分类： 地球科学 >> 地理学 提交时间： 2024-02-21 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》
摘要： The development of bare patches typically signifies a process of ecosystem degradation. Within the protection system of Shapotou section of the Baotou-Lanzhou railway, the extensive emergence of bare sand patches poses a threat to both stability and sustainability. However, there is limited knowledge regarding the morphology, dynamic changes, and ecological responses associated with these sand patches. Therefore, we analyzed the formation and development process of sand patches within the protection system and its effects on herbaceous vegetation growth and soil nutrients through field observation, survey, and indoor analysis methods. The results showed that sand patch development can be divided into three stages, i.e., formation, expansion, and stabilization, which correspond to the initial, actively developing, and semi-fixed sand patches, respectively. The average dimensions of all sand patch erosional areas were found to be 7.72 m in length, 3.91 m in width, and 0.32 m in depth. The actively developing sand patches were the largest, and the initial sand patches were the smallest. Throughout the stage of formation and expansion, the herbaceous community composition changed, and the plant density decreased by more than 50.95%. Moreover, the coverage and height of herbaceous plants decreased in the erosional area and slightly increased in the depositional lobe; and the fine particles and nutrients of soils in the erosional area and depositional lobe showed a decreasing trend. In the stabilization phases of sand patches, the area from the inlet to the bottom of sand patches becomes initially covered with crusts. Vegetation and 0–2 cm surface soil condition improved in the erosional area, but this improvement was not yet evident in the depositional lobe. Factors such as disturbance, climate change, and surface resistance to erosion exert notable influences on the formation and dynamics of sand patches. The results can provide evidence for the future treatment of sand patches and the management of the protection system of Shapotou section of the Baotou-Lanzhou railway.
分类： 地球科学 >> 水文学 提交时间： 2023-10-17 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》
摘要： The wide valley of the Yarlung Zangbo River is one of the most intense areas in terms of aeolian activity on the Tibetan Plateau, China. In the past, the evaluation of the intensity of aeolian activity in the QuxuSangri section of the Yarlung Zangbo River Valley was mainly based on data from the old meteorological stations, especially in non-sandy areas. In 2020, six new meteorological stations, which are closest to the new meteorological stations, were built in the wind erosion source regions (i.e., sandy areas) in the QuxuSangri section. In this study, based on mathematical statistics and empirical orthogonal function (EOF) decomposition analysis, we compared the difference of the wind regime between new meteorological stations and old meteorological stations from December 2020 to November 2021, and discussed the reasons for the discrepancy. The results showed that sandy and non-sandy areas differed significantly regarding the mean velocity (8.3 (0.3) versus 7.7 (0.3) m/s, respectively), frequency (12.9% (6.2%) versus 2.9% (1.9%), respectively), and dominant direction (nearly east or west versus nearly north or south, respectively) of sand-driving winds, drift potential (168.1 (77.3) versus 24.0 (17.9) VU (where VU is the vector unit), respectively), resultant drift potential (92.3 (78.5) versus 8.7 (9.2) VU, respectively), and resultant drift direction (nearly westward or eastward versus nearly southward or northward, respectively). This indicated an obvious spatial variation in the wind regime between sandy and non-sandy areas and suggested that there exist problems when using wind velocity data from non-sandy areas to evaluate the wind regime in sandy areas. The wind regime between sandy and non-sandy areas differed due to the differences in topography, heat flows, and their coupling with underlying surface, thereby affecting the local atmospheric circulation. Affected by large-scale circulations (westerly jet and Indian monsoon systems), both sandy and non-sandy areas showed similar seasonal variations in their respective wind regime. These findings provide a credible reference for re-understanding the wind regime and scientific wind-sand control in the middle reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River Valley.
分类： 地球科学 >> 地理学 提交时间： 2023-07-17 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》
摘要：The recent ecological improvement in the Mu Us Desert of China, largely attributed to large-scale afforestation projects, has created new opportunities for cultivation activities. However, the subsequent rapid increase in reclamation on desertification land and its impact on desertification have raised concerns. In this study, we first extracted data on cultivated land and desertification land in 1975, 1990, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020 through the human-computer interaction visual interpretation method. By overlaying the cultivated land dynamics and desertification land, we subsequently explored the effect of cultivation activities on desertification in the Mu Us Desert during the six periods from 1975 to 2020 (1975–1990, 1990–2000, 2000–2005, 2005–2010, 2010–2015, and 2015–2020). The results showed that cultivated land in the Mu Us Desert showed a fluctuating and increasing trend from 3769.26 km2 in 1975 to 4865.73 km2 in 2020, with 2010 as the turning point for the recent rapid increase. The main contributors included the large and regular patches distributed in Yuyang District and Shenmu of Shaanxi Province, and relatively smaller patches concentrated in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The increased cultivated land from the reclamation on desertification land was dominated by moderate and severe desertification lands, and the decreased cultivated land that was transferred into desertification land as abandoned cultivated land was dominated by slight and moderate desertification lands. The effect of cultivation activities on desertification reversal (average area proportion of 10.61% for reversed desertification land) was greater than that of the development of desertification (average area proportion of 5.82% for developed desertification land). Nevertheless, compared to reversed desertification land, both the significant increase of developed desertification land during the periods of 2000–2005 and 2005–2010 and the insignificant decrease during the periods of 2005–2010, 2010–2015, and 2015–2020 implied a potential remobilization risk. Therefore, this study provides a significant theoretical reference for the formulation of ecological restoration projects and regional macroeconomic development policies by considering the influence of cultivation activities, to ensure the overall environmental stability and sustainability in desertification land where reclamation and abandonment activities have taken place.
