Rime Dispersal Pattern under Haloxylon persicum Canopy and Its Effect on Soil Moisture Content in Early Winter
Received date: 2014-03-26
Revised date: 2014-05-12
Online published: 2015-07-20
Rime is a common weather phenomenon in the Gurbantonggut Desert, China. Desert plants have a stronger ability capturing the rime through capture the tiny drop of water. As an occult precipitation, rime plays an important role as condensation water for the vegetation of deserts. Till now, research on the spatial distribution pattern of the rime scattered from desert shrubs and its influence on soil moisture content (SMC) have not been reported. In this study, the spatial distribution pattern of the rime scattered from the Haloxylon persicum canopies with different sizes were investigated in early winter without snow, and the influence of rime on SMC were analyzed. The results showed that the rime scattered from two shrubs both represented the pattern towards the leeward slope. The spatial distribution patterns of both rime and SMC under two shrubs fitted the Gaussian model, and the contents of rime and SMC presented the tendency of increasing firstly and then decreasing from the shrub root (center of canopy) to the outside. The structure variation coefficients of rime and SMC of two shrubs were more than 92%, indicating that the spatial variability between variables was strong and the spatial differences are mainly caused by spatial autocorrelation causing by shrub canopy. Meanwhile, the SMCs under both two shrubs were positively correlated with the scattered rime content significantly, indicating that the rime scattered from shrub improved the SMC reliably. Therefore, the results suggest that the rime will be of advantage to the growth of biological soil crusts under shrub canopy, and also promotes the selective distribution of crusts, especially for moss crusts.
Yin Benfeng , Zhang Yuanming , Tao Ye . Rime Dispersal Pattern under Haloxylon persicum Canopy and Its Effect on Soil Moisture Content in Early Winter[J]. Journal of Desert Research, 2015 , 35(4) : 951 -958 . DOI: 10.7522/j.issn.1000-694X.2014.00071
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