Wind Erosion Changes in a Semi-Arid Sandy Area, Inner Mongolia, China

Zhang, Hanbing; Gao, Yang; Sun, Deyong; Liu, Lulu; Cui, Yanzhi; Zhu, Wenjie

doi:10.3390/su11010188

Cited by 31 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…After continuous improvements, the revised wind erosion equation (RWEQ) was obtained, which fully considered meteorological, vegetation, soil, roughness, and other factors in short‐term soil wind erosion assessment (Tatarko, Sporcic, & Skidmore, 2013; Van Pelt, Zobeck, Potter, Stout, & Popham, 2004). The model has been widely used in European Union countries (Borrelli et al, 2017), the United States (Pi et al, 2017; Zobeck, Parker, Haskell, & Guoding, 2000), Argentina (Buschiazzo & Zobeck, 2008), China (Du, Xue, Wang, & Deng, 2015; Guo, Zobeck, Zhang, & Li, 2013; Zhang, Gao, et al, 2019), and Syria (Youssef, Visser, Karssenberg, Bruggeman, & Erpul, 2012). However, there have been few studies on soil wind erosion in Southern Africa.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of climate change on wind erosion in Southern Africa between 1991 and 2015

et al. 2021

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Wind erosion is the main form of soil erosion in arid and semiarid areas. It leads to soil loss and land degradation, which aggravates ecosystem vulnerability and threatens regional sustainable development. Exploring wind erosion and associating driving factors can provide useful information to reduce soil wind erosion and solve corresponding environmental problems. Southern Africa is characterized with severe soil wind erosion, which has brought a series of socioeconomic issues, such as food crises and poverty. This study used meteorological and remote sensing data, and the revised wind erosion equation (RWEQ) model to explore the spatio-temporal dynamics of soil erosion in Southern Africa from 1991 to 2015. The impact of climate change on soil wind erosion was also analyzed. The results showed that wind erosion fluctuated during the study period, which first showed a downward trend and then stabilized at a relatively low level after 2010. Soil wind erosion across 66.65% of the study area significantly decreased (p < .05) and near-surface wind speed was the most important influencing factor. The decrease of wind speed can significantly reduce the soil wind erosion across 39.89% of the study area. Temperature and precipitation were significantly related to soil wind erosion over 18.96% and 24.63% of the study area, respectively. Both can indirectly affect soil wind erosion through their impacts on vegetation cover. This study will help decision-makers to identify highrisk areas for soil erosion in Southern Africa and to take countermeasures effectively.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of climate change on wind erosion in Southern Africa between 1991 and 2015

et al. 2021

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“…As an important part of the combined crop factor, the growing crop canopy should be identified more accurately by remotely sensed data. We also noted that the combined crop factor was usually simplified by not considering the flat residues (SLRf) and standing plant residues (SLRs) (Borrelli et al, 2017a; Zhang et al, 2019). This simplification of RWEQ was a tradeoff between model accuracy and data availability because global land cover residues cannot be estimated from the methods of remote sensing or field observation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global assessment of wind erosion based on a spatially distributed RWEQ model

Yang

Sun

Jing

et al. 2021

Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment

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Wind erosion is a global environmental problem and affects the sustainable use of land soil. The current efforts in wind erosion modeling mainly focus on local scales, yet very few studies have attempted to quantify the soil losses by wind on a large scale. Here, we proposed a distributed version of the revised wind erosion equation model (DRWEQ) to assess the spatial and temporal variations of wind erosion globally. The DRWEQ model used meteorological, soil, topographic, and remote sensing data to simulate global wind erosion from 2001 to 2010. The results showed that (a) the areas of wind erosion in Africa and Asia accounted for approximately 62% of the global wind erosion area but accounted for 91% of the global total soil loss; (b) global wind erosion showed a decreasing tendency during the research period – the wind erosion with a trend of intensification occupied 40.62% of the global wind erosion area while about 59.38% of the global wind erosion area showed a weakening trend; and (c) the monthly dynamics of the wind erosion were closely correlated with the combined effects of weather factors and vegetation coverage. The soil loss rates were lower in summer and reached the peak from January to April. The method presented in this study was developed based on the tradeoff of accuracy and availability of global data, and has the potential for predicting wind erosion from regional to global scales.

