Arid Zone Research ›› 2022, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (5): 1598-1606.doi: 10.13866/j.azr.2022.05.24

• Land and Water Resources • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Heterogeneity of soil moisture of blowouts in HulunBuir grassland

YUAN Limin1,2,3(),YANG Zhiguo1,4,XUE Bo1,2,GAO Haiyan1,3,HAN Zhaorigetu5   

  1. 1. Inner Mongolia Academy of Forestry, Hohhot 010010, Inner Mongolia, China
    2. Inner Mongolia Duolun Hunshandake Sand Ecosystem Research Station, Xilingol 027300, Inner Mongolia, China
    3. Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of Desert Ecological System, Hohhot 010010, Inner Mongolia, China
    4. Key Laboratory of State Forestry Administration on Sandy Land Biological Resources Conservation and Cultivation, Hohhot 010010, Inner Mongolia, China
    5. Academy Institute of Forestry and Grassland of HulunBuir, HulunBuir 021008, Inner Mongolia, China
  • Received:2022-03-26 Revised:2022-06-02 Online:2022-09-15 Published:2022-10-25

Abstract:

Blowout is an important manifestation of grassland desertification that is a common for a wind erosion landform in sandy grassland and is highly destructive to grassland vegetation. The blowouts that were in the active development stage of HulunBuir grassland were the object of this research, and the surrounding grassland was the control in which the soil moisture was measured in different locations and different depth. The results show the following: (1) Blowouts caused the“crevasse”effect of soil moisture in grassland that lead to a significant decrease in the soil of the surrounding grassland in a range of nearly 20 m. A close proximity to the pit results in lower soil moisture, A“dry zone”was formed in the range of 0-3 m at the edge of the pit, and the soil moisture was reduced by 45.15% compared with the control. (2) Soil moisture of the pit decreased by 44.44%, and no significant difference was observed in the soil moisture between the surrounding sand accumulation area and the lightly overlying sand area compared to the control. (3) There was a great difference in soil moisture of the pit in the soil layers and sand accumulation area. Cv could reach more than 50%. As soil depth increased, the soil moisture increased first and then decreased. (4) The sand accumulation area of blowouts could realize a certain“water storage”effect after the rainy season, the pit and edge zone had a serious“water loss”effect. The soil was extremely dry soil provided conditions for the expansion and morphological development of blowouts.

Key words: blowout, soil erosion, soil moisture, space scale, HulunBuir grassland