分类： 地球科学 >> 地理学 提交时间： 2022-10-13 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》
摘要：The construction of artificial shelter forests (ASFs) has resulted in substantial ecological, economic, and societal benefits to the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP). However, the health and benefits of ASFs are being increasingly threatened by the formation of low-efficiency artificial shelter forests (LEASFs). In this study, LEASFs are systematically analyzed in terms of their status, formation mechanisms, and developmental obstacles. The key restoration techniques and schemes were summarized to improve the quality and efficiency of LEASFs. LEASFs are formed by relatively complex mechanisms, but they arise mainly due to poor habitat conditions, improper tree species selections, mismatch between stands and habitat, extensive forest management measures, and human interferences. The restoration and improvement of LEASFs are hindered by water deficits, mismatch between stands and habitat, single management purpose, and low efficiency. LEASFs are becoming more complex due to their wide range, the challenges associated with their restoration, and insufficient technological measures for their restoration. The key techniques of the quality and efficiency improvement of LEASFs include basic forest tending methods, near-natural restoration, multifunction-oriented improvement, and systematic restoration. An understanding on the formation mechanisms of LEASFs and a scientific approach toward their restoration are urgently needed and critical for the ecological protection and high-quality development of LEASFs on the CLP. Based on these analyses, we recommend strengthening the monitoring and supervision of LEASFs, considering the bearing capacity of regional water resources, implementing multiple restoration techniques, promoting multifunction-oriented ecological development, and exploring new management concepts to achieve the sustainable development of ASFs on the CLP.
分类： 地球科学 >> 地理学 提交时间： 2021-09-08 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》
摘要： Switchgrass is an introduced C4 grass in the semi-arid Loess Plateau of China, but there is a lack of information to assess its ecological invasive risk. In this study, Old World bluestems (native C4 grass) and switchgrass were sowed at five mixture ratios (8:0, 6:2, 4:4, 2:6 and 0:8) under two soil water levels (80% field capacity (FC) and 40% FC) and two nitrogen (N) treatments (0 and 100 mg N/kg dry soil, termed N0-unfertilized and N1-fertilized treatments, respectively) in a pot experiment in 2012. Biomass, root morphological traits and relative competitive abilities of these two species were analyzed. Results showed that biomass of both species was significantly greater under 80% FC or N fertilization, and switchgrass had a relatively larger root: shoot ratio (RSR). Total root length (TRL) and root surface area (RSA) of switchgrass were significantly higher under 80% FC irrespective of N treatment, while those of Old World bluestems were only significantly higher under N fertilization. N had no significant effect on TRL and RSA of switchgrass, while RSA of Old World bluestems significantly increased under 80% FC and N fertilization. Under 40% FC and N0-unfertilized treatment, the aggressivity of Old World bluestems was larger than zero at 2:6 and 4:4 mixture ratios of two species, whereas it was close to zero at 6:2 mixture ratio. Root competitive ability of switchgrass significantly increased under 80% FC or N fertilization. The aggressivity of Old World bluestems was negative at 6:2 mixture ratio under 80% FC and N fertilization, while it was positive at 2:6 mixture ratio. Switchgrass may become more aggressive when N deposition or rainfall increases, while a proper mixture ratio with appropriate water and N management could help with grassland management in the semi-arid Loess Plateau.
