Journal of Ecology and Rural Environment ›› 2020, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (3): 291-299.doi: 10.19741/j.issn.1673-4831.2019.0325

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Dynamic Changes of the Sand-fixing Service in the Sandstorm Source Control Region of Xilin Gol League

ZHANG Biao1,2, WANG Shuang1,2   

  1. 1. Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China;
    2. College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Received:2019-05-08 Online:2020-03-25 Published:2020-03-25

Abstract: Resulting from natural processes or induced by human activities, desertification is an important global ecological and environmental challenge. China has recently initiated a series of ecological restoration programs at national and regional scales. However, regular monitoring and assessment of related ecosystem services in the ecological engineering areas can also provide fundamental references for the implementations of desertification control measures. This study estimated the dynamic changes of sand-fixing service in Xilin Gol League, which is located in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, in the north-western part of an extensive sandstorm source control project region, and represents 44% of the total project area. The RWEQ model was applied, and the influences of rainfall and vegetation coverage on sand-fixing capacity were analyzed. The results indicate that the average annual amount of sand-fixing service reached 1.456 billion tons of sand during the period of 2000-2015, with an average sand-fixing capacity of 74.78 t·hm-2. These values annually increased by 7.1% and 6.3%, respectively. In addition, the sand-fixing service in Xilin Gol League showed a gradually decreasing trend from southeast to northwest and northeast, mainly due to the lower wind erosion risk in the northeastern part. Compared with 2000, approximately 32.63% of the Xilin Gol League area presented an improvement in the sand-fixing service in 2015, also, the degradation area and unchanged area of sand-fixing service occupied 15.55% and 51.82%, respectively. Furthermore, the change of sand-fixing service significantly correlated with vegetation coverage and rainfall in Xilin Gol League. The results reveal that the integrated influences of climate change, ecological engineering and human activities on sand-fixing service should receive more attention, and additional effective control measures on wind erosion in the weak improvement regions should be adopted.

Key words: sand-fixing, wind erosion, spatial-temporal change, vegetation coverage, rainfall, Xilin Gol League

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