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Journal of Arid Land
Journal of Arid Land  2018, Vol. 10 Issue (1): 27-38    DOI: 10.1007/s40333-017-0073-8
Orginal Article     
A field investigation of wind erosion in the farming-pastoral ecotone of northern China using a portable wind tunnel: a case study in Yanchi County
Ling NAN1,2,*(), Zhibao DONG1, Weiqiang XIAO1, Chao LI1, Nan XIAO1, Shaopeng SONG1, Fengjun XIAO1, Lingtong DU3
1 School of Geography and Tourism, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, China;
2 Research Center for Western Development, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China
3 Breeding Base for State Key Laboratory of Land Degradation and Ecological Restoration in Northwest China, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China
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Abstract  

The farming-pastoral ecotone in northern China is an extremely fragile ecological zone where wind erosion of cropland and rangeland is easy to occur. In this study, using a portable wind tunnel as a wind simulator, we conducted field simulated wind erosion experiments combined with laboratory analysis to investigate wind erosion of soils in trampled rangeland, non-tilled cropland and tilled cropland in Yanchi County, China. The results showed that compared with rangeland, the cropland had a higher soil water holding capacity and lower soil bulk density. The wind erosion rate of trampled rangeland was much higher than those of non-tilled cropland and tilled cropland. For cropland, the wind erosion rate of the soil after tilling was surprisingly less than that of the soil before tilling. With increasing of wind speed, the volume mean diameter of the eroded sediment collected by the trough in the wind tunnel generally increased while the clay and silt content decreased for all soils. The temporal variation in wind erosion of the trampled rangeland indicated that particle entrainment and dust emission decreased exponentially with erosion time through the successive wind erosion events due to the exhaustion of erodible particles.

Key words： wind erosion rate      wind tunnel      eroded sediment      soil particle size      cropland      rangeland      semi-arid region     
Received: 08 June 2017      Published: 10 February 2018
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Ling NAN
Zhibao DONG
Weiqiang XIAO
Chao LI
Nan XIAO
Shaopeng SONG
Fengjun XIAO
Lingtong DU
Cite this article:

Ling NAN, Zhibao DONG, Weiqiang XIAO, Chao LI, Nan XIAO, Shaopeng SONG, Fengjun XIAO, Lingtong DU. A field investigation of wind erosion in the farming-pastoral ecotone of northern China using a portable wind tunnel: a case study in Yanchi County. Journal of Arid Land, 2018, 10(1): 27-38.

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http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1007/s40333-017-0073-8     OR     http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2018/V10/I1/27

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