Freeze/thaw and soil moisture effects on wind erosion

• Wind-driven sediment flux of thawed soil was larger than that of frozen soil.
• Wind-driven sediment flux decreased with increasing soil moisture.
• Mean weight diameter of soil particles of thawed soil was smaller than frozen soil.

Wind erosion is very pronounced in semiarid regions during late winter–early spring and has major impacts on regional desertification and agriculture. In order to identify the effects of freeze/thaw and soil moisture on wind erosion, wind tunnel experiments were conducted to compare wind erosion effects under various soil moisture gradients in frozen and thawed soil. The variation of surface soil moisture after wind erosion and the effective soil particle size distribution was tested to explain the differences. The results showed that surface soil moisture content decreased in thawed soil and increased in frozen soil after wind erosion. The mean weight diameter, which increased with increasing soil moisture, was smaller in thawed soil than in frozen soil. The wind-driven sediment flux of frozen and thawed soil both decreased with increasing moisture, owing to the heavier soil particle weight and stronger interparticle bonding forces. The critical soil moisture content for suppressing wind erosion was around 2.34% for frozen soil and around 2.61% for thawed soil. The wind-driven sediment flux of thawed soil was always larger than that of frozen soil at the same moisture content, but this difference became negligible at moisture contents above 3.38%. We may speculate that wind erosion will be more severe in the future because of the lower soil moisture content and fewer soil freezing days as a result of global warming.