Density effects of crusted mosses on dew condense and water evaporation in the Gurbantunggut Desert, Northwestern China

摘要

Biological soil crusts cover 40% area of arid land, moss crust is a predominant species of biological soil crusts and plays important role in the fixation of C and N, prevention of soil erosion and infiltration of water into the deep soil; dew condense and water evaporation are indispensable aspects of water cycle in dry land. Although there were many studies about dew condense and evaporation of BSC, but no attention was placed on moss density like vascular plant. In this paper, measurements were taken to investigate the effects of crusted moss density on dew condense and evaporation. Dew amounts and evaporation were measured using micro-lysimeters. The results showed that moss density was positively related to dew condense, and negatively related with water evaporation, the thinner the moss density the higher the total evaporation amount; One-way-ANOVA analysis suggested that moss density had significant effect on dew condense, even very thinner moss crust had higher ability of dew deposition than bare soil.