Abstract

The problem of farmland degradation and air pollution caused by wind erosion and particulate matter emissions is serious. Relying on biological soil crust coverage can effectively inhibit the production of wind erosion materials. However, recent studies have discussed the wind erosion and particulate matter emission processes separately and few studies analyzed both, clarifying the changes in the proportion of particulate matter emissions in the total wind erosion. Aiming at the typical farming-pastoral transition zone in the monsoon climate zone, this study used wind tunnels to analyze the wind erosion and particulate matter emissions of algae crusts and moss crusts for different wind speeds and coverage conditions. Results show that the effects of wind speed and coverage on the total wind erosion of biological soil crusts are similar. However, the emission of particulate matter is particularly sensitive to coverage of biological soil crusts. The proportion of particulate matter emissions in wind erosion decreases with increasing wind speed. According to the trend of the proportion with wind speed, the particle emission capacity of moss crust is directly proportional to the particle size and inversely proportional to the coverage. In contrast, the particle emission capacity of algae crust particles is proportional to the particle size, but the relationship with coverage is not regular. The results of this study can improve the knowledge of the relationship between wind erosion and particulate matter emissions and give relevant information for the management of wind erosion and particulate matter emissions.