Hunshandake Sandy Land Research Articles

Processes and mechanisms of desertification in northern China during the last 30 years, with a special reference to the Hunshandake Sandy Land, eastern Inner Mongolia

Desertification has been widely recognized as one of the most serious environmental problems in China, although its concept and causes are still debated in scientific communities. The semi-arid region in northeastern China, located on northern margin of eastern Asian summer monsoon, is ideal for investigating the processes and mechanisms of desertification because of its very sensitive ecosystem. Using the Hunshandake Sandy Land of eastern Inner Mongolia, a former dormant dunes and wetlands environment, we monitored the variation of the desertified land and the wetlands in order to assess the climatic and human impacts on the processes of desertification. The research methods included digital image processing of LANDSAT data and ground checks. The remote sensing data from the last three decades show that the wetlands were larger in 1975 and 1992 than in 1989 and 2001. The variation of the extension of mobile dunes is in inverse proportion to that of wetlands. The main process of desertification is the reactivation of dormant sand dunes. The changes of wetlands and desertified lands correlate considerably well with the variations of local precipitation and temperature, suggesting that climate might be the key factor triggering desertification in the Hunshandake. In other sandy lands of China, however, human activities might be the key factor causing desertification and land degradation.

Rare earth elements of aeolian deposits in Northern China and their implications for determining the provenance of dust storms in Beijing

This paper contributes to a better understanding of the source of dust storms in northern China and the relationship between these sources and other aeolian sediments in this region. Sediment samples in potential source areas were collected from the Hunshandake Sandy Land, Heaven Desert, the loess deposits of the Bashang area, the mountainous basins and valleys north of Beijing and from the Badain Jaran Desert and Hulunbaier Sandy Land ( Fig. 1). Dust samples were collected in Beijing during two dust storms in March 2002 and April 2006. The laboratory methods used in this study included measurements of abundance of trace elements, in particular the rare earth elements (REEs), mineral assemblages and grain size. The REE contents, Eu and Ce anomalies show clear differences between various deposits. Provenance is considered to be the key factor influencing REE patterns in the study areas. The REE abundances and patterns indicate that the aeolian sand north of Beijing, such as in the Heaven Desert, is mainly of local origin rather than from desert encroachment from the north. The mineral grains carried in dust storms, however, are highly mixed, and may come partly from local sources but mainly from distant desert regions in western China.

The effects of the last glacial paleo-aeolian sands on desertification in northern China

In this paper, nine sediment sequences in the inner desert, desert-loess transitional zone (agro-pastoral transitional zone) and the northern margin of the Loess Plateau were investigated to study the sediments of Mu Us (Maowusu) and Otindaq (Hunshandake) sandy land in northern China since the last glaciation. All of these sequences consisted of the upper Holocene dark paleosol and the lower aeolian sand formed during the last glacial stage. The Mu Us and Otindaq sandy land became the active desert since the last glaciation and covered a larger sandy area than at present. Mu Us sandy land began to show a landform of sandy desert and expanded southward towards the northern boundaries of the Loess Plateau. The Holocene was characterized by the advent of warmer and wetter climatic conditions in northern China, resulting in the rapid growth of surface vegetation and Mu Us and Otindaq sandy land became a steppe. The thickness of surface soil reached up to as much as 50–80 cm. Thick paleosol covered the drift sands, and served as a protective layer for the steppe and farmland. Although the last glacial cycle is far away, paleo-aeolian sands formed during that period are still the material sources of regional desertification. Unreasonable cultivation destroying the Holocene paleosol, combined with dry climate and strong wind would result in activation of paleo- aeolian sand leading to the desertification of the study areas.

Dynamic Changes of Sandy Land in Northwest of Beijing, China

The area northwest of Beijing is one of the most important regions where many organizations invest and pay most attention. The environmental problems in this region affect not only Beijing but also the surrounding area. Based on observation of the characteristics of the change in sandy land, this study classified four types of dynamic change of sandy land, including extended sandy land, the reversely changed sandy land, the potential sandy land and no change in sandy land. Then the process and the trend of changes in sandy land and their environmental impact on the area northwest of Beijing were analyzed. The results show that the area of sandy land has increased in this region in the period of 1991 to 2002. Change between sandy land and grassland was the dominant change. It is found that the monitoring zones of Hunshandake sandy land and north of Yin Shan are regions with high ratio of extended sandy land, and are connected with widespread potential change of sandy land. This implies that these two regions have a high probability of increase in sandy land in the future. On the other hand, in the monitoring zone of Horqin sandy land and Ba Shang Plateau and its surrounding area, desertification had been controlled and the area of sandy land is expected to decrease. This indicates that the direction of the sandstorm to Beijing is expected to gradually move to the northwest. Furthermore, the decreases in sandy land and the reversing change from arable land to grassland and forests in the study region will affect the land quality and atmosphere. And the logistic multiple regression (LMR) model was employed to better understand the complexity and processes of increases in sandy land. This model predicts that there is a high probability of increases in sandy land in north of Siziwang Banner, Zhengxiangbai Banner and Zhenglan Banner. Finally, suggestions to the ecological construction of the study area have been proposed.

An integrated dust storm prediction system suitable for east Asia and its simulation results

An integrated dust storm modeling system is developed for the prediction of dust storms. The system couples a wind erosion scheme, a dust transportation model and the Penn State/UCAR modeling system (MM5) with a geographic information database. The system can be used for the prediction of dust emission rate and dust concentration associated with individual dust storm events. Two severe dust storm events occurred in spring 2002, one on the 19th–22nd of March and the other on the 6th–9th of April. The integrated modeling system is used to simulate the two events. The numerical results are compared with surface weather records and satellite images and good agreement is found between the model results and observation in dust concentration distribution and evolutions. The Gobi Desert in southern Mongolia and the Badain Jaran Desert, Tengger Desert and Hunshandake sandy land in Inner Mongolia (China) are identified to be the dust sources for the two events. The dominant modes of dust particles over western Inner Mongolia and Mongolia are from 2 to 11 μm in size, and 2 to 22 μm over Beijing and its surrounding area. The emission of particles in the 2–11 μm size range is found to be most important for Northeast Asian dust storms.

Reconstruction of the spatial patterns of desert/loess boundary belt in North China during the Holocene

The desert/loess boundary belt is the transitional region between desert and loess, where aeolian sand and loess interlock in space and alternate in time. It, being seriously unstable in space-time, sensitive to climatic changes and with fragile ecological environment, is an ideal region for studying the global climate change. There are depositional sequences of paleosol with sub-horizontal interbedded aeolian sand and loess, and the stratigraphical evidences show that there widely exist 3–4 layers paleosol in sand lands of northeastern China, 4–5 layers in Mu Us Sandy Land and Hunshandake Sandy Land, more than 4 layers in the Qinghai Lake region and the Gonghe Basin of Qinghai Province during the Holocene. These indicate that the desert has experienced several times of extending and compacting, along with which the desert/loess boundary belt vibrated. It possesses good coherence with global climate change and eustasy. The coherence shows that the monsoon change in East Asia is the primary driving factor for the swing of desert/loess boundary belt. Besides, human influence constantly intensified the swing of the belt, especially in the south of Mu Us Sandy Land during the 2000–3000 aBP.