Loess Plateau

Rowe PJ, Maher BA (2000) Cold stage formation of calcrete nodnles in the Chinese Loess Plateau evidence from U-series dating and stable isotope analysis. Palaeogeogr Palaeochmatol Palaeoecol 157 109-125... 

Data from Liu, 1996. The data cover North China Plain, Loess Plateau, and Xinjiang Province. 

Soils in the North China Plain and Loess Plateau regions contained 0.04-3.01 mg/kg DTPA-extractable Zn with an average of 0.44 mg/kg. The concentrations of DTPA-extractable Zn in northern China are presented in Table 7.7. In the loessial soils of the Loess Plateau, 64% of the soil samples had less than 0.5 mg/kg of bioavailable Zn. The bioavailable Zn in the arid soils of North China varied from 0.08-11.84 mg/kg with an average of 1 mg/kg, with 41% of the soil samples having < 0.5 mg/kg of bioavailable Zn. The average amount of bioavailable Zn in calcareous soils was 0.35 mg/kg (trace - 1.12 mg/kg). The North China Plain and Loess Plateau are major Zn-deficient regions in China. Calcareous paddy soils frequently displayed Zn deficiency in rice. Zinc fertilizers have been applied to rice, maize, sorghum, wheat, cotton and fruit trees where bioavailable Zn was less than 0.5 mg/kg. 

Loessial soils in the Loess Plateau contained 0.01-4.20 mg/kg DTPA-extractable Cu with an average of 0.93 mg/kg (Table 7.7). Bioavailable Cu in the North China Plain varied from 0.07-9.95 mg/kg. In the North West region, soils contained 0.06-19.20 mg/kg DTPA-extractable Cu. The average bioavailable Cu was 1.83 mg/kg in the calcareous paddy soils with a range of trace to 6.85 mg/kg. Copper deficiency was not often observed in the arid and semi-arid soils of China. 

Water soluble Se in the North West region varied from 0.0002-0.0429 mg/kg. Water soluble Se accounted for 2.13-6.34% of the total Se in the soils of North China. Selenium is an essential element to animals and humans. When water soluble Se in soils is less than 0.003 mg/kg, Se deficiency in animal and human beings may occur. EDTA-extractable Se in the alkali desert soils of North China was in the range of 0.011-0.090 mg/kg this was about 5-11% of the total Se in the soils. Selenium deficiency was mostly found in the Loess Plateau and Tibet region. NH4OAc-cxtractable Ni in soils from Beijing was 0.29 mg/kg. 

Zuo SP, Ma CYQ, Inanaga CS (2007) Allelopathy variation in dryland winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) accessions grown on the Loess Plateau of China for about fifty years. Genet Resour Crop Evol 54 1381-1393... 

Class 5 (the least sensitive) soil include Kashtanozem, Brown soil and Sierozem soil zones in the Plateau of Inner Mongolia and the Loess Plateau, Desert soil zones in He-xi-zou-lang and the Talimu River Basin, Subalpine Steppe soil, Alpine Steppe soil and Alpine Desert soil in the Plateau of Tibet. These kinds of soils, belonging to the soil class of Xerosol or Alpine soil, consist of easy weathering minerals such as carbonate. They show alkaline reactions, with weak leaching and sparse vegetation. Those kinds of soils are insensitive to acid deposition. 

Jahn B. M., Gallet S., and Han J. M. (2001) Geochemistry of the Xining, Xifeng, and Jixian sections. Loess Plateau of China eolian dust provenance and paleosol evolution during the last 140 ka. Chem. Geol. 178(1-4), 71-94. 

Sun D. H., Shaw J., An Z. S., Cheng M. Y., and Yue L. P. (1998b) Magnetostratigraphy and paleoclimatic interpretation of a continuous 7.2 MaLate Cenozoic eolian sediments from the Chinese Loess Plateau. Geophys. Res. Lett. 25, 85-88. 

