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cje ›› 2012, Vol. 31 ›› Issue (07): 1756-1762.

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Role of Rhombomys opimus in the development of “fertile island” in tamarisk mounds in Junggar Basin.

XU Wen-xuan1,2, LIU Wei3, YANG Wei-kang1**, TANG Chao-wen1,2, David BLANK1   

  1. (1Key Laboratory of Biogeography and Bioresource in Arid Land, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China; 2Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; 3School of Life Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China)
  • Online:2012-07-10 Published:2012-07-10

Abstract: Shrub “fertile island” is created and maintained by a combination of physically and biologically mediated processes. Plants are the key factor affecting the formation of “fertile island”, while the activities of burrowing animals can affect the soil physical and chemical properties, which promotes the development of the “fertile island”. In this paper, tamarisk (Tamarix spp.), a dominant shrub species growing in oasisdesert ecotone, and great gerbil (Rhombomys opimus), a widely distributed rodent in Central Asia, were taken as study objects to investigate the “fertile island” effect of R. opimus in tamarisk mounds in Junggar Basin. In the tamarisk mounds without the settlement of R. opimus, “fertile island” effect existed, but the soil nutrients contents had no significant increase. After the settlement of R. opimus, the tamarisk mounds showed obvious “fertile island” effect, with significantly higher soil nutrients contents than the intermound areas. The burrowing activities of R. opimus promoted the enrichment of nutrients in 15-50 cm soil layer, and the content of soil available nitrogen in the tamarisk mounds with R. opimus burrows was over 2 times higher than that in the mounds without R. opimus burrows at the same depths. Our study indicated that the burrowing activities of R. opimus promoted the development of “fertile island” in the tamarisk mounds.

Key words: riparian buffer, best management practice, level spreader, concentrated flow path.