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ARS Home » Plains Area » Lubbock, Texas » Cropping Systems Research Laboratory » Wind Erosion and Water Conservation Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #315491
Title: Wind erosion induced soil degradation in Northern China: Status, measures and perspective

Author
item GUO, ZHONGLING - Hebei University
item HUANG, NING - Lanzhou University
item DONG, ZHIBAO - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item Van Pelt, Robert - Scott
item Zobeck, Teddy

Submitted to: Sustainability
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/26/2014
Publication Date: 12/1/2014
Citation: Guo, Z., Huang, N., Dong, Z., Van Pelt, R.S., Zobeck, T.M. 2014. Wind erosion induced soil degradation in Northern China: Status, measures and perspective. Sustainability. 6(12):8951-8966.

Interpretive Summary: Soil degradation is one of the most serious ecological problems in the world. In arid and semi-arid northern China, soil degradation predominantly arises from wind erosion. Trends in soil degradation caused by wind erosion in northern China frequently change with human activities. To decrease soil loss by wind erosion and enhance local ecosystems, the Chinese government has been encouraging residents to reduce soil degradation caused by wind erosion through a series of national policies and several ecological projects, such as the Natural Forest Protection Programme, the National Action Program to Combat Desertification, the “Three Norths” Shelter Forest System, the Beijing-Tianjin Sand Source Control Engineering Project, and the Grain for Green Project. All these were implemented a number of decades ago, and have thus created many land management practices and control techniques across different landscapes. These measures include conservation tillage, windbreak networks, checkerboard barriers, the Non-Watering and Tube-Protecting Planting Technique, afforestation, grassland enclosures etc. As a result, the aeolian degradation of land has been controlled in many regions of arid and semiarid northern China. However, the challenge of further reversing soil degradation caused by wind erosion still remains.

Technical Abstract: : Soil degradation is one of the most serious ecological problems in the world. In arid and semi-arid northern China, soil degradation predominantly arises from wind erosion. Trends in soil degradation caused by wind erosion in northern China frequently change with human activities and climatic change. To decrease soil loss by wind erosion and enhance local ecosystems, the Chinese government has been encouraging residents to reduce wind-induced soil degradation through a series of national policies and several ecological projects, such as the Natural Forest Protection Programme, the National Action Program to Combat Desertification, the “Three Norths” Shelter Forest System, the Beijing-Tianjin Sand Source Control Engineering Project, and the Grain for Green Project. All these were implemented a number of decades ago, and have thus created many land management practices and control techniques across different landscapes. These measures include conservation tillage, windbreak networks, checkerboard barriers, the Non-Watering and Tube-Protecting Planting Technique, afforestation, grassland enclosures etc.. As a result, the aeolian degradation of land has been controlled in many regions of arid and semiarid northern China. However, the challenge of mitigating and further reversing soil degradation caused by wind erosion still remains.