Ulan Buh Desert

Ulan Buh Desert

Wulanbuhe desert is one of the eight deserts in China. It is located in Bayannaoer City and Alxa League in the west of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

. In the northeast of Alxa Desert, at the Northeast bottom of yine basin.

Wulanbuhe desert is adjacent to Langshan in the north and Hetao Plain in the northeast. It is close to the Yellow River in the East, the northern foot of Helan Mountain in the South and Jilantai Salt Pond in the West. It is 170 km in length from north to South and 110 km in width from east to west. It covers a total area of more than 15 million mu, about 10000 square kilometers, with an altitude of 1028-1054 meters. The terrain is inclined from south to west.

geographical environment

geographical position

Wulanbuhe desert is located in Alxa League and Bayannaoer League of Inner Mongolia. The Mongolian word "Wulanbuhe" means "Red Bull". Langshan in the north, the Yellow River in the East, the foot of Helan Mountain in the South and Jilantai Salt Pond in the west, with a total area of about 10000 square kilometers

. It is the northeast of Alxa Desert, at the Northeast bottom of yine basin.

It has a dry climate in the middle temperate zone, with less rain, large temperature difference between day and night and strong monsoon. There are many quicksand in the south, many ridge dunes in the middle, and many fixed and semi fixed dunes in the north.

climatic conditions

The climate is controlled by westerly circulation all the year round, which is a typical continental climate in the middle temperate zone. The annual average precipitation is 102.9 mm, the maximum annual precipitation is 150.3 mm, and the minimum annual precipitation is 33.3 mm, The annual average temperature is 7.8 ℃, the absolute maximum temperature is 39 ℃, the absolute minimum temperature is - 29.6 ℃, the annual average evaporation is 2258.8 mm, the frost free period is 168 days, the illumination is 3181 hours, the solar radiation is 150 kcal / cm2, the effective accumulated temperature greater than 10 ℃ is? 3289.1 ℃, the southwest wind prevails all the year round, the main harmful wind is northwest wind, the wind is strong, the annual average wind speed is 4.1m/s, the sand hazard is the main natural disaster, but the wind speed is high There are abundant light and heat resources, which have potential advantages in developing agriculture.

Geology and hydrology

As far as the macrotopography is concerned, it belongs to the alluvial plain of Alxa Plateau, with an altitude of 1050m. It is a fault basin in geological structure, covered by fine sand and clay like fourth alluvial lacustrine deposits, on which are alluvial, siltation and aeolian deposits. Most of them are mobile, semi fixed, fixed sand dunes, gentle sand dunes and inter dune lowlands with different heights of 3-10m, which are distributed in complex areas Type. The Yellow River flows through the southeast end of Dengkou county from south to north. The terrain of Dengkou Lvzhou inclines from southeast to northwest, with an altitude of 1048-1053m. The whole terrain of Wulanbuhe desert is lower than the water surface of the Yellow River, which has the condition of diverting water from the Yellow River for irrigation, thus making up for the unfavorable factors of less rainfall, large evaporation, drought and water shortage. And the groundwater depth is 5-8m, shallow water resources are rich, water quality is good, suitable for irrigation. According to the survey data of Hetao General Administration of Inner Mongolia, shallow confined and semi confined water is extremely rich, with a 100 meter aquifer, a total reserve of 5.7 billion cubic meters, and good water quality, which is a high-quality water source for persisting in drainage and irrigation.

formation

Drought and wind

The two main causes of desert formation are drought and wind. In addition, people deforest forests and trees, destroy grasslands, so that the surface of the land lost the cover of plants, thus forming a desert. In addition to the arid climate, deforestation and grassland destruction, there are also abundant desert material sources, which are mainly distributed in inland Intermountain basins with abundant sediments and depressions and lowlands on denuded plateau. The source of sand is fine material from ancient or modern sediments. For example, the sands in the Taklimakan Desert and Gurbantonggut desert in China are derived from ancient river alluvial deposits; most of the sands in the Tengger Desert, Maowusu Desert and xiaotengger desert are derived from ancient and modern alluvial deposits and lacustrine deposits; the deserts in the middle reaches of the Tarim River and the lower reaches of the huagan River in the southwest of Korla are derived from modern river alluvial deposits; the Ulanbuh Desert and the Helan Mountain The sand dunes in Langshan Bayinwula Piedmont area are derived from proluvial alluvial deposits, and the sand dunes in the central and western highlands of Ordos are derived from the residual deposits of bedrock weathering.

physical geography

Wulanbuhe desert is located in the west of Inner Mongolia. It is the junction of West China and Northwest China. It is located in the frontier of desert and semi desert in Northwest China. Its geographical area is between 106 ° 09 ′ - 106 ° 57 ′ E and 39 ° 16 ′ - 40 ° 57 ′ n. The northeast is bounded by Hetao Lvzhou, the west by Jilantai tukumu highway in Alxa Left Banner, the northwest by Langshan, the east to the Yellow River and the south to Helan Mountain, with a total area of 129.8 square kilometers. It is one of the main deserts in China.

infrastructure

As early as the late 1950s to 1960s, the desert investigation organized by the Chinese Academy of Sciences set up a site in Dengkou, and established the comprehensive experimental station of desert control in Bameng, which accumulated a lot of data for the research of comprehensive desert control, and was in a leading position in the research of desert control and development in China.

