In this study, simulated rainfall was applied to study the process of runoff generation and water infiltrationunder the cover of herbaceous vegetation at the preliminary succession stages. Results indicated that at thepreliminary succession stages, as soil texture was loose, water infiltration was high. With the vegetationsuccession and the accumulation of organic matter in the soil, both physical and chemical properties of thesoil were improved, which made the soil texture tight, and water infiltration rates decrease. With the progressof the rainfall, parts of the microbiotic soil crust were destroyed by raindrop impact, and water infiltrationrates were improved. This result indicated that the existence of microbiotic soil crust reduced the soil infiltrationrate. Thus, it is of great importance to improve soil infiltration by destroying the microbiotic soil crust withproper measures such as grazing in arid and semi-arid areas.
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