Abstract:
The amount of wind erosion is an important indicator for assessing soil loss and desertification. This paper quantitatively analyzes the spatial-temporal variability of soil wind erosion in the Hulunbuir forest-steppe ecotone in 2000, 2010 and 2018, using the revised wind erosion equation. The driving effects of climate change and human activities on soil wind erosion change were investigated through a geodetector model, and the influence of land cover and vegetation cover change on soil wind erosion was also explored. The results showed that: (1) The total amount of soil wind erosion in the study area in 2000, 2010 and 2018 were 9.74×10
7, 1.33×10
8 and 8.51×10
7 tons respectively, with an overall trend of first increasing and then decreasing; Compared to the year of 2000, 9.04% of the study area decreased in soil wind erosion intensity in the year of 2018, while 0.10% of the study area increased in soil wind erosion intensity, and the soil wind erosion intensity remained unchanged in the other 90.86% of the study area; (2) The interaction between the driving factors of soil wind erosion change from 2000 to 2018 was significant, and the decrease in wind erosion was mainly driven by the synergy of human activities and climate change; (3) From 2000 to 2018, the four measures of increased grassland coverage, sealed sand land, withdrawal of ecological land, and natural forest protection contributed 69.32%, 19.37%, 0.06%, and 1.81% to the reduction of wind erosion, respectively. It is evident that the ecological protection measures in the study area play a crucial role in promoting the reduction of wind erosion.