Assessing changes in wind erosion climatic erosivity in China's dryland region during 1961-2012

Abstract

China's dryland region has serious wind erosion problem and is sensitive to climate change due to its fragile ecological condition. Wind erosion climatic erosivity is a measure of climatic factors influencing wind erosion, therefore, evaluation of its intensity and response to recent climate changes can contribute to the understanding of climate change effect on wind erosion risk. Using the FAO equation, GIS and statistical analysis tools, this study quantified the climatic erosivity, analyzed its spatiotemporal variations, and detected the trend and sensitivity to climate factors during 1961-2012. The results indicate that mean annual climatic erosivity was 2-166 at 292 stations and 237-471 at 6 stations, with the spatial distribution highly in accordance with wind speed ( R-2 = 0.94). The climatic erosivity varied greatly over time with the annual variation ( CV) of 14.7%-108.9% and monthly variation ( concentration degree) of 0.10-0.71 in the region. Meanwhile, annual erosivity showed a significant downward trend at an annual decreasing rate mostly above 1.0%. This significantly decreasing trend was mainly attributed to the obvious decline of wind speed during the period. The results suggest that the recent climate changes were highly possible to induce a decrease of wind erosion risk in China's dryland region