Aiming at the problems such as poor effect of water and nutrient retention

instability and leakage in barren gravel land at the northern foot of Qinling Mountain

raw soil in Shaanxi Province was chosen as the tested soil to study the characteristics of water and nutrient leakage in topsoil with different structure. By filling the soil column hierarchically with different bulk density

five kinds of topsoil structure were set to analyze the leakage characteristics of water and nutrient in the artificial plough layer. The results showed that: (1) The initial leakage ability and the attenuation degree showed a negative correlation relationship with the underlying soil bulk density

and the infiltration process could be simulated by the modified Kostiakov infiltration empirical formula; (2) The underlying soil bulk density greatly affected the cumulative amount of leakage

water leakage rate and nutrient loss amount

and they showed negative correlation relationships; (3) From the perspective of the total nutrients leakage amount

there was an optimal structure of topsoil

which had the best effect of retaining fertilizer. By analyzing the leakage of water and nutrient comprehensively

the optimal structure of topsoil was that the bulk densities of the soil layers from the bottom to up were 1.5

1.3 and 1.2 g/cm3

respectively.