Abstract:

Plant habit (form) is the main factor in determining the function of different plants in maintaining vegetative cover under wind erosion. Knowing the effects of different forms of herbaceous plants against wind erosion in a sandy desertified area can provide valuable references for ecological restoration measures. In this study, we conducted wind tunnel experiments to measure the erosion rate under three forms of herbaceous plants (creeping, globular, and plexiform) under different extents of vegetative cover (25%, 30%, 35%, 40%, and 45%). Aerodynamic roughness increased, and wind speed was reduced with the increase in vegetative cover, for all three plant forms. However, under low coverage, the wind erosion inhibition rate differed greatly among the different plant forms; the sand fixation ability of globular and creeping plants was higher than that of the plexiform plants. The plant type with high wind erosion inhibition efficiency can achieve the sand fixation effect of the plant type with low wind erosion inhibition efficiency under the condition of high coverage. At 30% coverage, the wind erosion inhibition efficiency of creeping and globular plants was 47.55% and 55.70%, respectively, which was not much different than the efficiency of plexiform plants at 40% (48.46%) and 45% (56.94%) coverage, respectively. The wind erosion inhibition efficiency of the three types of herbaceous plants increased linearly with the increase in coverage. The smaller the coverage, the greater the difference among the three plants. The wind erosion rate of the three plant forms was lowest in creeping, followed by globular, and highest in plexiform. Conversely, the wind erosion inhibition rate was highest in creeping, followed by globular, and lowest in plexiform.

Key words: herbs, plant type, wind tunnel experiment, wind erosion rate, wind erosion inhibition efficiency