• Application of a new wind driving force model in soil wind erosion area of northern China

    分类: 地球科学 >> 地球科学史 提交时间: 2020-10-20 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》

    摘要: The shear stress generated by the wind on the land surface is the driving force that results in the wind erosion of the soil. It is an independent factor influencing soil wind erosion. The factors related to wind erosivity, known as submodels, mainly include the weather factor (WF) in revised wind erosion equation (RWEQ), the erosion submodel (ES) in wind erosion prediction system (WEPS), as well as the drift potential (DP) in wind energy environmental assessment. However, the essential factors of WF and ES contain wind, soil characteristics and surface coverings, which therefore results in the interdependence between WF or ES and other factors (e.g., soil erodible factor) in soil erosion models. Considering that DP is a relative indicator of the wind energy environment and does not have the value of expressing wind to induce shear stress on the surface. Therefore, a new factor is needed to express accurately wind erosivity. Based on the theoretical basis that the soil loss by wind erosion (Q) is proportional to the shear stress of the wind on the soil surface, a new model of wind driving force (WDF) was established, which expresses the potential capacity of wind to drive soil mass in per unit area and a period of time. Through the calculations in the typical area, the WDF, WF and DP are compared and analyzed from the theoretical basis, construction goal, problem-solving ability and typical area application; the spatial distribution of soil wind erosion intensity was concurrently compared with the spatial distributions of the WDF, WF and DP values in the typical area. The results indicate that the WDF is better to reflect the potential capacity of wind erosivity than WF and DP, and that the WDF model is a good model with universal applicability and can be logically incorporated into the soil wind erosion models.

  • Seasonal differences in climatic controls of vegetation growth in the Beijing–Tianjin Sand Source Region of China

    分类: 地球科学 >> 地球科学史 提交时间: 2018-10-29 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》

    摘要: Launched in 2002, the Beiing–Tianjin Sand Source Control Project (BTSSCP) is an ecological restoration project intended to prevent desertification in China. Evidence from multiple sources has confirmed increases in vegetation growth in the BTSSCP region since the initiation of this project. Precipitation and essential climate variable-soil moisture (ECV-SM) conditions are typically considered to be the main drivers of vegetation growth in this region. Although many studies have investigated the inter-annual variations of vegetation growth, few concerns have been focused on the annual and seasonal variations of vegetation growth and their climatic drivers, which are crucial for understanding the relationships among the climate, vegetation, and human activities at the regional scale. Based on the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) derived from MODIS and the corresponding climatic data, we explored the responses of vegetation growth to climatic factors at annual and seasonal scales in the BTSSCP region during the period 2000–2014. Over the study region as a whole, NDVI generally increased from 2000 to 2014, at a rate of 0.002/a. Vegetation growth is stimulated mainly by the elevated temperature in spring, whereas precipitation is the leading driver of summer greening. In autumn, positive effects of both temperature and precipitation on vegetation growth were observed. The warming in spring promotes vegetation growth but reduces ECV-SM. Summer greening has a strong cooling effect on land surface temperature. These results indicate that the ecological and environmental consequences of ecological restoration projects should be comprehensively evaluated.