Plant water use strategies in the Shapotou artificial sand-fixed vegetation of the southeastern margin of the Tengger Desert, northwestern China

Stable oxygen and hydrogen isotopic compositions(δ^(18)O and δD) of plant xylem water and its potential water sources can provide new information for studying water sources, competitive interactions and water use patterns of plants. The contributions of different water sources to three plants, Hedysarum scoparium(HS), Caragana Korshinskii(CK) and Artemisia ordosica(AO), were investigated in the artificial sand-fixed vegetation of Shapotou, the southeastern margin of the Tengger Desert of northwestern China, based on meteorological data and δ^(18)O and δD values of precipitation, groundwater, soil water and xylem water of HS, CK and AO. Our results indicated that soil water infiltration through precipitation was the main water source of the artificial sand-fixed vegetation. Obvious differences in soil water content and in δ^(18)O of soil water and xylem water were found among different seasons. No relationship was found between the δ^(18)O in plant xylem water and in soil water in January. The same water use patterns were found in CK, HS and AO in May, suggesting they have the same water sources. The different water sources of CK, HS and AO in August indicate that water competition occurred. In addition, the main water sources of CK, HS and AO in August mainly come from shallow soil water, while they use relatively deep soil water in May. This phenomenon is related to the differences of soil water content throughout soil profile, precipitation, transpiration and water competition under different growth periods. The water use patterns of CK, HS and AO respond to soil water content throughout the soil profile and their competition balance for water uptake during different growth season. The results indicate that these sandfixed plants have developed into a relatively stable stage and they are able to regulate their water use behavior as a response to the environmental conditions, which reinforces the effectiveness of plantation of native shrubs without irrigation in degraded areas.

Effects of sand-fixing and windbreak forests on wind flow:a synthesis of results from field experiments and numerical simulations

Sand-fixing and windbreak forests are widely used to protect or/and improve the ecological environments in arid and semi-arid regions. A full understanding of wind flow characteristics is essential to arranging the patterns of these protective forests for enhancing the effectiveness. In this study, the wind velocity over the underlying surface with sand-fixing forests and windbreak forests at the heights of 1–49 m was monitored from two 50-m high observation towers in an oasis of Minqin, Gansu Province of China. The wind velocities were simulated at different locations over these protective forests between those two towers by a two-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics（CFD） model. The results showed that at the heights of 1–49 m, the wind velocity profiles followed a classical logarithm law at the edge of the oasis and a multilayer structure inside the oasis. With increasing number of sand-fixing forest and windbreak forest arrays, the wind velocity at the heights of 1–49 m generally decreased along the downstream direction of the prevailing wind. Specifically, below the height of windbreak forests, the wind velocity decelerates as the airflow approaches to the windbreak forests and then accelerates as the airflow passes over the windbreak forests. In contrast, above the height of windbreak forests, the wind velocity accelerates as the airflow approaches to the windbreak forests and then generally decelerates as the airflow passes over the windbreak forests. Both the array number and array spacing of sand-fixing and windbreak forests could influence the wind velocity. The wind protection effects of sand-fixing forests were closely related to the array spacing of windbreak forests and increased with the addition of sand-fixing forests when the array of the forests was adequately spaced. However, if the array spacing of windbreak forests was smaller than seven times of the heights of windbreak forests, the effects were reduced or completely masked by the effects of windbreak forests. The results could offer theoretical guidelines on how to systematically arrange the patterns of sand-fixing and windbreak forests for preventing wind erosion in the most convenient and the cheapest ways.

Wind-proof and sand-fixing effects of Artemisia ordosica with different coverages in the Mu Us Sandy Land,northern China

Wind erosion is a key global environmental problem and has many adverse effects.The Mu Us Sandy Land of northern China is characterized by an arid climate,where vegetation patches and bare sand patches are usually distributed mosaically,and aeolian activities occur frequently.Vegetation plays a significant role in controlling wind erosion.Artemisia ordosica is the most dominant native plant species in the Mu Us Sandy Land.It is urgent to study the wind-proof and sand-fixing effects of Artemisia ordosica in the Mu Us Sandy Land.This study analyzed the wind-proof and sand-fixing effects of Artemisia ordosica based on the field data of wind regimes,aeolian sediment transport,and surface change of Artemisia ordosica plots with four coverages(denoted as site A,site B,site C,and site D)in the Mu Us Sandy Land during the period from 1 June 2018 to 29 June 2019.The coverages of Artemisia ordosica at site A,site B,site C,and site D were 2%,16%,29%,and 69%,respectively.The annual average wind speeds at 2.0 m height above the ground for site A,site B,site C,and site D were 3.47,2.77,2.21,and 1.97 m/s,respectively.The annual drift potentials were 193.80,69.72,15.05,and 6.73 VU at site A,site B,site C,and site D,respectively.The total horizontal aeolian sediment fluxes during the period from 2-3 June 2018 to 6 June 2019 at site A,site B,site C,and site D were 4633.61,896.80,10.54,and 6.14 kg/m,respectively.Site A had the largest surface changes,and the surface changes at site B were significantly weaker than those at site A,whereas the surface changes at site C and site D were minimal.The results indicated that Artemisia ordosica significantly reduced the wind speed,drift potential,aeolian sediment transport,and surface changes.The higher the coverage of Artemisia ordosica is,the more obvious the effects of wind-proof and sand-fixing.Wind erosion would be effectively controlled in the Mu Us Sandy Land if the coverage of Artemisia ordosica is greater than 29%.These results provide a scientific basis for evaluating the ecosystem service function of Artemisia ordosica and the vegetation protection and construction projects in the Mu Us Sandy Land.