Dang M-Z, Ranconrt DG, Lamarche G, Evans ME (1999) Mineralogical analysis of a loess/paleosol couplet from the Chinese loess plateau. In Kodama H, Mermut AR, Torrance JK (eds) Clays for Onr Future. Proc llthIntT Clay Conf, Ottawa, Canada, p 309-315 de Biasi RS, Devezas TC (1978) Anisotropy field of small magnetic particles as measured by resonance. J Appl Phys 49 2466-2469... 

Huang ChCh, Pang J et al. (2002) Abruptly increased climatic aridity and its social impact on the Loess Plateau of China at 3100 a B.P. J Arid Environ 52 87-99... 

The experimental watershed was simulated in the State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Science, Yangling, Shannxi province. It lasted for ten months. The basis for the experiment is to create a lab-based suitable and manmade test site where the loess material and surface configuration could correctly represent the true bess surface through a series of statistic analysis and pre-experiment. 

In the loess plateau in northwest China, loess gully and loess steep slope are very rich, and there plenty of collapsible loess cave, which is very helpful for the disasters of loess landslides, avalanche, loess seismic subsidence and hquefaction. 

The disaster of slope instability is mainly in those mountains area around the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in southwest China, the Tianshan mountain area in northwest China and the area of Taiwan province, and secondary in area of loess plateau in northwest China, third in some hilly area of north China, and last in some hilly area of south and southeast China. 

Landslides in the loess plateau with sparse vegetation and bare surface can be easily identified through the keys as follows. 

Sherman mining area is located in north of Shaanxi province. Its west is Mu Us Desert covered with flat aeoUan sand layer-the most significant aquifer and east is the Loess Plateau with serious hydraulic cutting. The stratums, typically from top to bottom, are sand layer (aquifer, mainly distributed in the west), Lishi formation (loess, widespread in the whole area), Baode formation (laterite, widespread in the whole area) and Yanan formation (the major coal-bearing strata). The sand aquifer has suitable permeability coefficient to hold water not to run... 

Zhang M.S., Dong Y. Sun P.P. 2012. Impact of reservoir impoundmentcaused groundwater level changes on regional slope stability a case study in the Loess Plateau of Western China, Environmental Earth Sciences, doi 10.1007/S12665-012-1728-6. 

The loess on loess plateau are composed of loess (L) and paleosol (S) sequences. The loess stratum at Jijiayuan slope includes the upper Pleistocene series and the upper part of the middle Pleistocene series. The upper Pleistocene has two layers, Malan loess (Lj) and the first paleosoil (Sj). Malan loess has brown-yellow color and uniform structure with root and warm holes. The first paleosoil is has reddish brown color and granular structure, including calcareous nodules and white lime powder. There are four layers of loess and three layers of paleosol from top to bottom in the upper part of the middle Pleistocene series. The loess bed is thicker than paleosol. Their characters are similar to the Malan loess and the above paleosol Sj. Samples were taken in L4 loess for laboratory tests, which is the main shearing bed in the sliding zone. 

Lavrusevich A.A., Krasheninnikov V.S. and Lavrusevich LA., Loess pseudokarst and experience in strengthening loess massifs and slopes by their artificial planting an example of a loess plateau in Gansu and Shanxi, China // Engineering Geology, 2012. no. 1. pp. 44-54. 

Holocene Soil Chronofunctions, Luochuan, Chinese Loess Plateau... 

Tang, K. L He, X. B. (2002). Revelation on genesis of multi paleosol from Quaternary loess profile. Acta Pedologica Sinica, Vol. 39, No. 5, pp. 609-617, ISSN 0564-3929 Tang, K. L. He, X. B. (2004). Re-discussion on loess-paleosol evolution and dimatic change on the Loess Plateau during the Holocene. Quaternary Sciences, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 129-139, ISSN 1001-7410... 

The Loess Plateau This region includes the west part of Henan and Shanxi Provinces and most of Shaanxi Province. Scattered vineyards are found in this region. 

---