分类： 地球科学 >> 地理学 提交时间： 2019-03-28 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》
摘要： Soil water is an important composition of water recycle in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. However, intense water exchange between soil-plant and soil-atmosphere interfaces only occurs in a certain layer of the soil profile. For deep insight into water active layer (WAL, defined as the soil layer with a coefficient of variation in soil water content >10% in a given time domain) in the Loess Plateau of China, we measured soil water content (SWC) in the 0.0–5.0 m soil profile from 86 sampling sites along an approximately 860-km long south-north transect during the period 2013–2016. Moreover, a dataset contained four climatic factors (mean annual precipitation, mean annual evaporation, annual mean temperature and mean annual dryness index) and five local factors (altitude, slope gradient, land use, clay content and soil organic carbon) of each sampling site was obtained. In this study, three WAL indices (WAL-T (the thickness of WAL), WAL-CV (the mean coefficient of variation in SWC within WAL) and WAL-SWC (the mean SWC within WAL)) were used to evaluate the characteristics of WAL. The results showed that with increasing latitude, WAL-T and WAL-CV increased firstly and then decreased. WAL-SWC showed an opposite distribution pattern along the south-north transect compared with WAL-T and WAL-CV. Average WAL-T of the transect was 2.0 m, suggesting intense soil water exchange in the 0.0–2.0 m soil layer in the study area. Soil water exchange was deeper and more intense in the middle region than in the southern and northern regions, with the values of WAL-CV and WAL-T being 27.3% and 4.3 m in the middle region, respectively. Both climatic (10.1%) and local (4.9%) factors influenced the indices of WAL, with climatic factors having a more dominant effect. Compared with multiple linear regressions, pedotransfer functions (PTFs) from artificial neural network can better estimate the WAL indices. PTFs developed by artificial neural network respectively explained 86%, 81% and 64% of the total variations in WAL-T, WAL-SWC and WAL-CV. Knowledge of WAL is crucial for understanding the regional water budget and evaluating the stable soil water reserve, regional water characteristics and eco-hydrological processes in the Loess Plateau of China.
分类： 物理学 >> 普通物理:统计和量子力学,量子信息等 提交时间： 2018-05-18 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》
摘要： Understanding solute transport behaviors of deep soil profile in the Loess Plateau is helpful for ecological construction and agricultural production improvement. In this study, solute transport processes of a deep soil profile were measured by a conservative tracer experiment using 25 undisturbed soil cores (20 cm long and 7 cm diameter for each) continuously sampled from the surface downward to the depth of 500 cm in the Loess Plateau of China. The solute transport breakthrough curves (BTCs) were analyzed in terms of the convection-dispersion equation (CDE) and the mobile-immobile model (MIM). Average pore-water velocity and dispersion coefficient (or effective dispersion coefficient) were calculated using the CDE and MIM. Basic soil properties and water infiltration parameters were also determined to explore their influence on the solute transport parameters. Both pore-water velocity and dispersion coefficient (or effective dispersion coefficient) generally decreased with increasing depth, and the dispersivity fluctuated along the soil profile. There was a good linear correlation between log-transformed pore-water velocity and dispersion coefficient, with a slope of about 1.0 and an average dispersivity of 0.25 for the entire soil profile. Generally speaking, the soil was more homogeneous along the soil profile. Our results also show that hydrodynamic dispersion is the dominant mechanism of solute transport of loess soils in the study area.
分类： 物理学 >> 普通物理:统计和量子力学,量子信息等 提交时间： 2018-04-24 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》
摘要： Knowledge about the effects of vegetation types on soil properties and on water dynamics in the soil profile is critical for revegetation strategies in water-scarce regions, especially the choice of vegetation type and human management measures. We focused on the analysis of the effects of vegetation type on soil hydrological properties and soil moisture variation in the 0–400 cm soil layer based on a long-term (2004―2016) experimental data in the northern Loess Plateau region, China. Soil bulk density (BD), saturated soil hydraulic conductivity (Ks), field capacity (FC) and soil organic carbon (SOC) in 2016, as well as the volumetric soil moisture content during 2004–2016, were measured in four vegetation types, i.e., shrubland (korshinsk peashrub), artificial grassland (alfalfa), fallow land and cropland (millet or potato). Compared with cropland, revegetation with peashrub and alfalfa significantly decreased BD and increased Ks, FC, and SOC in the 0–40 cm soil layer, and fallow land significantly increased FC and SOC in the 0–10 cm soil layer. Soil water storage (SWS) significantly declined in shrubland and grassland in the 40–400 cm soil layer, causing severe soil drought in the deep soil layers. The study suggested that converting cropland to grassland (alfalfa) and shrubland (peashrub) improved soil-hydrological properties, but worsened water conditions in the deep soil profile. However, natural restoration did not intensify deep-soil drying. The results imply that natural restoration could be better than revegetation with peashrub and alfalfa in terms of good soil hydrological processes in the semi-arid Loess Plateau region.
