Effects of grazing intensity on windblown sediment mass flux and particle size distribution in the desert steppe of Nei Mongol,China

Aims Grazing activities degrade soil aggregates, reduce vegetation coverage and affect the amount of deposited material, and make the land more vulnerable to wind erosion. Although livestock increase was considered as the main issue leading to the degradation, only very few studies have quantitatively investigated the relationship between grazing and soil erosion. The relationship between different stocking rates and sediment flux, and sediment soil particle was studied to reveal the mechanism of different grazing intensities on soil erosion process, to provide basic parameters for grazing optimization in the Stipa breviflora desert steppe. Methods In the Stipa breviflora desert steppe research area, BSNE collecting sand boxes were set in the randomly distributed paddock experiment sites for 11 year with different grazing intensities (0.15、0.30、0.45、0 sheep·hm^-2·month^-1, corresponding to light grazing LG, moderate grazing MG, heavy grazing HG and control CK, respectively). The quantitative relationship between grazing intensity and sediment flux, and the characteristics of sediment soil particle were conducted in four sampling periods through 2 years (April 2013 to April 2015).Important findings (1) Grazing intensity had a significant effect on the sediment flux (p< 0.05), and the sediment flux increased with the increase of grazing intensity. The response of sediment flux to grazing intensity was variable with season. The daily average sediment flux (13.12 g·m^-1·d^-1) during the period of April to October was smaller than that from October to April (18.74 g·m^-1·d^-1). The sediment flux difference of different grazing intensities was greater from April to October, with the 5 times daily average sand flux in the heavy grazing paddock that in the control. The average sediment flux difference of different grazing intensities was small from October to April. (2) The relationship between the natural logarithm of sediment flux at different height and the vertical height had a better binomial fitting from April to October, and there was no obvious regular pattern about flux vertical distribution from October to April, and the vertical flux difference of grazing intensities was mainly expressed in 0-50 cm layer. (3) Sand sediment particle ≤250 μm accounted for more than 85% of the total sediment, the sand sediment particle of ≤50 μm) size was significantly enriched, and the enrichment ratio increased with the increase of vertical height. The enrichment ratio of 125-250 μm particle and 50-125 μm particle decreased with the increase of vertical height, and the enrichment ratio of 125-250 μm particle was smaller than that of 50-125 μm particle (p< 0.05). Therefore grazing intensity had different influence on the sand flux in Stipa breviflora desert steppe, the greater the grazing intensity, the heavier the wind erosion was, and the effect of grazing intensity on grassland was enhanced by wind erosion.