scholarly journals Hydrothermal Effects of Freeze-Thaw in the Taklimakan Desert

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1292
Author(s):  
Liu Xinchun ◽  
Kang Yongde ◽  
Chen Hongna ◽  
Lu Hui

The Taklimakan Desert, also known as the “Sea of Death”, is the largest desert in China and also the world’s second largest remote desert. The road crossing the Taklimakan Desert is the longest desert road in the world and has been the center of the Silk Road since ancient times. Based on field observation data (November 2013 to May 2014) collected from the Tazhong and Xiaotang stations, we studied the interannual and diurnal variations of soil temperature, soil moisture content, and surface heat fluxes during different freezing and thawing periods. The annual and daily changes of soil temperature, soil moisture content, and surface energy fluxes at different freezing and thawing stages were analyzed. We illustrated the coupling relationship between water and heat in freezing-thawing soil in the Taklimakan Desert. We established a coupling model of soil water and heat during freezing and thawing. During the soil freezing period, the soil temperatures at different depths generally trended downward. The temperature difference between the Tazhong station and the Xiaotang station was 4~8.5 °C. The freezing time of soil at 20 cm depth occurred about 11 days after that at 10 cm depth. The effect of ambient temperature on soil temperature gradually weakened with the increase of soil depth. With the occurrence of the soil freezing process, the initial soil moisture contents at 5 cm, 10 cm, 20 cm, and 40 cm depths at the Xiaotang station were 6%, 10%, 29%, and 59%, respectively, and those at the Tazhong station were 5%, 3.6%, 4.4%, and 5.8%, respectively. As the ambient temperature decreased, the freezing front continued to move downward and the liquid soil water content at each depth decreased. The desert highway is closely related to the economic development and prosperity of southern Xinjiang. Therefore, it is important to maintain and inspect the safety and applicability of freeze-thaw zones and avoid casualties from vehicles and personnel.

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 59-69
Author(s):  
Muma Chalwe Hendrix ◽  
Isaac Lungu Obed ◽  
Mutiti Mweetwa Alice ◽  
Phiri Elijah ◽  
Yengwe Jones ◽  
...  

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xianbo Zhao ◽  
Shiguo Xu ◽  
Tiejun Liu ◽  
Pengpeng Qiu ◽  
Guoshuai Qin

This paper outlines dynamics of near-surface hydrothermal processes and analyzes the characteristics of moisture distribution during the freeze–thaw period in a typical black soil zone around Harbin, Northeastern China, a region with a moderate depth of seasonally frozen ground and one of the most important granaries in China. At Field Site 1, we analyzed the soil temperature and soil moisture content data from November 2011 to April 2012 from soil depths of 1, 5, 10, and 15 cm in sunny slope, and from depths of 1, 5, and 10 cm in shady slope black soil farmland. At Field Site 2, soil samples were collected from a168mlong sloping black soil field at locations 10, 50, 100, and 150 m from the bottom of the slope at different depths of 0–1 cm, 1–5 cm, and 5–10 cm at the same location. Analysis of the monitored Site 1 soil temperature and soil moisture content data showed that the soil moisture content and soil temperature fit line is consistent with a Gaussian distribution rather than a linear distribution during the freeze–thaw period. The soil moisture content and time with temperature fit line is in accordance with a Gaussian distribution during the freeze–thaw period. Site 2 soil samples were analyzed, and the soil moisture contents of the sloping black soil farmland were obtained during six different freeze–thaw periods. It was verified that the soil moisture content and time with temperature fit line is in accordance with a Gaussian distribution during the six different freeze–thaw periods. The maximum surface soil moisture content was reached during the early freeze–thaw period, which is consistent with the natural phenomenon of early spring peak soil moisture content under temperature rise and snow melt. The soil moisture contents gradually increased from the top to the bottom in sloping black soil farmland during the freeze–thaw period. Since the soil moisture content is related to soil temperature during the freeze–thaw cycle, we validated the correlation between soil temperature spatiotemporal China Meteorological Assimilation Driving Datasets for the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model–Soil Temperature (CMADS-ST) data and monitored data. The practicality of CMADS-ST in black soil slope farmland in the seasonal frozen ground zone of the study area is very good. This research has important significance for decision-making for protecting water and soil environments in black soil slope farmland.


1961 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 233-239
Author(s):  
Mikko Sillanpää

A laboratory study was conducted to evaluate the effects of soil moisture and air temperature on soil freezing and thawing. The time required to freeze or thaw a soil sample was a linear function of soil moisture content and a linear log-log function of the temperature of the surrounding air. The differences in the freezing-thawing properties between the three mineral soils under study were small when compared with the effect of soil moisture content. In field conditions the indirect effects of those soil properties that determine the moisture-holding properties of various soils seem to be of prime importance in influencing the course of the freezing and thawing processes.


2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 523-535 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. López-Vicente ◽  
A. Navas ◽  
J. Machín

Abstract. The Mediterranean environment is characterized by strong temporal variations in rainfall volume and intensity, soil moisture and vegetation cover along the year. These factors play a key role on soil erosion. The aim of this work is to identify different erosive periods in function of the temporal changes in rainfall and runoff characteristics (erosivity, maximum intensity and number of erosive events), soil properties (soil erodibility in relation to freeze-thaw processes and soil moisture content) and current tillage practices in a set of agricultural fields in a mountainous area of the Central Pyrenees in NE Spain. To this purpose the rainfall and runoff erosivity (R), the soil erodibility (K) and the cover-management (C) factors of the empirical RUSLE soil loss model were used. The R, K and C factors were calculated at monthly scale. The first erosive period extends from July to October and presents the highest values of erosivity (87.8 MJ mm ha−1 h−1), maximum rainfall intensity (22.3 mm h−1) and monthly soil erosion (0.25 Mg ha−1 month−1) with the minimum values of duration of erosive storms, freeze-thaw cycles, soil moisture content and soil erodibility (0.007 Mg h MJ−1 mm−1). This period includes the harvesting and the plowing tillage practices. The second erosive period has a duration of two months, from May to June, and presents the lowest total and monthly soil losses (0.10 Mg ha−1 month−1) that correspond to the maximum protection of the soil by the crop-cover ($C$ factor = 0.05) due to the maximum stage of the growing season and intermediate values of rainfall and runoff erosivity, maximum rainfall intensity and soil erodibility. The third erosive period extends from November to April and has the minimum values of rainfall erosivity (17.5 MJ mm ha−1 h−1) and maximum rainfall intensity (6.0 mm h−1) with the highest number of freeze-thaw cycles, soil moisture content and soil erodibility (0.021 Mg h MJ−1 mm−1) that explain the high value of monthly soil loss (0.24 Mg ha−1 month−1). The interactions between the rainfall erosivity, soil erodibility, and cover-management factors explain the similar predicted soil losses for the first and the third erosive periods in spite of the strong temporal differences in the values of the three RUSLE factors. The estimated value of annual soil loss with the RUSLE model (3.34 Mg ha−1 yr−1) was lower than the measured value with 137Cs (5.38 Mg ha−1 yr−1) due to the low values of precipitation recorded during the studied period. To optimize agricultural practices and to promote sustainable strategies for the preservation of fragile Mediterranean agrosystems it is necessary to delay plowing till October, especially in dryland agriculture regions. Thus, the protective role of the crop residues will extend until September when the greatest rainfall occurs together with the highest runoff erosivity and soil losses.


Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 933
Author(s):  
Xiaohe Sun ◽  
Changyuan Zhai ◽  
Shuo Yang ◽  
Haolin Ma ◽  
Chunjiang Zhao

Microwave treatment is a green and pollution-free soil disinfection method. The application of microwaves to disinfect soil before cultivation is highly important to increase crop yields and protect the ecological environment. The electromagnetic field is an important parameter influencing the soil temperature field in the process of microwave soil treatment, and the change in soil temperature directly affects soil disinfection. Therefore, this article carried out research on the heating pattern in North China loess due to microwave treatment. First, COMSOL software was employed to simulate the microwave soil treatment process to analyze microwave penetration into soil. Second, with the application of microwaves at the designed frequency produced with a 2.45-GHz tunable microwave generating microdevice, soil with water contents of 0%, 10%, 20%, and 30% was treated for 10~60 s (at 10-s time intervals), and experiments on the influence of the microwave output power, treatment time, and soil moisture content on the soil temperature were performed via the controlled variable method. The simulation results indicate that with increasing soil moisture content, the microwave frequency inside the soil model increases, and the electric field intensity value decreases in the model at the same depth. After microwaves traverse through the 20-cm soil model, the incident field strength is three orders of magnitude lower than the outgoing field strength. The results of the microwave soil treatment experiment reveal that: (1) Compared to microwave output power levels of 1.8 and 1.6 kW, a level of 2 kW is more suitable for microwave soil disinfection. (2) After treatment, the highest temperature occurs on the soil surface, not within the soil. (3) The location of the highest soil internal temperature after microwave treatment increasingly approaches the soil surface with increasing soil moisture content, and the microwave output power does not affect the location of the highest soil internal temperature. Combining the electromagnetic field simulation and microwave soil treatment experiment results, it was found that the higher the field strength is, the higher the temperature value, and the highest soil internal temperature after microwave treatment often occurs at the first electromagnetic wave peak.


2012 ◽  
Vol 204-208 ◽  
pp. 650-653
Author(s):  
Jiang Li ◽  
Jun Ping Fu ◽  
Wu Gang Xie

System effectiveness and useful life of heat pump are directly affected by whether the design of ground heat exchanger is reasonable or not. The efficiency of heat exchanger has a close relationship with soil thermal conductivity coefficient and heat diffusivity, while soil moisture content affects soil thermal conductivity coefficient and soil temperature field. In this paper, we perform numerical simulation on CFD software. Then we study the soil temperature changes through field experiment in different soil moisture content on field experiment and finally obtained the relationships of the moisture content with the single U ground soil temperature field.


1983 ◽  
Vol 29 (8) ◽  
pp. 1063-1069 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. P. Wani ◽  
P. J. Dart ◽  
M. N. Upadhyaya

Factors affecting nitrogenase activity associated with sorghum and millet roots have been studied. Plants grown in iron cores in the field and then assayed had significantly higher activity than plants cored at the time of assay. Mechanical disturbance during transportation of the cores reduced the activity significantly. Any delay between cutting off the plant top and injecting C2H2 gas led to a reduction in the level of nitrogenase activity determined. Diurnal variation in nitrogenase activity was noted but was not correlated with soil temperature. Most activity occurred at the end of the photoperiod. Seasonal variation in nitrogenase activity of plants was observed and was correlated with the ontogenetic development of the host plant, being most at flowering. A low but significant correlation existed between soil moisture content and nitrogenase activity associated with the plant.


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