Contributions of modern Gobi Desert to the Badain Jaran Desert and the Chinese Loess Plateau

Abstract

It is well known that the Gobi Desert is the dominant source area of the Badain Jaran Desert (BJD) and the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP). However, due to the absence of quantitative analyses, there are nearly no exact assessments of its actual contribution. Combinations of field investigations, wind tunnel experiments, and wind field analyses revealed that the potential erosion depth on modern Gobi Desert varied between 0.41 and 0.89 mm a^-1. Results indicated it would take an average theoretical time of 80.8 ka and 4,475.9 ka to form the current dimensions of the BJD and CLP, respectively, which means the Gobi Desert may provide substantial sand sources to the modern BJD, while its contribution to the loess of modern CLP might be overestimated despite it was the key sources of the CLP in Quaternary.

Figure 1

Location of the Gobi Desert, Badain Jaran Desert, Chinese Loess Plateau, and the sampling site. The black dots indicate the meteorological stations employed in this study.

Figure 2

The total sand and dust transports under different wind speed. More details of the transport results are shown in Supplementary Fig. S7.