Contribution of farmland wind erosion to sand storms in northern China

Hongwen Li; Huanwen Gao; Xiaojin Feng; Xiaoyan Wang; Bing Du

doi:10.1117/12.615888

1 September 2005 Contribution of farmland wind erosion to sand storms in northern China

Hongwen Li, Huanwen Gao, Xiaojin Feng, Xiaoyan Wang, Bing Du

Proceedings Volume 5884, Remote Sensing and Modeling of Ecosystems for Sustainability II; 58840L (2005) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.615888
Event: Optics and Photonics 2005, 2005, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

China is one of the most arid countries in the world and sand storms happen frequently in northern China and severe storms even impact neighbor countries. Numerous measures such as planting trees, growing grass etc are being used to control sand storms, which has effectively improved ecological environment and controlled the occurrence of sand storms. However, as to the farmland, two kinds of methods are carried out basically. One is planting trees and grass, the other still continues to use traditional moldboard plowed bare cultivation, which led to degradation and desertification of the farmland, reduced the productivity and affected the sustainable development. The soil erosion by wind under conservational and traditional tillage systems was investigated in a 3 years period by means of monitoring field sand losses, wind tunnel simulations and marking pole experiments. The results of the study show that the annual amount of the soil eroded by wind was 6 billion tons in northern China, and the losses of N, P, K and organic matter were 6.67, 1.00, 122.00 and 89.35 million tons, respectively. Among them, the annual soil wind erosion in Beijing was 18 million tons. Compared with tradition tillage, conservation tillage including no till with crop stubble and straw coverage reduced 40% of wind erosion. In order to control sand storms in China, more emphasis should be given to conservation tillage due to its great effectiveness in reducing wind erosion from farmland which is a source of dust, in addition to planting more trees and grasses.

Citation Download Citation

Hongwen Li, Huanwen Gao, Xiaojin Feng, Xiaoyan Wang, and Bing Du "Contribution of farmland wind erosion to sand storms in northern China", Proc. SPIE 5884, Remote Sensing and Modeling of Ecosystems for Sustainability II, 58840L (1 September 2005); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.615888

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