Dew formation characteristics in a revegetation-stabilized desert ecosystem in Shapotou area, Northern China

Abstract

Soil moisture in the upper layer plays an important role in arid desert ecosystems. Dew as an additional source of fresh water, may have a positive impact upon the ecosystems in arid and semi-arid zones. Measurements on dew formation amount and duration were carried out in the whole October of 2008 at different condensing surface types (bare dune sands, physical soil crusts and biological soil crusts) associated with different inter-space positions between plants, and at the area under plant canopy in a revegetation-stabilized arid desert ecosystem in Shapotou area, China. The results indicated that there was a positive linear correlation between dew amounts and relative humidity, while mean temperature was negatively linearly related to dew amounts and no significant relationship was found between dew amounts and wind speed. Clear and foggy mornings were characterized by higher dew amounts and longer dew duration, whereas less dew was recorded during cloudy and especially windy mornings. Crusts, especially the biological soil crusts, obtained significantly higher amounts of dew than that of bare moving sand dunes. It was more difficult for dew to condense under the canopy of the plants than on the bare sand dunes. At the first stage of ecological engineering projects, dew can renew the moisture losing through the evaporation of soil and transpiration of leaves, and thus can supply important source of water for xerophytic shrubs. The higher dew amount at the inter-space of re-vegetated plants is an important driving factor for the growth of microorganisms and spore plants, which further accelerate the formation of biological soil crusts and stabilization of moving sand dunes. The presence of biological soil crusts, in turn, helps to facilitate the formation of dew. Therefore, a mutual enhanced effect exists between dew and artificially revegetation ecosystems.