Abstract
Drylands are characterised by patchy vegetation, erodible surfaces and erosive aeolian processes. Empirical and modelling studies have shown that vegetation elements provide drag on the overlying airflow, thus affecting wind velocity profiles and altering erosive dynamics on desert surfaces. However, these dynamics are significantly complicated by a variety of factors, including turbulence, and vegetation porosity and pliability effects. This has resulted in some uncertainty about the effect of vegetation on sediment transport in drylands. Here, we review recent progress in our understanding of the effects of dryland vegetation on wind flow and aeolian sediment transport processes. In particular, wind transport models have played a key role in simplifying aeolian processes in partly vegetated landscapes, but a number of key uncertainties and challenges remain. We identify potential future avenues for research that would help to elucidate the roles of vegetation distribution, geometry and scale in shaping the entrainment, transport and redistribution of wind-blown material at multiple scales. Gaps in our collective knowledge must be addressed through a combination of rigorous field, wind tunnel and modelling experiments.
Highlights
The Drylands ContextDryland environments, which constitute about 47% of the global land area [1], are extreme in their nature, typified by non-equilibrium conditions in climate, vegetation and geomorphology [2,3].The strong interannual variability in precipitation characteristic of drylands [4,5] often results in ephemeral vegetative cover [6] or distinctive spatial patterning [7]
Given the key role that vegetation plays in modulating abiotic processes in drylands, this paper reviews recent studies to provide a holistic view of the effect of vegetation on wind flow and aeolian sediment transport
The mobility potential of vegetated dunes over long timescales has been successfully modelled using wind-based indices that combine precipitation, temperature and wind data [8,9]. Whilst this approach is useful for simulating large dunefield dynamics, it does not resolve sediment transport dynamics at the same scale as plant-flow interactions
Summary
Dryland environments, which constitute about 47% of the global land area [1], are extreme in their nature, typified by non-equilibrium conditions in climate, vegetation and geomorphology [2,3]. Pressures on dryland resources are increasing as the population of the global arid zone, which is located mostly in the developing world, surpasses 2 billion people [29,30] These pressures, combined with increasingly arid conditions owing to climatic change [13,31,32,33], are driving rapid, large-scale vegetation shifts that alter rates and. Given the key role that vegetation plays in modulating abiotic processes in drylands, this paper reviews recent studies to provide a holistic view of the effect of vegetation on wind flow and aeolian sediment transport. (ii) sediment transport dynamics on vegetated surfaces, collating information from wind tunnel, field, and modelling studies; and (iii) potential future avenues for research in these fields
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