Morphological characteristics of interactions between deserts and rivers in northern China

Yan, Ping; Li, Xiaomei; Ma, Yufei; Wu, Wei; Qian, Yao

doi:10.1016/j.aeolia.2015.01.005

Cited by 27 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Recently, fluvial‐aeolian interaction in dryland environments has stimulated much research, e.g. (Al‐Masrahy and Pountney, ; Yan et al ., ). Our work will be helpful for the quantitative description of the fluvial‐aeolian processes responsible for desert landscape development.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inverted relief landforms in the Kumtagh Desert of northwestern China: a mechanism to estimate wind erosion rates

Wang

Lai

2015

Geol. J.

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Although commonly found in deserts, our knowledge about inverted relief landforms is very limited. The so‐called ‘Gravel Body’ in the northern Kumtagh Desert is an example of an inverted relief landform created by the exhumation of a former fluvial gravel channel. The common occurrence of these landforms indicates that fluvial processes played an important role in shaping the Kumtagh Desert in the past 151 ka. A physical model is presented to reconstruct the palaeohydrology of these fluvial channels in terms of several measurable parameters including terrain slope, boulder size, and channel width. Combining the calculated palaeoflood depth, the maximal depth of channel bed eroded by wind, and the current height of inverted channels with the age of the aeolian sediments covered by gravels, the local wind erosion rate is estimated to be 0.21–0.28 mm/year. It is shown that wind erosion occurring in the Kumtagh Desert is no more severe than in adjacent regions. Since the modern Martian environment is very similar to that of hyperarid deserts on Earth, and Mars was once subjected to fluvial processes, this study will be helpful for understanding the origin of analogous Martian surface landforms and their causative processes. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inverted relief landforms in the Kumtagh Desert of northwestern China: a mechanism to estimate wind erosion rates

Wang

Lai

2015

Geol. J.

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“…Moreover, rivers play an indispensable role in the development of deserts. In particular, rivers control desert distribution patterns by providing source materials and suitable locations for desert formation and evolution (Yan et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sand source and formation mechanism of riverine sand dunes: a case study in Xiangshui River, China

et al. 2019

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Riverine sand dunes develop as a result of fluvial-aeolian interactions. The primarily barchan dune chains along the Xiangshui River (a branch of the Xar Moron River in the western part of the Horqin Sandy Land of China) form a typical riverine dune field. We collected a series of samples from the riverine sand dunes parallel to the direction of the prevailing wind and investigated the sand sources and formation mechanisms of these dunes by determining the grain size, heavy mineral content and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) of the samples. The sand of the near-river dunes was coarser than the sand of the dunes distant from the river, indicating that coarse sand of the valley mainly deposited on near-river dunes. The heavy mineral analysis suggested that wind-sand activity levels were intense on the upwind dunes, but relatively weak on the downwind dunes. This indicated that the sand sources for the near-river dunes were more abundant than those of the distant dunes. Our OSL analysis of samples suggested that the deposition rates on dunes near the river were greater than the deposition rates on dunes distant from the river. The development of dunes along the river indicated that the river played an important role in dune formation and development. In addition, airflow fluctuation and the formation of the waveform dunes had a type of feedback relationship. Grain size, heavy mineral and OSL analyses are widely used methods in wind-sand research. Sand dune grain size characteristics reflect the effects of airflow on the transport and separation of sand materials, as well as the physical characteristics of the sand sources. Heavy mineral characteristics are often used to investigate the relationships between sediments and sand sources. OSL indicates dune age, revealing formation of dunes. Therefore, it is useful to explore dune sand sources, as well as the mechanisms underlying dune formation, by determining grain size, heavy mineral content and OSL. This study investigated the sand sources of riverine dunes and provided new information about riverine dune formation and development.

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“…Its material and energy transport are important influences on the circulation of the atmosphere in Central Asia [52][53]. At present, the ecological environment, fluvial resources, and hydrological characteristics of the Taklamakan Desert have attracted global attention [54][55]. In the Taklamakan Desert, the main aquatic systems are the Hotan, Yerqiang, Weigan, and Aksu river systems, as well as the Bosten lake system.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Low Altitude Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Satellite Remote Sensing Are Used to Calculated River Discharge Attenuation Coefficients of Ungauged Catchments in Arid Desert

Yang

Wang

et al. 2019

Water

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The arid desert ecosystem is very fragile, and the change of its river discharge has a direct impact on irrigation and natural environment. River discharge attenuation coefficients is a key index to reveal the stability of desert river ecosystem. However, due to the harsh conditions in desert areas, it is difficult to establish a hydrological station to obtain data and calculate the attenuation coefficients, so it is urgent to develop new methods to master the attenuation coefficients of rivers. In this study, Taklamakan desert river was selected as the research area, and the river discharge of the desert river were estimated by combining low-altitude UAV and satellite remote sensing technology, so as to calculate the attenuation status of the river in its natural state. Combined with satellite remote sensing, the surface runoff in the desert reaches of the Hotan River from 1993 to 2017 were estimated. The results showed that the base of runoff attenuation in the lower reaches of the Hotan River is 40%. Coupled UAV and satellite remote sensing technology can provide technical support for the study of surface runoff in desert rivers within ungauged basins. Using UAV and satellite remote sensing can monitor surface runoff effectively providing important reference for river discharge monitoring in ungauged catchments.The attenuation coefficients of river discharge is the key index for maintaining fluvial ecosystems and arises through evaporation and infiltration during transport, which is usually calculated from the flow rate during the dry season [9,10]. The process of driving river attenuation depends on a series of physicochemical and biological parameters such as river velocity, temperature, vertical hydrological exchange of surface runoff and groundwater [11,12]. In the past 30 years, some relatively mature computational methods have been developed [13][14][15][16], which can be mainly divided into hydrological methods, hydraulic methods, habitat simulation methods and holistic analysis methods. These methods require a lot of information and require a long time of investigation, which tends to be carried out in areas with abundant hydrological data. However, large portions of total River Basins across the globe are either poorly gauged or completely ungauged [17][18][19], and hydrological observation networks are continuously deteriorating [20]. Therefore, there is a lack of research on surface runoff in ungauged catchments of arid desert [21][22][23], and the study on river attenuation is basically blank, resulting in high variability of attenuation rate in rivers, which complicates the prediction of environmental flows [24,25].Calculating the streamflow in ungauged catchments is surrounded by uncertainty, and is thus a challenging, yet vital task for water management. New and easily accessible satellite data have been increasingly steadily in recent years. Many studies have been conducted using satellite data to estimate river discharge [26][27][28]. Traditional methods for estimating river discharge mainly a...

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Morphological characteristics of interactions between deserts and rivers in northern China

Cited by 27 publications

References 36 publications

Inverted relief landforms in the Kumtagh Desert of northwestern China: a mechanism to estimate wind erosion rates

Inverted relief landforms in the Kumtagh Desert of northwestern China: a mechanism to estimate wind erosion rates

Sand source and formation mechanism of riverine sand dunes: a case study in Xiangshui River, China

Low Altitude Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Satellite Remote Sensing Are Used to Calculated River Discharge Attenuation Coefficients of Ungauged Catchments in Arid Desert

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