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： Amygdalus pedunculata Pall. is a major species that is widely planted in afforested soils with different textures in the transitional zone between Mu Us Desert and Loess Plateau, China. However, the responses of A. pedunculata to increasing intensity of water stress in different textural soils are not clear. Here, we conducted a soil column experiment to evaluate the effects of different textures (sandy and loamy) on water consumption, water use efficiency (WUE), biomass accumulation and ecological adaptability of A. pedunculata under increasing water stress, i.e., 90% (±5%) FC (field capacity), 75% (±5%) FC, 60% (±5%) FC, 45% (±5%) FC and 30% (±5%) FC in 2018. A. pedunculata grown in the sandy soil with the lowest (30% FC) and highest (90% FC) water contents had respectively 21.3%–37.0% and 4.4%–20.4% less transpiration than those with other water treatments (45%–75% FC). In contrast, A. pedunculata transpiration in the loamy soil decreased with decreasing water content. The magnitude of decrease in transpiration increased with increasing level of water deficit (45% and 30% FC). Mean daily and cumulative transpirations of the plant were significantly lower in the sandy soil than in the loamy soil under good water condition (90% FC), but the reverse was noted under water deficit treatments (45% and 30% FC). Plant height, stem diameter and total biomass initially increased with decreasing water content from 90% to 75% FC and then declined under severe water deficit conditions (45% and 30% FC) in the sandy soil. However, these plant parameters decreased with decreasing water content in the loamy soil. WUE in the sandy soil was 7.8%–12.3% higher than that in the loamy soil, which initially increased with decreasing water content from 90% to 75% FC and then declined under water deficit conditions (45% and 30% FC). The study showed that plant transpiration, biomass production and WUE responded differentially to increasing intensity of water stress in the sandy and loamy soils. The contrasting responses of A. pedunculata to water stress in different textural soils can guide future revegetation programs in the northern region of Chinese Loess Plateau by considering plant adaptability to varying soil and water conditions.
分类： 地球科学 >> 地球科学史 提交时间： 2020-06-22 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》
摘要： The criteria used by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for its Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) are the global standards for ecosystem-level risk assessment, and they have been increasingly used for biodiversity conservation. The changed distribution area of an ecosystem is one of the key criteria in such assessments. The Stipa bungeana grassland is one of the most widely distributed grasslands in the warm-temperate semi-arid regions of China. However, the total distribution area of this grassland was noted to have shrunk and become fragmented because of its conversion to cropland and grazing-induced degradation. Following the IUCN-RLE standards, here we analyzed changes in the geographical distribution of this degraded grassland, to evaluate its degradation and risk of collapse. Past (1950–1980) distribution areas were extracted from the Vegetation Map of China (1:1,000,000). Present realizable distribution areas were equated to these past areas minus any habitat area losses. We then predicted the grassland's present and future (under the Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 scenario) potential distribution areas using maximum entropy algorithm (MaxEnt), based on field survey data and nine environmental layers. Our results showed that the S. bungeana grassland was mainly distributed in the Loess Plateau, Hexi Corridor, and low altitudes of the Qilian Mountains and Longshou Mountain. This ecosystem occurred mainly on loess soils, kastanozems, steppe aeolian soils and sierozems. Thermal and edaphic factors were the most important factors limiting the distribution of S. bungeana grassland across China. Since 56.1% of its past distribution area (4.9×104 km2) disappeared in the last 50 a, the present realizable distribution area only amounts to 2.2×104 km2. But only 15.7% of its present potential distribution area (14.0×104 km2) is actually occupied by the S. bungeana grassland. The future potential distribution of S. bungeana grassland was predicted to shift towards northwest, and the total area of this ecosystem will shrink by 12.4% over the next 50 a under the most pessimistic climate change scenario. Accordingly, following the IUCN-RLE criteria, we deemed the S. bungeana grassland ecosystem in China to be endangered (EN). Revegetation projects and the establishment of protected areas are recommended as effective ways to avert this looming crisis. This empirical modeling study provides an example of how IUCN-RLE categories and criteria may be valuably used for ecosystem assessments in China and abroad.
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