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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Soil Processes
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2024.1435618

Soil compounding promotes the improvement of aeolian sandy soil in the Mu Us Sandy Land

Provisionally accepted
Shichao Chen Shichao Chen 1*Xue Chen Xue Chen 1Hejun Zuo Hejun Zuo 1Min Yan Min Yan 1Haibing Wang Haibing Wang 1*Xiaole Li Xiaole Li 2
  • 1 College of Desert Control and Engineering, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, China
  • 2 Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study employed aeolian sandy soil and loess soil of the Mu Us Sandy Land as the research material to investigate the effect of soil compounding on the improvement of aeolian sandy soil and to provide a feasible approach for sand prevention and sand control. In particular, loess soils were compounded at 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100% by volume percentage of the compounded soils, respectively. The improvement benefits of compounded soils on their textural properties, water-holding capacity, and fertilizer retention capacity at different blending ratios were evaluated. The results showed that following the compounding of aeolian sandy and loess soils, with the increase of the loess proportion, the texture type of the compounded soil transforms from sandy soil to loamy sandy soil to sandy loam to loamy soil to powdery loam . Moreover, granular gradation was observed, the bulk density gradually decreased, the capillary porosity gradually increased, and the performance of water- and fertilizer-holding properties gradually increased and strengthened. The spatial variability of compounded soil bulk density, capillary porosity, and the water-holding and fertilizer retention properties were almost entirely controlled by the proportion of loess soil. This study provides a theoretical basis for aeolian sandy soil improvement in the Mu Us Sandy Land that can be extended to similar areas, providing a feasible sand management approach.

    Keywords: soil improvement 5, compounding 4, aeolian sandy soil 3, loess soils 2, desertification1Keywords: desertification

    Received: 20 May 2024; Accepted: 11 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Chen, Chen, Zuo, Yan, Wang and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Shichao Chen, College of Desert Control and Engineering, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, China
    Haibing Wang, College of Desert Control and Engineering, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.