分类： 地球科学 >> 地理学 提交时间： 2021-07-23 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》
摘要： The Loess Plateau, located in Gansu Province, is an important energy base in China because most of the oil and gas resources are distributed in Gansu Province. In the last 40 a, ecological environment in this region has been extremely destroyed due to the over-exploitation of crude-oil resources. Remediation of crude-oil contaminated soil in this area remains to be a challenging task. In this study, in order to elucidate the effects of organic compost and biochar on phytoremediation of crude-oil contaminated soil (20 g/kg) by Calendula officinalis, we designed five treatments, i.e., natural attenuation (CK), planted C. officinalis only (P), planted C. officinalis with biochar amendment (PB), planted C. officinalis with organic compost amendment (PC), and planted C. officinalis with co-amendment of biochar and organic compost (PBC). After 152 d of cultivation, total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) removal rates of CK, P, PB, PC and PBC were 6.36%, 50.08%, 39.58%, 73.10% and 59.87%, respectively. Shoot and root dry weights of C. officinalis significantly increased by 172.31% and 80.96% under PC and 311.61% and 145.43% under PBC, respectively as compared with P (P<0.05). Total chlorophyll contents in leaves of C. officinalis under P, PC and PBC significantly increased by 77.36%, 125.50% and 79.80%, respectively (P<0.05) as compared with PB. Physical-chemical characteristics and enzymatic activity of soil in different treatments were also assessed. The highest total N, total P, available N, available P and SOM (soil organic matter) occurred in PC, followed by PBC (P<0.05). C. officinalis rhizospheric soil dehydrogenase (DHA) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activities in PB were lower than those of other treatments (P<0.05). The values of ACE (abundance-based coverage estimators) and Chao 1 indices for rhizospheric bacteria were the highest under PC followed by PBC, P, PB and CK (P<0.05). However, the Shannon index for bacteria was the highest under PC and PBC, followed by P, PB and CK (P<0.05). In terms of soil microbial community composition, Proteiniphilum, Immundisolibacteraceae and Solimonadaceae were relatively more abundant under PC and PBC. Relative abundances of Pseudallescheria, Ochroconis, Fusarium, Sarocladium, Podospora, Apodus, Pyrenochaetopsis and Schizothecium under PC and PBC were higher, while relative abundances of Gliomastix, Aspergillus and Alternaria were lower under PC and PBC. As per the nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis, application of organic compost significantly promoted soil N and P contents, shoot length, root vitality, chlorophyll ratio, total chlorophyll, abundance and diversity of rhizospheric soil microbial community in C. officinalis. A high pH value and lower soil N and P contents induced by biochar, altered C. officinalis rhizospheric soil microbial community composition, which might have restrained its phytoremediation efficiency. The results suggest that organic compost-assisted C. officinalis phytoremediation for crude-oil contaminated soil was highly effective in the Loess Plateau, China.
分类： 地球科学 >> 地理学 提交时间： 2021-07-23 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》
摘要： Saltation is the major particle movement type in wind erosion process. Saltating sand grains can rebound up to tens of times larger in length and height over hard surface (such as gravel surface) than over loose sand surface. Gravels usually have different faces, causing distinct response of the impacting grains, but the effects of the grain and gravel-surface contact angle on grain rebound are not yet well quantified. We performed full-range controlled experiments of grain saltation using different contact angles, grain sizes and impact speeds in still air, to show that contact angle increases the height of representative saltation path but decreases particle travel length. The results were compared with outputs from the COMprehensive numerical model of SALTation (COMSALT). Large saltation height of 4.8 m and length of 9.0 m were recorded. The maximum and representative saltation height over the gravel surface were found to be about 4.9 times and 12.8 times those over the loose sandy surface, respectively. The maximum saltation length may be reduced by 58% and the representative saltation height may be increased by 77% as contact angle increases from 20° to 40°. We further showed that the collision inertia contributes 60% of the saltation length, and wind contributes to the other 40%. These quantitative findings have important implications for modeling saltation trajectory over gravel surface.
