Effects of enhanced wind erosion on surface soil texture and characteristics of windblown sediments

It is well documented that wind redistributes and transports soil resources in semiarid ecosystems. However, fewer studies have quantitatively linked wind erosion to detailed grain‐size fractions and associated nutrient content in surface soil and windblown sediment. In this study, we examined (1) t...

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Vydáno v:Journal of Geophysical Research. G. Biogeosciences Ročník 114; číslo G2
Hlavní autoři: Li, Junran, Okin, Gregory S., Epstein, Howard E.
Médium: Journal Article
Jazyk:angličtina
Vydáno: Washington, DC Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.06.2009
American Geophysical Union
Témata:
carbon/nitrogen ratio
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
ecosystem change
Exact sciences and technology
Jornada Basin LTER
soil carbon
soil nitrogen
soil texture
wind erosion
United States
New Mexico
USA, New Mexico
depletion
textures
fine-grained materials
North America
clay
nutrients
enrichment
grasslands
Fine particle
winds
Height
soils
Diameter
clastic rocks
nitrogen
resources
silt
transport
sedimentary rocks
grain size
Particle size distribution
deserts
ecosystems
Total organic carbon
wind erosion
ISSN:0148-0227, 2156-2202
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Shrnutí:It is well documented that wind redistributes and transports soil resources in semiarid ecosystems. However, fewer studies have quantitatively linked wind erosion to detailed grain‐size fractions and associated nutrient content in surface soil and windblown sediment. In this study, we examined (1) the effects of enhanced wind erosion on surface soil particle‐size distribution and (2) carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) characteristics of windblown sediments in a typical desert grassland of southern New Mexico. Our results show that surface soil has become noticeably coarser over a 2‐year period. In particular, content of soil particles in the category of 250–500 μm increased significantly, but soil particles in the fractions of 50–125 μm and <50 μm were significantly depleted. In addition to the enrichment of C and N in the windblown sediments, our results reveal that fine particles (e.g., D < 50 μm) were enriched to a much higher degree at height than C and N. Significantly, our results reveal that nearly 12% of total organic carbon (TOC) and 9% of total nitrogen (TN) were found in the particles with diameter <50 μm, which account for only 1–2% of the mass of windblown sediments. In this wind susceptible environment, our findings suggest that (1) significant soil texture change (e.g., the loss of soil fines) driven by wind erosion could happen rapidly and soil fine particles (e.g., silt and clay) may be depleted within a few years and (2) the loss of even a small fraction of fine particles may indicate a substantial depletion of soil C and N.
Bibliografie:istex:559395325C555CDB095BD669A30C60E5B7FAC948
ark:/67375/WNG-24QPSXT3-H
ArticleID:2008JG000903
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
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ISSN:0148-0227
2156-2202
DOI:10.1029/2008JG000903