Vegetation Geography and Surface Process
DONG Miao, YAN Ping, WANG Xiaoxu, WU Wei, WANG Yong, MENG Xiaonan, WANG Yijiao, JI Xinran
Climbing dunes are important barrier dunes that are widely distributed in highland mountain regions, and their formation is mainly controlled by topography, sand sources and wind regime. Existing researches mainly focus on simulation experiments, distribution patterns, field observations, and morphological characteristics. From a regional scale, there is a lack of research to analyze the variations in sediment characteristics and environmental significance of climbing dunes in different climatic regions. In this study, the wind regime, near-surface airflow, sediment characteristics and material sources of climbing dunes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau were comprehensively analyzed from the aspects of aeolian geomorphology, grain-size sedimentology, and geochemistry. The results show that: (1) Due to differences in material sources, the grain-size composition of climbing dunes sediments in different climatic areas varies, primarily fine and medium sands, with good sorting in the semi-humid areas and poor sorting in arid areas. The grain-size difference of sediments in different geomorphic parts is small, and it responds well to near-surface airflow, and in-situ sand accumulation is the basic formation form, with fine sand having the strongest climbing ability. (2) The chemical element content of sediments is influenced by the parent rock characteristics and the climatic environment, and the particle size is also important to its spatial variation, and trace elements are primarily concentrated in river floodplains, with little variation between geomorphic sites. (3) Except for SiO2 enrichment, all macronutrients in the sediment show varying degrees of leaching or enrichment, and the majority of trace elements are deficient, as leaching and enrichment are closely related to particle size. (4) Climbing dunes sediments are in the early stage of continental weathering, with higher weathering levels in the semi-humid zone. The weathering of sediments in different geomorphic sites varies substantially, which is related to the parent rock, climatic environment, and grain size.