Soil moisture characteristics of eight types of shelter forest in the Kubuqi desert

In this paper, we analyzed the variation characteristics and variable coefficient of soil moisture among eight kinds of travel highway shelter forest at Qixinghu Lakes in the Kubuqi desert by field investigation, to study the soil moisture characteristics and soil moisture variability of shelter forest in the Kubuqi area. The results showed that the soil moisture, measured in five soil layers (0-20, 20-40, 40-60, 60-80, 80-100 cm depth), gradually increased with soil depth. The soil moisture coefficients of variation were 0.70, 0.94, 0.92, 0.94, and 0.90, respectively, and increased gradually with soil depth. From big to small, the soil moisture in the eight types of shelter forest were, respectively: Salix matsudana+Populus popular’s (9.31%), S. matsudana (8.93%), Elaeagnus angustifolia+S. psammophila (5.69%), E. angustifolia (3.31%), Populus spp.(2.12%), Populus spp.+ Hedysarum laeve (1.90%), Caragana korshinskii (1.60%), and H. laeve (1.02%). According to the soil moisture coefficients of variation, the eight kinds shelter forest were divided into three groups: Caragana korshinskii (0.08) was weak variation; H. laeve (0.11), Populus spp. (0.11), Populus spp.+ H. laeve (0.36), and E. angustifolia+S. psammophila (0.39) were low variation; S. matsudana (0.64), S. matsudana+P. popular’s (0.67), and E. angustifolia (0.79) were medium variation. We find that S. matsudana+P. popular’s, S. matsudana, and E. angustifolia+S. psammophila were the most suitable choices to conserve soil water. E. angustifoli and C. korshinskii were the next. H. leave, Populus spp. and H. laeve+Populus spp. were not satisfactory choice.