In order to clarify the wind erosion effect and soil loss law in the degraded area of alpine meadow
the outbreak area of the Ochotona Curzoniae mound in the degraded alpine meadow of Henan County in Qinghai Province was taken as the research object. The field artificial simulated wind erosion tests were carried out with different wind speeds. The law of the soil loss and nutrient loss of the rodent mound was analyzed and discussed. The results showed that:(1) The amount of soil loss under wind erosion take a tendency of initied fast followed by slow. When the wind speed was gradually increased from 6.0 m/s to 12.0 m/s
the amount of soil loss increased by about 6.3 times. (2) The heights and diameters of the rodent mound were significantly different with time during the wind erosion process. Their changing rates corresponded to the rates of soil loss. Wind erosion promoted the evaporation rates of soil moisture
thereby promoting the soil erosion of the rodent mound. (3) The soil nutrient loss in the Ochotona Curzoniae mound increased with the increases of wind speed and soil loss
indicating that the law of nutrient loss and soil loss were the same. The loss of organic matter
total potassium
available potassium and alkali nitrogen was relatively large. These findings show that wind erosion is one of the important factors that aggravate the soil loss and nutrient infertility in the Ochotona Curzoniae outbreak area of degraded alpine meadows.
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