosion along a meadow hillslope.
Fig. 4 The dynamic changes of thawed soil depth over time in the morning of an experiment day.
Fig. 5 Runoff generation processes at the rill outlet under the effect of thawed soil depth (Z) under the two snowmelt waterflow rate conditions: (a) 3 L/min and (b) 5 L/min.
Fig. 6 Time taken for runoff outflow from the eroding rill and flow velocity in the rill under the effect of thawed soil depth under two snowmelt waterflow rate conditions: (a) 3 L/min and (b) 5 L/min.
Fig. 7 Sediment concentration (SC) processes in outflow runoff under the effect of thawed soil depth (Z) under two snowmelt waterflow rate conditions: (a) 3 L/min and (b) 5 L/min.
Fig. 8 The comparison of average sediment concentration (SC) between shallow thawed depth (STD) and deep thawed depth (DTD) under 2 snowmelt waterflow rate conditions (3 L/min & 5 L/min).
Fig. 9 The structure of the frozen soil surface with ice crystals in the soil voids.
Fig. 10 The relationship between sediment concentration (SC) and runoff under the effect of thawed soil depth under two snowmelt waterflow rate conditions: (a) 3 L/min and (b) 5 L/min.