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“…In addition to this, we used the dust deposition, calculated by a wind erosion model, as the primary index to measure the benefits of windbreak and sand fixation effects. Recently, researchers have carried out a large number of wind erosion simulation studies in different regions using the Texas Tech Erosion Analysis Model (TEAM) [27], the Wind Erosion Prediction System (WEPS) model [28], the Modified Wind Erosion Equation Model (RWEQ) [29,30], and the Wind Erosion Loss Model [31]. Dong Zhibao's Wind Erosion Loss Model, established on the basis of wind tunnel experiments and field observations, has been applied in arid and semi-arid areas of China in many studies [32][33][34] and has obtained remarkable results.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radiating Benefit of Windbreak and Sand Fixation in the Baijitan Nature Reserve of Lingwu, Ningxia, China

Song

Wang

et al. 2021

Sustainability

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Many important ecosystem services show spatial flow characteristics, which are crucial for the study of environmental processes, such as the transformation, correlation, coordination, and management of ecosystem services at different scales. As a result, flow characteristics should be taken into account when it comes to the evaluation of ecosystem services. The study area was the Baijitan Nature Reserve, used to assess the radiating benefits of the windbreak and sand fixation from 2000 to 2019, based on wind erosion loss and sand spatial erosion models. The main results are as follows: Firstly, the fractional vegetation coverage (FVC) clearly increased over the last 20 years and the medium coverage, which accounted for 66.13%, became the main vegetation cover. The wind speed in the reserve dropped gradually as well. Secondly, sand only affected the nature reserve and the surrounding communities. When the wind speed was above a strong breeze (10.8–13.8 m/s), coarse silt could affect 26 downwind administrative regions, with an affected area of 2.13 × 106 km2. Thirdly, the benefits of windbreak and sand fixation varied with the beneficial range, including distance from the Baijitan Nature Reserve and the beneficial area. Dust deposition decreased as the beneficial distance increased. For instance, Shaanxi Province saw the greatest benefit of windbreak and sand fixation, with a dust deposition reduction of 6.87 × 107 t (1 t = 103 kg), followed by Hubei and Henan Provinces, with reductions of 5.31 × 107 t and 5.59 × 107 t, respectively. Fourthly, the periodical deposition in administrative regions decreased gradually, as did the different influence ranges. The dust depositions in the five phases of Shaanxi Province were 2.04 × 107, 1.83 × 107, 6.63 × 106, 4.65 × 106, and 3.48 × 106 t. Fifthly, medium silt, fine silt, and clay silt could easily drift long distances under the influence of sand-driving wind, thus affecting the air quality in downwind administrative regions. Sixthly, the sand source in Baijitan Nature Reserve was an important factor that caused sand–dust weather in downwind areas. The frequency of sand–dust weather was significantly higher in cities near the sand source than in other regions in downwind areas, and the correlations between particle concentrations less than 10 microns in diameter (PM10) and the time sequences of sand-driving wind reached significant levels in certain cities. We found that the windbreak and sand fixation in Baijitan Nature Reserve could offer great benefits to the downwind area. Establishing a desert nature reserve could be a great way to promote environmentally sustainable development since it could effectively reduce dust deposition and the frequency of sand–dust weather in downwind areas.

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Wind Erosion Changes in a Semi-Arid Sandy Area, Inner Mongolia, China

Cited by 31 publications

References 51 publications

Impacts of climate change on wind erosion in Southern Africa between 1991 and 2015

Impacts of climate change on wind erosion in Southern Africa between 1991 and 2015

Global assessment of wind erosion based on a spatially distributed RWEQ model

Radiating Benefit of Windbreak and Sand Fixation in the Baijitan Nature Reserve of Lingwu, Ningxia, China

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