Degraded Ecosystem and its Rehabilitating Measures in Sandy Areas of North China

Ecosystem degradation occurs in parallel with desertification process in sandy areas of North China. The vast sandy areas in North China are characterized with flexible environments and fragile ecosystems as well as intensive human activities. Due to the annual precipitation gradient decreases from east to west in North China, the whole sandy region falls into 3 main climatic zones: arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid zones.The ecosystems in each type of climatic zones are different in climatic conditions, human activities, cultural dimensions, vegetation covers, landscapes, and causes and processes of ecosystem degradation. Therefore, the most effective rehabilitation measures of degraded ecosystems in different types of the climatic zones are also different. For the arid sandy areas, vegetation rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems needs to be completely closed, assisting with artificial measures, such as plantation, irrigation or others. For semi-arid sandy areas, the effective measures of vegetation rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems include increasing of proportion of forests and rangelands and limitation of reclamation; reducing the carrying capacity of livestock on unit area of rangelands and growth of fodder plants; and plantation on the lowlands between sand dunes. For the dry sub-humid areas, the most effective measure is enclosure of degraded ecosystems combined with plantation, and in some cases, just stop uses by grazing or reclamation.

Impact of Coal Mining Subsidence on Sandy Geomorphology and Vegetation Habitat in Sandy Area

[Objectives]To explore the problem of"secondary desertification"caused by coal mining subsidence in sandy area and its control countermeasures.[Methods]The collapse fissure changes,vegetation displacement and tilt,dry sand layer and wind erosion/aeolian deposit rate of the edge,middle and basin of subsidence area were studied in detail.[Results]The width and density of fissures at the edge of subsidence area were the smallest,followed by those in the center,and the width and density of fissures in the basin of the subsidence area were the greatest,while the staggering and surface damage showed the opposite trend.The average displacement length of vegetation in the subsidence area reached 60 cm,the slope was 5.67-28.63,and the maximum wind erosion/aeolian deposit at the trunk roots was-30.52 cm/+25.41 cm,most serious at the edge of subsidence.The changes in displacement length and slope of vegetation were positively linearly correlated with the height and surface damage of collapse fissures.The thickness of dry land layer at the edge of the subsidence area reached 14 cm,4-6 cm greater than that of the control,and the thickness of dry land layer in the middle and basin of the subsidence area was both about 11 cm,1-4 cm greater than that of non-subsidence area.The wind erosion rate at the edge of the subsidence area was up to 83.34%,followed by that(52.06%)in the middle.The aeolian deposit rate in the subsidence basin was 51.84%.[Conclusions]The subsidence edge has the strongest impact on the sandy geomorphology and vegetation habitat,and is a key area for ecological restoration.It is recommended that the coal mining subsidence should be treated in a timely manner to avoid the occurrence of"secondary desertification".

Origin and depositional model of deep-water lacustrine sandstone deposits in the 7th and 6th members of the Yanchang Formation(Late Triassic),Binchang area,Ordos Basin,China

Sandstones attributed to different lacustrine sediment gravity flows are present in the 7th and 6th members of the Yanchang Formation in the Ordos Basin, China. These differences in their origins led to different sandstone distributions which control the scale and connectivity of oil and gas reservoirs. Numerous cores and outcrops were analysed to understand the origins of these sandstones. The main origin of these sandstones was analysed by statistical methods, and well logging data were used to study their vertical and horizontal distributions. Results show that the sandstones in the study area accu- mulated via sandy debris flows, turbidity currents and slumping, and sandy debris flows predominate. The sand- stone associated with a single event is characteristically small in scale and exhibits poor lateral continuity. How- ever, as a result of multiple events that stacked gravity flow-related sandstones atop one another, sandstones are extensive overall, as illustrated in the cross section and isopach maps. Finally, a depositional model was developed in which sandy debris flows predominated and various other types of small-scale gravity flows occurred frequently, resulting in extensive deposition of sand bodies across a large area.

Water Consumption and Maize Yield for Alternative Furrow Irrigation in Western Heilongjiang Province

Aiming at less and un-uniform distribution rainfall problems, the serious draught in spring, low crop production and water efficiency in sandy soil area of Heilongjiang Province, the experiment of alternative furrow irrigation was conducted in Dumeng County in 2009. The purpose of the experiment was to find the water consumption law and its influence on maize yield. The results showed that the highest water consumption was during the heading stage and the highest daily consumption of water was during the filling stage. The stimulation effect of alternative furrow irrigation on yield was obvious in the appropriate irrigation level. The best irrigation pattern for the highest yield was as follows： the seedling stage was 325 m3. hm^-2; the jointing stage was 400 m3-hm^-2; and the filling stage was 288 m3- hm-2. The water consumption during each growing period was that the seedling was 38.85 mm; the jointing was 108.11 mm; the heading was 124.39 ram; the filling was 88.96 ram; the milk was 60.21 ram; and the harvesting was 47.89 mm.

Soil Moisture Effects on Sand Saltation and Dust Emission Observed over the Horqin Sandy Land Area in China

In this study, the eff ects of soil moisture on sand saltation and dust emission over the Horqin Sandy Land area are investigated, based on observations of three dust events in 2010. The minimum friction velocity initiating the motion of surface particles, namely, the threshold friction velocity, is estimated to be 0.34, 0.40, and 0.50 m s？1 under the very dry, dry, and wet soil conditions, respectively. In comparison with the observations during the dust events under the very dry and dry soil conditions, the dust emission fl ux during the wet event is smaller, but the saltation activities of sand particles （d≧50 μm） are stronger. The size distributions of airborne dust particles （0.1≦d≦20 μm） show that concentrations of the fi ner dust particles （0.1≦d≦0.3 μm） have a secondary peak under dry soil conditions, while they are absent under wet soil conditions. This suggests that the surface soil particle size distribution can be changed by soil moisture. Under wet soil conditions, the particles appear to have a larger size, and hence more potential saltating particles are available. This explains the occurrence of stronger saltation processes observed under wet soil conditions.