Study on the mutualism between mineral composition and ecological restoration in desert area

Taking Ulanbuh Desert and Kubuqi Desert as the research area, sand samples of 3 different surface depth (the surface layer: 0~20cm; the middle layer: 20~40cm; the bottom layer 40~60cm under-ground) were collected respectively from the fixed dune, semifixed dune and mobile dune from each dessert to analyze the triadic relation between granulometric composition, mineral constituent and the degree of weathering. The relationship between the weathering level and cohesive mineral content and the desert eco-logical restoration was studied by sampling in different vegetation coverage area, and the mutualism relation-ship between the degree of mineral weathering and ecological restoration was revealed. The consequence shows that, the sand grain size in the surface level is smaller than the middle and bottom level;the higher the degree of weathering, the higher the cohesive mineral content and the smaller the grain size. There is a good relationship between the degree of mineral weathering and the cohesive mineral content. Their increase rate rises when the vegetation coverage rises from 4% to 18%~22%, and then the rate falls subsequently. It is a gradual growth of the ecological restoration followed by the degree of mineral weathering. For the Kubuqi Desert, the illite content in the cohesive mineral increased significantly with the growth of weathering and vegetation coverage level. © 2020, China Water Power Press. All right reserved.