Preparation and Water Retention Properties of Clay-based Sand-fixing and Grass-planting Materials

Targeting the problem of available water conservation in sand fixation, the sand-fixing and grass-planting materials were prepared with clay modified by emulsifying vegetable waxes and octylphenol polyoxyethylene ether （OP4）. The water retention property was studied in simulating desertification environmental climate and the materials were characterized by means of UV-Vis, SEM, FTIR, XRD and TGA measurements. The experimental result showed that the materials had excellent water retention properties, due to that vegetable waxes adhered evenly to clay particle surfaces, made the clay pores changing from hydrophilic to hydrophobic and so inhibited the water evaporation. Grass-planting experiment showed that, with reasonable mass ratio of clay, vegetable waxes and surfactant, the materials not only inhibited water evaporation but also maintained sound air permeability so shat the germination rate and survival rate of grass were significantly improved.

Sand-fixing characteristics of Carex brunnescens and its application with straw checkerboard technique in restoration of degraded alpine meadows

Carex brunnescens（Pers.）, a typical clonal species, is considered to be the only herb found to date that can develop on sand dunes in Maqu alpine region of northwestern China. However, the characteristics that C. brunnescens resists to harsh alpine environment have not been documented. In this study, we conducted a field investigation to determine the morphological, reproductive, and sand-fixing characteristics of C. brunnescens. Concomitantly, we transplanted the belowground rhizomes of C. brunnescens to sand dunes and compared the abilities to restore degraded alpine meadows among sand dunes that had no further treatment（SD＋N）, sand dunes that had straw checkerboard technique but no transplanted rhizomes of C. brunnescens（SD＋SCT）, and sand dunes that had both SCT and transplanted rhizomes of C. brunnescens（SD＋SCT＋P）. We found that belowground vertical rhizomes and horizontal rhizomes（including branching rhizomes and main rhizomes） of C. brunnescens were highly developed and that population reproduction was dominated by horizontal rhizomes. C. brunnescens exhibited a significant sand-fixation effect under following conditions： population density was 145–156 ramets/m^2, vegetation cover was 31.2%–39.3%, total length of belowground rhizomes was 11,223 cm/m^2, total length of belowground first-order roots was 9161–10,524 cm/m^2, fresh weight of aboveground part was 198.5–212.6 g/m^2, and fresh weight of belowground part was 578.8–612.4 g/m^2. It should be particularly noted that SD＋SCT＋P treatment（sand dunes that had both straw checkerboard technique and transplanted rhizomes of C. brunnescens） was the best and SD＋N（sand dunes that had no further treatment） was the worst in terms of following biotic indicators： total number of reproductive ramets, total number of belowground rhizomes, and fresh weight of aboveground and belowground parts of C. brunnescens, contents of soil organic carbon, available nitrogen, microbial biomass carbon, and microbial biomass nitrogen. It implies that applying SCT in sand dunes and transplanting belowground rhizomes to sand dunes with SCT could improve both soil fertility and growth of C. brunnescens. These results suggest that the SCT-promoted high reproductive abilities of belowground rhizomes of C. brunnescens can successfully facilitate the establishment of ramets and can thus be an effective strategy to restore degraded vegetation in Maqu alpine region of northwestern China.

Effects of soil moisture and soil depth on nitrogen mineralization process under Mongolian pine plantations in Zhanggutai sandy land, P. R. China

The rates of soil N mineralization at soil depths of 0-15, 15-30, 30-45 and45-60 cm and moisture regimes were measured at three sand-fixation plantations of Pinus sylvestrisvar. mongolica by laboratory aerobic incubation method. The results showed that average rates ofsoil net N-mineralization across soil depth varied from 1.06 to 7.52 mg · kg^(-1)·month^(-1) atsoil depths from 0 to 60 cm. Statistical analyses indicated that the effects of different soildepths, moistures and their interactions on net N-mineralization rates were significant (P < 0.05).The net N-mineralization rates significantly decreased with increasing soil depths and at depth 0-15cm accounted for 60.52% of that at depth of 0-60 cm. There was no difference in soil netN-mineralization rates between half and fully-saturated water treatments, however these rates weresubstantially higher than that without water treatment (P < 0.05). The factors influencing Nmineralization process have to be studied further in these semiarid pine ecosystems.

