Assessing alternative restoration strategies in desertified rangelands of Inner Mongolia, China
Abstract
Land degradation in dryland Asia has been attributed to the interaction of climate change, increases in livestock density and land conversion to row crops. The resulting loss of productivity in degraded regions has implications for humans, wildlife and the provision of ecosystem services. The Horqin Sandy Lands, located in southern Inner Mongolia, China, have experienced significant loss of grassland area, increase in woody shrub cover, loss of surface water and soils due to eolian erosion during harsh winters, causing dust storms downwind in Beijing. There have been numerous restoration measures put in place to stabilize sand dunes and promote vegetation recovery, here in Horqin and throughout Inner Mongolia. These include fencing for livestock removal, tree planting, seeding and physical dune stabilization measures. Whiel many studies have assessed the trajectory of specific projects, particularly grazing removal, to date the relative outcomes of these methods have not been compared directly. In particular, there has been a lack of empirical comparison of dune stabilization measures, such as straw checkerboards, compared to afforestation and fencing. This study compares soil physical and chemical properties and vegetation composition and cover across a series of restoration sites and measures, from two time points, 2009 and 2018. Additionally, temporal trends in vegetation indices across the Horqin Sandy Land are assessed and characterized via the LandTrendr algorithm for timeseries segmentation to link particular restoration practices with landscape-scale changes in vegetation indices. This work will provides information on to the spatial and temporal implications of key restoration measures, particularly new insights on the under-studied work on physical sand stabilization measures to promote recovery of soil and vegetation properties in desertified systems.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMGC32A..07A
- Keywords:
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- 1615 Biogeochemical cycles;
- processes;
- and modeling;
- GLOBAL CHANGEDE: 1630 Impacts of global change;
- GLOBAL CHANGEDE: 1637 Regional climate change;
- GLOBAL CHANGEDE: 1655 Water cycles;
- GLOBAL CHANGE