Arid Zone Research ›› 2019, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (3): 537-545.

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Effect of Short-Term Warming on Dynamic Change of Soil Moisture Content in Growing Season in the Permafrost Regions of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

LI Yan-ping1, SHI Li-jiang2, XU Man-hou1, LI Wen-gang   

  1. 1. College of Geography,Taiyuan Normal University,Jinzhong 030619,Shanxi,China; 2. College of Resources and Environment,Shanxi University of Finance and Economics,Taiyuan 030006,Shanxi,China; 3. Institute of Agricultural Resources and Economics,Shanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences,Taiyuan 030006,Shanxi,China

  • Received:2018-07-30 Revised:2018-11-06 Online:2019-05-15 Published:2019-05-15

Abstract: The typical alpine meadow vegetation types in the hinterland of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau were taken as the research objects, the global warming was simulated by infrared lamp heating method, the values of soil moisture content at different depths of 0-100 cm in growing season (from May to September) 2012 were obtained by water probe, and its response to warming was analyzed. The results showed that:   Short-term warming increased soil moisture content in alpine meadow, but the increase was not significant (P≥0.05), and the average increase was 2.85%;  Soil moisture content decreased at first and then increased with the increase of soil depth, and decreased to the lowest value (13.8%) at the depth of 10-20 cm, and reached the highest value (20.57%) near the depth of 60-100 cm. Soil moisture content at 10-20 cm depth in the control group was significantly lower than that in other soil layers in five months, it at 0-20 cm depth in the warming group was significantly lower than that in other soil layers, which indicated that warming affected significantly the topsoil (0-10 cm deep) moisture content, but slightly the deep-soil moisture content, and the short-term warming had no effect on the vertical distribution of soil moisture content;   Soil moisture content was in an increase trend with the time from May to August, which indicated that the soil moisture content in growing season in Beilu River Basin in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau increased gradually and to its highest value in August, and it began to decrease from September, but the decrease was not significant. The change trend of soil moisture content with the time in the warming group was basically the same as that in the control group.

Key words: soil moisture content, alpine meadow, simulated warming, growing season, permafrost, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau