Tracing Wind Erosion Rates with ¹³⁷Cs and ²¹⁰Pb in a Typical Slope on the Southeast Margin of Hunshandake Sandy Land, Inner Mongolia

  Objective  Slope land is the fragile ecology area because of frequent human activities. Soil erosion is the main reason for causing the loss of slope land in hilly areas. The paper’s aim was to study the variation of wind erosion rate in different positions and time scales of slope land in hilly area.

  Method  Duolun County, Inner Mongolia has been chosen as the research area, which is located in the farming-pastoral zone in the southeast margin of Hunshandake Sandy Land. The ecology environment is fragile and easy to be damaged by soil wind erosion here. A typical slope land with sandy grassland was selected. By measuring the activities of ¹³⁷Cs and ²¹⁰Pb in different position of the slope, such as summit, shoulder, backslope and footslope, the contents and distribution were discussed. The soil erosion rates of different positions on slope land were calculated.

  Result  Finally, we concluded that the distribution depth of ¹³⁷Cs in slope land was deeper, and the content of ²¹⁰Pb decreased negatively exponential with the increasing of depth. At the same time, the average activities of ¹³⁷Cs and ²¹⁰Pb were lower, but the sand content in samples was high because of wind erosion for long time.

  Conclusion  Except for the sedimentary state of the footslope, the different positions of the slope land were affected by mild or slight wind erosion. The wind erosion rates followed a descending order of shoulder, summit, backslope, footslope. Since 1960s, the soil erosion rate has decreased significantly, and the quality of ecological environment is better than before.