Journal
HYDROLOGY AND EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCES
Volume 24, Issue 12, Pages 5875-5890Publisher
COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH
DOI: 10.5194/hess-24-5875-2020
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- National Key R&D Program of China [2016YFE0202900]
- Fundamental Research Funds of CAF [CAFYBB2020MB007]
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Ecology and Resource Use of the Mongolian Plateau [KF2020004]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [2017ZX07101004, 2018YFC0507100, 2019ZD003, 31971726]
- National Science and Technology Major Project [2017ZX07101004, 2018YFC0507100, 2019ZD003, 31971726]
- Ministry of Science and Technology of China [2017ZX07101004, 2018YFC0507100, 2019ZD003, 31971726]
- National Non-profit Institute Research Grant of the Chinese Academy of Forestry [CAFYBB2018ZA004]
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [BLX201814, 2015ZCQ-SB-01]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Desertification in semi-arid regions is currently a global environmental and societal problem. This research attempts to understand whether a 40-year-old rain-fed Artemisia sphaerocephala Krasch sand-fixing land as part of the Three North Shelterbelt Program (3NSP) of China can be developed sustainably or not using a newly designed lysimeter to monitor the precipitation-induced deep soil recharge (DSR) at 220 cm of depth. Evapotranspiration is calculated through a water balance equation when precipitation and soil moisture data are collected. A comparison of soil particle sizes and soil moisture distributions in artificial sand-fixing land and neighboring bare land is made to assess the impact of sand-fixing reforestation. Results show that such a sand-fixing reforestation results in a root system being mainly developed in the horizontal direction and a changed soil particle distribution. Specifically, the sandy soil with 50.53 % medium sand has been transformed into a sandy soil with 68.53 % fine sand. Within the Artemisia sphaerocephala Krasch sand-fixing experimental area, the DSR values in the bare sand plot and Artemisia sphaerocephala Krasch plot are respectively 283.6 and 90 6 mm in wet years, reflecting a difference of more than 3 times. The deep soil layer moisture in semi-arid sandy land is largely replenished by precipitation-induced infiltration. The DSR values of the bare sandy land plot and Artemisia sphaerocephala Krasch plot are respectively 51.6 and 2 mm in dry years, a difference of more than 25 times. The proportions of DSR reduced by Artemisia sphaerocephala Krasch are 68.06 % and 96.12 % in wet and dry years, respectively. This research shows that Artemisia sphaerocephala Krasch in semi-arid regions can continue to grow and has the capacity to fix sand. It consumes a large amount of precipitated water and reduces the amount of DSR considerably.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available