Aeolian processes and their effect on sandy desertification of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau: A wind tunnel experiment

Abstract

A B S T R A C TTo determine the contribution of aeolian processes to sandy desertification, we applied different wind velocities to soils from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau that were subjected to the human activities such as wholesale destruction of vegetation. We then employed field investigations, soil sampling in the field, wind tunnel experiments, particle size analyses, and nutrient analyses. After the ground surfaces were crushed to simulate land degradation, the aeolian transport in this region varied from 0.00 to 43.49 g m À2 s À1 and was dependent on the particle size composition, and variation in the intensity of aeolian processes. During the aeolian processes our wind tunnel results show differences between the nutrient contents of the transported materials and those of the surface soils, and the loss of total nitrogen (TN), total carbon (TC) and total phosphorus (TP) varied between 0.00 and 8.81, 0.10 and 122.27, 0.00 and 1.14 g m À2, respectively. In addition, variations in wind velocities did not result in significant differences in the particle size fractions of the transported materials. On the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, although an increase in human activity may trigger sandy desertification, the occurrence of sandy desertification was not significant in the early 21st century, and hence it is likely to be controlled by climate even though human impacts have undeniably exacerbated its effects.

Variation in physicochemical and biochemical soil properties among different plant species treatments early in the restoration of a desertified alpine meadow

“…The Tibetan Plateau is strongly affected by atmospheric circulation patterns and frigid temperatures caused by its high altitude, both of which further compound grassland restoration efforts (Li et al, ). Serious desertification problems have occurred since the 1980s in the Zoige Basin of the eastern Tibetan Plateau, where rainfall is relatively abundant, and the semihumid climate zone in this area has more than 800,000 ha of meadow (Hu, Dong, Lu, & Yan, ; Jiang, Hu, et al, ; Wang et al, ). Primary productivity, species diversity, and the capacity of soil to retain water and nutrients are greatly reduced with intensifying desertification.…”

Effects of ecological restoration on soil properties of the aeolian sandy land around Lhasa, southern Tibetan Plateau

“…Jin et al (2014) also found that natural restoration is more beneficial to surface organic carbon sequestration than artificial restoration, in the Loess Plateau of China. transportation, and deposition, of which aeolian processes are the key forces, in an aeolian sandy land (Wang et al 2016). Artificial forest (A) and revegetated shrub (B) had semi-fixed sandy land and higher erosion phase with lower SOM content.…”

“…Aeolian desertification is a form of land degradation process that is mainly caused by climate change and irresponsible human activities in arid, semiarid, and some sub-humid regions (Zheng et al 2006, Guan et al 2017. The Tibetan Plateau, located in southwestern China, is one of the world's most sensitive areas to global warming and human activities, as the mean elevation is over 4000 m above sea level (Wang et al 2016). Aeolian desertification in the Tibetan Plateau is primarily controlled by climatic conditions and landforms, which act differently on the different eco-regions of the plateau (Zhang et al 2018).…”

Meteorological application of wind speed and direction linked to remote sensing images for the modelling of sand drift potential and dune morphology

“…Aeolian transport is an essential issue in wind erosion studies because it is an important geomorphological process that threatens the arid ecosystems severely (Dong et al, 2012). In addition, aeolian transport causes several problems, such as damaging crops, desertification, degrading soil resources by removing fine fertile particles and leaving coarse particles from the soil surface (Goossens, 2004;Ekhtesasi and Sepehr, 2009;Dong et al, 2012;Wang et al, 2016;Kheirabadi et al, 2018). In general, aeolian transport is a result of wind and soil surface interactions and, therefore, depends strongly on wind characteristics and soil surface properties (Bagnold, 1941;Dong et al, 2012;Deng, 2016;Rezaei Arshad et al, 2019;Shahabinejad et al, 2019aShahabinejad et al, , 2019b.…”