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Soil infiltration of snowmelt water in the southern Gurbantunggut Desert, Xinjiang, China.

HU Shun-jun1, CHEN Yong-bao1,2,3, ZHU Hai1,2   

  1. 1State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011,  China; 2University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049,  China;3No.125 team, Hubei Bureau of Coal Geology, Yichang 443000,  Hubei, China)
  • Online:2015-04-18 Published:2015-04-18

Abstract:

Soil infiltration of snowmelt water is an important income item of water balance in arid desert. The soil water content in west slope, east slope and interdune of sand dune in the southern Gurbantunggut Desert was monitored before snowfall and after snow melting during the winters of 2012-2013 and 2013-2014. According to the principle of water balance, soil infiltration of snowmelt in the west slope, east slope, interdune and landscape scale was calculated, and compared with the results measured by cylinder method. The results showed that the soil moisture recharge from unfrozen layer of unsaturated soil to surface frozen soil was negligible because the soil moisture content before snowfall was lower, soil  infiltration of snowmelt water was the main source of soil water of shallow soil, phreatic water did not evaporate during freezing period, and did not get recharge after the snow melting. Snowmelt water in the west slope, east slope, interdune and landscape scale were 20-43, 27-43, 32-45, 26-45 mm, respectively.