Abstract
The main prevention and control area for wind-blown sand hazards in northern China is about 320000 km(2) in size and includes sandlands to the east of the Helan Mountain and sandy deserts and desert-steppe transitional regions to the west of the Helan Mountain. Vegetation recovery and restoration is an important and effective approach for constraining wind-blown sand hazards in these areas. After more than 50 years of long-term ecological studies in the Shapotou region of the Tengger Desert, we found that revegetation changed the hydrological processes of the original sand dune system through the utilization and space-time redistribution of soil water. The spatiotemporal dynamics of soil water was significantly related to the dynamics of the replanted vegetation for a given regional precipitation condition. The long-term changes in hydrological processes in desert areas also drive replanted vegetation succession. The soil water carrying capacity of vegetation and the model for sand fixation by revegetation in aeolian desert areas where precipitation levels are less than 200 mm are also discussed.
Highlights
Desert areas, sand fixation by plant, succession of the artificial vegetation, soil water dynamics, carrying capacity for vegetation
After the sand-binding vegetation had been established, vegetation had a weak influence on soil water in the dunes, which was shown by the fact that soil water contents in the deep soil layer were higher than those in shallow soil layer, and that the soil water contents were determined by precipitation fluctuations (Figure 1B)
Shallow soil water increased while deep soil water tended to decline and this tendency became more obvious as the sand-binding vegetation aged
Summary
Desert areas, sand fixation by plant, succession of the artificial vegetation, soil water dynamics, carrying capacity for vegetation. Blind and large-scale revegetation with a single species of plant in the eastern sandlands, which have a higher precipitation or in the desert areas to the west of the Helan Mountain where precipitation is lower, resulted in a decline in the groundwater levels, degradation of sand-binding vegetation and even new desertification. It seriously affected the ecological effects of sand-binding vegetation and the overall sustainability of the restoration [2,5]
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