Since its establishment in 1979, the center of desert forest of Chinese Academy of forestry has been engaged in the regional ecological management and development based on Forest in the northeast of Ulanbuh Desert. It has a long-term working infrastructure, complete facilities, water, electricity, forest, drainage and road facilities, high-quality scientific and technological personnel, strong vitality, skilled observation auxiliary personnel and comprehensive technology. Since 1982, three ground weather stations have been set up in the desert area around the oasis, the edge area of the oasis and the central area of the oasis forest network. The observation contents include temperature, ground temperature, wind speed, wind direction, humidity, evaporation, precipitation, sunshine hours, atmospheric dust and solar radiation. The instrument configuration of the station is implemented according to the national basic level ground station specification. Some projects are equipped with automatic recording device. At present, two stations have been working continuously, accumulated a large number of observation data, and established an information database with more than 400000 observation data. 12 groundwater dynamic monitoring wells. The laboratory of soil and water has complete conventional instruments, fixed personnel and skilled operation techniques. It has accumulated a large amount of data for long-term analysis of soil and water in the test area. It also has two ast-386 and ast-486 microcomputers, and is operated by special personnel. It provides convenience for the establishment of desert ecological information database.

Desert deterioration

According to the relevant person in charge of Wuhai Forestry Bureau, in the past 40 years, due to the dual reasons of natural climate warming and man-made destruction, the expansion speed of Ulanbuh Desert moving eastward and southward is amazing. According to relevant records, in the early 1960s, the eastern edge of Ulanbuh Desert was nearly 30 kilometers away from Wuhai. Less than 40 years later, nearly one third of the land in Wuda District has been engulfed by Ulanbuh Desert. The eastern edge of Ulanbuh Desert has expanded from Alxa League on the West Bank of the Yellow River to Haibowan area on the East Bank of the Yellow River, with an erosion area of nearly 100 square kilometers, and all of them have formed crescent and semi lunar mobile dunes, some of which have a relative height of more than 50 meters.

The rapid development of Ulanbuh Desert has seriously affected people's daily life in the surrounding areas. According to the third desertification and desertification land monitoring report of the autonomous region, the desertification and desertification area of Wuhai City accounts for 80.12% of the total land area of the city. Serious desertification and desertification have led to a bad natural ecological environment in Wuhai, with an average annual precipitation of less than 160 mm (only 81.5 mm in 2005), while the evaporation is as high as 3500 mm; dust weather and sandstorm occur frequently, and the maximum number of days with an average daily wind speed of more than 3 M / S is 301 days. Wuhai City has become one of the most serious desertification cities in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and even in China.

After liberation, a large-scale management was started. A wind break and sand fixation forest belt with a width of 300-400 meters and a length of 175 kilometers was built along the line from Shiliuzi of Dengkou county to taiyangmiao of Hangjinhou banner. The sand sealing and grass raising area was 5 kilometers on both sides of the forest belt, which controlled the eastward movement of the desert. In addition to planting trees and grass, more than 200000 mu of arable land has been opened up in the desert, mainly for wheat, corn, sweet corn, sunflower seeds and various melons. Wulanbuhe desert is rich in sunshine, which can be irrigated by the Yellow River. Lakes and ponds are widely distributed. It has good conditions for the development of agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry and fishery.

Vegetation characteristics

The desert vegetation of Ulan Buh Desert belongs to Asia Africa desert flora, Central Asia, Alashan province and East Alashan island. The eastern boundary of Alxa Desert province lies on the eastern edge of Ulanbuh Desert, that is, the boundary between desert and grassland in Central Asia, and it is an extremely important phytogeographical boundary.

The geographical elements of plants are ancient and the species are poor. The desert elements of Mongolian species, Gobi Mongolian species, Gobi species and paleo Mediterranean flora are dominant. The world species and pan Arctic flora are very poor. According to the preliminary collection and statistics, there are 312 species of seed plants in Ulanbuh Desert, belonging to 49 families and 169 genera. The dominant role of some endemic genera and genera in Gobi flora is very significant. Shrubs and semi shrubs are dominant. The plants in Wulanbuhe desert are mainly composed of sandy, xerophytic, halophytic shrubs and small shrubs, which have strong adaptability and resistance to local environment.

Cistanche deserticola production base

It is the best season to build Haloxylon deserticola forest and the golden season to inoculate Cistanche deserticola. It is estimated that the planting area of artificial Haloxylon deserticola forest in Wulanbuhe of Dengkou county will reach more than 10000 mu, and the cultivation area of Cistanche deserticola will enter a period of rapid expansion, reaching 3000 mu. It is understood that the Ulan Buh Desert extends

Chinese PinYin : Wu Lan Bu He Sha Mo