分类： 地球科学 >> 地理学 提交时间： 2021-04-22 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》
摘要： Bacteria in desert soil have unique phylogeny and important ecological functions, and their responses to changes in precipitation need further attention. However, relevant studies have mainly focused on the surface soil, and studies on the responses of bacteria at different soil depths to variations in precipitation are rare. Thus, we used 16S rDNA high-throughput sequencing to investigate the changes in soil bacterial distribution along a mean annual precipitation gradient (50–150 mm) in the Alxa Desert, China, and compared the variation characteristics in the surface soil layer (0–10 cm) and subsurface soil layer (10–20 cm). Results showed that soil bacterial communities significantly changed along the precipitation gradient in both soil layers. However, the subsurface soil layer could support bacterial communities with higher diversity and closer internal relationships but more internal competition than the surface soil layer. Additionally, compared with the surface soil layer, variations in diversity and co-occurrence patterns in the subsurface soil layer were more in line with the changes in the mean annual precipitation, while bacterial community structure was less variable in the subsurface soil layer. Compared with the mean annual precipitation, soil moisture had little influence on the structure and diversity of soil bacterial community but had a high correlation with intercommunity connectivity. Therefore, soil moisture might play a complex role in mediating environmental conditions and soil bacterial community characteristics. Due to the different responses of surface and subsurface soil bacteria to the changes in precipitation, it is necessary to distinguish different soil layers when predicting the trends in desert soil bacterial conditions associated with precipitation, and prediction of subsurface soil bacteria may be more accurate.
分类： 地球科学 >> 地理学 提交时间： 2020-11-25 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》
摘要： The seif dune field over the gravel desert surface in the eastern margin of the Kumtagh Desert is a valuable experimental site for the observation of dune formation and dynamics. We used high-resolution remote sensing and station observation approaches, combined with wind and grain size data, to study the characteristics of the aeolian environment and the morphologies of and dynamic changes in seif dunes. We observed the ratio of the resultant drift potential (RDP) to the drift potential (DP), which was 0.37, associated with an obtuse bimodal wind regime. The drift potentials in the west-northwest (WNW) and east-northeast (ENE) directions were dominant, and the angle between the two primary DP directions was 135.00°. The dune orientations ranged from 168.75°–213.75°, which were parallel to the resultant drift direction (186.15°). The dune lengths ranged from 51.68 to 1932.11 m with a mean value of 344.91 m. The spacings of the dunes ranged from 32.34 to 319.77 m with a mean value of 93.39 m. The mean grain size of the sediments became finer, and the sorting became better from upwind tail to downwind tip, which indicated that the sediment of the seif dunes in the study region may be transported from northward to southward. The rate of increase in the length, the mean longitudinal migration rate of the dune tail, and the mean longitudinal extension rate of the dune tip (also called elongation rate) were 4.93, 4.63, and 9.55 m/a, respectively. The mean lateral migration vector of the seif dunes was approximately 0.11 m/a towards the west (–0.11 m/a), while the mean amplitude of lateral migration was 0.53 m/a, ignoring the direction of lateral migration. We found that the seif dune field formed first beside seasonal rivers, which can provide sediment, and then expanded downwind.
分类： 地球科学 >> 地球科学史 提交时间： 2018-09-17 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》
摘要： Severe wind is a major natural hazard and a main driver of desertification on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Generally, studies of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau's wind climatology focus on mean wind speeds and its gust speeds have been seldom investigated. Here, we used observed daily maximum gust speeds from a 95-station network over a 5-year period (2008–2012) to analyze the characteristics of extreme wind speeds and directions by fitting Weibull and Gumbel distributions. The results indicated the spatial distribution of extreme wind speeds and their direction on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is highly variable, with its western portion prone to greater mean speeds of extreme wind gusts than its eastern portion. Maximum extreme wind speeds of 30.9, 33.0, and 32.2 m/s were recorded at three stations along the Qinghai Tibet Railway. Severe winds occurred mostly from November to April, caused primarily by the westerly jet stream. Terrain greatly enhances the wind speeds. Our spatial analysis of wind speed data showed that the wind speeds increased exponentially with an increasing altitude. We also assessed the local wind hazard by calculating the return periods of maximum wind gusts from the observational data based on the statistical extreme value distributions of these wind speeds. Further attention should be given to those stations where the yearly maximum daily extreme wind speed increased at a rate greater than that of mean value of daily extreme wind speeds. Severe extreme wind events in these regions of the plateau are likely to become more frequent. Consequently, building structural designers working in these areas should use updated extreme wind data rather than relying on past data alone.
分类： 地球科学 >> 地理学 提交时间： 2017-11-07 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》
摘要： The Lanzhou-Xinjiang High-speed Railway runs through an expansive windy area in a Gobi Desert, and sand-blocking fences were built to protect the railway from destruction by wind-blown sand.
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