Seedling germination technique of Carex brunnescens and its application in restoration of Maqu degraded alpine grasslands in northwestern China

Carex brunnescens(Pers.)Poir.is considered to be the only clonal herb found to date that can develop and form fixed dunes in Maqu alpine degraded grasslands of northwestern China.However,due to strong dormant characteristics of C.brunnescens seeds,the sand-fixing effect of the plant is severely limited.This study explores a technique that can rapidly promote the seed germination of C.brunnescens,and also investigates the adaptation and sand-fixing effect by cultivating C.brunnescens seedlings to establish living sand barriers in the sand ridges of moving sand dunes.Results show that the seed germination rate obtained a maximum of 63.7%or 65.1%when seeds were treated with 150 mg/L gibberellic acid(GA3)for 24 h followed by soaking in sulfuric acid(98%H2SO4)for 2.5 min or sodium hydroxide(10%NaOH)for 3.5 h,and then germinated(25°C in daytime and 5°C at nighttime)in darkness for 10 d.After breaking seed dormancy of C.brunnescens,the living sand barrier of C.brunnescens(plant spacing 15−20 cm;sand barrier spacing 10−20 m)was established in the perpendicular direction to the main wind in the middle and lower parts of the sand ridges on both sides of the moving sand dunes.When the sand ridges were leveled by wind erosion,the living sand barrier(plant spacing 15−20 cm;sand barrier spacing 0.5−1.0 m)of C.brunnescens was reestablished on the wind-eroded flat ground.Finally,a stable sand-fixing surface can be formed after connecting the living sand barriers on both sides,thus achieving a good sand-fixing effect.These findings suggest that rapid seed germination technology combined with the sand−fixing method of C.brunnescens can shorten the seed germination period and make the seedling establishment become much easier which may be an effective strategy to restore and reconstruct Maqu degraded grasslands.

Impact of utility-scale solar photovoltaic array on the aeolian sediment transport in Hobq Desert, China

Deserts are ideal places to develop ground-mounted large-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) powerstation. Unfortunately, solar energy production, operation, and maintenance are affected bygeomorphological changes caused by surface erosion that may occur after the construction of the solar PVpower station. In order to avoid damage to a solar PV power station in sandy areas, it is necessary toinvestigate the characteristics of wind-sand movement under the interference of solar PV array. The studywas undertaken by measuring sediment transport of different wind directions above shifting dunes andthree observation sites around the PV panels in the Hobq Desert, China. The results showed that the twoparameterexponential function provides better fit for the measured flux density profiles to the near-surfaceof solar PV array. However, the saltation height of sand particles changes with the intersection anglebetween the solar PV array and wind direction exceed 45°. The sediment transport rate above shifting duneswas always the greatest, while that around the test PV panels varied accordingly to the wind direction.Moreover, the aeolian sediment transport on the solar PV array was significantly affected by wind direction.The value of sand inhibition rate ranged from 35.46% to 88.51% at different wind directions. When theintersection angle exceeds 45°, the mean value of sediment transport rate above the solar PV array reducesto 82.58% compared with the shifting dunes. The results of our study expand our understanding of theformation and evolution of aeolian geomorphology at the solar PV footprint. This will facilitate the designand control engineering plans for solar PV array in sandy areas that operate according to the wind regime.

Synthesis and application of a novel waterborne polyurethane emulsion for sand fixation

Desertification is one of the severe ecological and environmental issues in the world today.Sand fixation against wind erosion is an effective solution to the problem.In the present study,a novel waterborne polyurethane emulsion was prepared as a sand-fixing agent.Lignin and polylactic acid were incorporated as a chain extender and soft segments,respectively.The structure,viscosity and thermal stability of the polyurethane emulsions were studied by FTIR,rheological testing and differential scanning calorimetry(DSC).The sand fixation properties of the waterborne polyurethane were evaluated in terms of the water retention,compressive strength,thermal stability and anti-wind erosion ability of sand crusts formed by spraying the emulsion on sands.With the increase of lignin content,both the water retention and compressive strength increased with the highest values of 39.22%and 1.13 MPa,respectively.All the sand specimens treated by the waterborne polyurethane presented good thermal stability and wind erosion resistance.