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Research status and existing problems of interdune lowland in arid inland desert.

YUAN Hong-bo**, WU Chun-rong, LIU Hu-jun, LIU Shu-juan, CHEN Fang, ZHANG Jin-hu, LI Yin-ke   

  1. (State Key Laboratory Breeding Base of Desertification and Aeolian Sand Disaster Combating, Gansu Minqin National Studies Station for Desert Steppe Ecosystem & Gansu Desert Control Research Institute, Lanzhou 733000, China)
  • Online:2014-08-10 Published:2014-08-10

Abstract: The interdune lowland has good habitat conditions. It is the main place of the dynamic actions between biological and non-biological ingredients in dune ecosystems. It is called the “life island” of broken natural habitats, and is also the starting point for degraded habitat restoration. The interdune lowland plays a significant role in the reversal of habitat degradation and the promotion of soil development. Some conclusions can be made from the previous studies: (1) The concept and classification of interdune lowland, as an independent landform type, are not clear. (2) Very few studies have conducted on the ecological processes of interdune lowland which are mainly induced by wind and sand processes in arid regions. (3) The dominant factors of ecological processes of the interdune lowland and their interaction mechanism are unclear. (4) Few studies have focused on the relationship between dunes and interdune lowland as a whole dune system. Many researches explored the dune change and activity, while ignoring the influence of interdune lowland on sand activities in desertification combating. (5) The studies on the effects of human disturbance on the evolution of interdune lowland ecosystem need to be strengthened. (6) The interdune lowland in arid area obviously differs from the coast, lakeshore, semiarid and humid regions. Especially, it is the main place of human life or sources of land for agricultural production in the arid desert region, so the relevant studies should be strengthened. It has a great significance to strengthen the ecological characteristics and functional studies of interdune lowland in the arid inland sandy area for mastering evolution and degradation mechanism of arid desert ecosystems, protecting the biodiversity of the sandy area and promoting the restoration of degraded ecosystems and desertification control.

Key words: soil water, temporal stability, Heihe River, ecotone, spatial distribution