Impact of different sand control mode on vegetation and biological soil crust in the Horqin Sandy Land

doi:10.7522/j.issn.1000-694X.2025.00100

Journal of Desert Research ›› 2025, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (4): 118-129.DOI: 10.7522/j.issn.1000-694X.2025.00100

Impact of different sand control mode on vegetation and biological soil crust in the Horqin Sandy Land

Xiaoming Mou¹^,²(), Ting Hei³, Rongliang Jia¹^,², Xuyang Wang¹^,², Guopeng Chen³, Yuqiang Li¹^,²()

^1.State Key Laboratory of Ecological Safety and Sustainable Development in Arid Lands / Naiman Desertification Research Station，Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources，Chinese Academy of Sciences，Lanzhou 730000，China
^2.University of Chinese Academy of Sciences，Beijing 100049，China
^3.College of Forestry，Gansu Agricultural University，Lanzhou 730070，China

Received:2025-05-06 Revised:2025-06-17 Online:2025-07-20 Published:2025-08-18
Contact: Yuqiang Li

Abstract

Abstract:

The northern arid regions of China， as a core area for global desertification control， have significant scientific importance and practical demand for exploring an efficient and stable sand control mode to advance the sustainable management of desertified land in arid areas. This study， focusing on the Horqin Sandy Land， constructs a composite system of two types of sand barriers （1 m×1 m crop straw sand barriers and 2 m×2 m shrub live sand barriers） and three vegetation establishment models （herbaceous monoculture， shrub monoculture， and herbaceous + shrub mixed planting）， and inoculates them with algal crusts， moss crusts， and mixed algal + moss crusts， aiming to clarify the impact of different sand control mode on the vegetation characteristics and the development of biological soil crusts in the Horqin Sandy Land. The results show that in 2022， there were no significant differences in plant height among herbaceous， shrub， and herbaceous + shrub planting methods under different types of sand barriers； however， in 2023， the average height of herbaceous communities significantly exceeded that of shrub and herbaceous + shrub mixed planting communities under no sand barrier， crop straw sand barrier， and shrub live sand barrier configurations. This indicates that the duration of vegetation restoration and the type of vegetation planting significantly affect community height. The vegetation coverage under each type of sand barrier control （bare sand） was about 10%， while the average coverage of herbaceous， shrub， and their mixed plantings reached over 50%. Further analysis revealed that the Shannon-Wiener index， Simpson's diversity index， and Pielou's evenness index of the herbaceous + shrub mixed planting treatment were significantly higher than those of the single planting treatments， indicating that compared to single-species communities， multi-species combinations can more effectively enhance ecosystem diversity. The root biomass of herbaceous， shrub， and herbaceous + shrub under crop straw sand barriers was significantly higher than that under no sand barrier and shrub live sand barriers， with the lowest underground biomass under shrub live sand barriers， possibly due to the competition for soil nutrients between shrub live bodies and planted vegetation， affecting the growth of plant roots. Therefore， in terms of sand barrier setting， crop straw sand barriers are relatively ideal types of sand barriers in the process of desertified land restoration. The addition of exogenous crusts in the control plots significantly increased the coverage of biological crusts， while all treatments had no significant effect on crust thickness. This study proposes a herbaceous + shrub mixed planting model based on 1 m×1 m crop straw sand barriers， supplemented with biological soil crust inoculation technology， which can provide an optimized plan for the short-term ecological restoration of the Horqin Sandy Land.

Key words: semi-arid regions, desertified land, restoration measures, biological soil crusts, vegetation characteristics

CLC Number:

Xiaoming Mou, Ting Hei, Rongliang Jia, Xuyang Wang, Guopeng Chen, Yuqiang Li. Impact of different sand control mode on vegetation and biological soil crust in the Horqin Sandy Land[J]. Journal of Desert Research, 2025, 45(4): 118-129.

Figures/Tables 7

Fig.1 Schematic diagram of experimental design

Fig.2 Impact of different sand control mode on vegetation height， cover， and individual plant count

Fig.3 Impact of different sand control mode on vegetation diversity

Fig.4 Impact of different sand control mode aboveground biomass， root biomass， and root-to-shoot ratio

Fig.5 Influence of biological crust addition on the coverage and thickness of algal and moss crusts under no sand barriers

Fig.6 Influence of biological crust addition on the coverage and thickness of algal and moss crusts under crop straw sand barriers

Fig.7 Influence of biological crust addition on the coverage and thickness of algal and moss crusts under shrub living sand barriers

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Impact of different sand control mode on vegetation and biological soil crust in the Horqin Sandy Land

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