[1] J D Albertson, G Kiely. On the structure of soil moisture time series in the context of land surface models. Journal of Hydrology, 243, 101-119(2001).

[2] R C Bales, J W Hopmans, A T O'Geen et al. Soil moisture response to snowmelt and rainfall in a Sierra Nevada mixed-conifer forest. Vadose Zone Journal, 10, 786-799(2011).

[3] H R Bogena, M Herbst, J A Huisman et al. Potential of wireless sensor networks for measuring soil water content variability. Vadose Zone Journal, 9, 1002-1013(2010).

[4] S L Brantley, D M Eissenstat, J A Marshall et al. Reviews and syntheses: On the roles trees play in building and plumbing the critical zone. Biogeosciences, 14, 5115-5142(2017).

[5] T P Burt, D P Butcher. Topographic controls of soil moisture distributions. Journal of Soil Science, 36, 469-486(1985).

[6] R H Crockford, D P Richardson. Partitioning of rainfall into throughfall, stemflow and interception: Effect of forest type, ground cover and climate. Hydrological Processes, 14, 2903-2920(2000).

[7] J S Famiglietti, J W Rudnicki, M Rodell. Variability in surface moisture content along a hillslope transect: Rattlesnake Hill, Texas. Journal of Hydrology, 210, 259-281(1998).

[8] J H C Gash. An analytical model of rainfall interception by forests. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 105, 43-55(1979).

[9] C B Graham, H S Lin. Controls and frequency of preferential flow occurrence: A 175-event analysis. Vadose Zone Journal, 10, 816-831(2011).

[10] R B Grayson, A W Western, F H S Chiew et al. Preferred states in spatial soil moisture patterns: Local and nonlocal controls. Water Resources Research, 33, 2897-2908(1997).

[11] L Guo, B Fan, J Zhang et al. Occurrence of subsurface lateral flow in the Shale Hills Catchment indicated by a soil water mass balance method. European Journal of Soil Science, 69, 771-786(2018).

[12] L Guo, H Lin. Addressing two bottlenecks to advance the understanding of preferential flow in soils. Advances in Agronomy, 147, 61-117(2018).

[13] F Guzzetti, S Peruccacci, M Rossi et al. The rainfall intensity-duration control of shallow landslides and debris flows: An update. Landslides, 5, 3-17(2008).

[14] Z He, W Zhao, H Liu et al. The response of soil moisture to rainfall event size in subalpine grassland and meadows in a semi-arid mountain range: A case study in northwestern China’s Qilian Mountains. Journal of Hydrology, 420, 183-190(2012).

[15] W Hu, B C Si. Revealing the relative influence of soil and topographic properties on soil water content distribution at the watershed scale in two sites. Journal of Hydrology, 516, 107-118(2014).

[16] S Iida, T Tanaka, M Sugita. Change of interception process due to the succession from Japanese red pine to evergreen oak. Journal of Hydrology, 315, 154-166(2005).

[17] Y H Jia, M A Shao. Dynamics of deep soil moisture in response to vegetation restoration on the Loess Plateau of China. Journal of Hydrology, 519, 523-531(2014).

[18] S Kim, H Lee, N C Woo et al. Soil moisture monitoring on a steep hillside. Hydrological Processes: An International Journal, 21, 2910-2922(2007).

[19] N Lana‐Renault, E Nadal‐Romero, M P Serrano‐Muela et al. Comparative analysis of the response of various land covers to an exceptional rainfall event in the central Spanish Pyrenees, October 2012. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 39, 581-592(2014).

[20] X Y Li, S Y Zhang, H Y Peng et al. Soil water and temperature dynamics in shrub-encroached grasslands and climatic implications: Results from Inner Mongolia steppe ecosystem of north China. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 171, 20-30(2013).

[21] H Lin. Linking principles of soil formation and flow regimes. Journal of Hydrology, 393, 3-19(2010).

[22] H Lin, X Zhou. Evidence of subsurface preferential flow using soil hydrologic monitoring in the Shale Hills catchment. European Journal of Soil Science, 59, 34-49(2008).

[23] M Liu, L Guo, J Yi et al. Characterising preferential flow and its interaction with the soil matrix using dye tracing in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area of China. Soil Research, 56, 588-600(2018).

[24] J J McDonnell. Where does water go when it rains? Moving beyond the variable source area concept of rainfall‐runoff response. Hydrological Processes, 17, 1869-1875(2003).

[25] M Rinderer, I van Meerveld, M Stähli et al. Is groundwater response timing in a pre‐alpine catchment controlled more by topography or by rainfall?. Hydrological Processes, 30, 1036-1051(2016).

[26] M Shao, X Jia, Y Wang et al. A review of studies on dried soil layers in the Loess Plateau. Advances in Earth Science, 31, 14-22(2016).

[27] R C Sidle, Y Tsuboyama, S Noguchi et al. Seasonal hydrologic response at various spatial scales in a small forested catchment, Hitachi Ohta, Japan. Journal of Hydrology, 168, 227-250(1995).

[28] M D Tomer, J L Anderson. Variation of soil water storage across a sand plain hillslope. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 59, 1091-1100(1995).

[29] T Uchida, J J McDonnell, Y Asano. Functional intercomparison of hillslopes and small catchments by examining water source, flowpath and mean residence time. Journal of Hydrology, 327, 627-642(2006).

[30] S Wang, B Fu, G Gao et al. Responses of soil moisture in different land cover types to rainfall events in a re-vegetation catchment area of the Loess Plateau, China. Catena, 101, 122-128(2013).

[31] A W Western, R B Grayson, G Blöschl et al. Observed spatial organization of soil moisture and its relation to terrain indices. Water Resources Research, 35, 797-810(1999).

[32] I Wiekenkamp, J A Huisman, H R Bogena et al. Spatial and temporal occurrence of preferential flow in a forested headwater catchment. Journal of Hydrology, 534, 139-149(2016).

[33] J Wu, J Huang, X Han et al. Three-Gorges Dam-experiment in habitat fragmentation. Science: Ecology, 300, 1239-1240(2003).

[34] Q Xu, S Liu, X Wan et al. Effects of rainfall on soil moisture and water movement in a subalpine dark coniferous forest in southwestern China. Hydrological Processes, 26, 3800-3809(2012).

[35] Y Yin, H Wang, Y Gao et al. Real-time monitoring and early warning of landslides at relocated Wushan Town, the Three Gorges Reservoir, China. Landslides, 7, 339-349(2010).

[36] B Yu, G Liu, Q Liu et al. Soil moisture variations at different topographic domains and land use types in the semi-arid Loess Plateau, China. Catena, 165, 125-132(2018).

[37] Q Zhu, X Nie, X Zhou et al. Soil moisture response to rainfall at different topographic positions along a mixed land-use hillslope. Catena, 119, 61-70(2014).