Investigation of Wind Erosion Threshold in Different Land Cover and the Effect of Soil Properties on It (Case Study: Niatak Region of Sistan)

Wind erosion is one of the most important natural processes in arid and semi-arid regions. Sistan plain has a hyper-arid climate and is one of the windy regions of the country. Due to the soil characteristics of the Sistan plain, wind erosion is very intense in this region. In this study, the relationships between some soil's physical and chemical properties and wind erosion were investigated in different land cover in a part of the central region of Sistan in 2018. A map of land cover in five classes was prepared using the results of field studies and the classification of satellite images. Fifty soil samples at a depth of 10 cm were collected to investigate the physical and chemical soil properties and the wind erosion threshold was determined at each location using a portable wind tunnel device. Also, the relationship between physical and chemical soil properties including soil texture, soil moisture, specific apparent weight, EC, SAR, ESP, Na+, k+, with the speed of wind erosion threshold was investigated. According to the results, the highest and the lowest threshold speed were 8.2 and 3.8 m s-1 and occurred in agricultural lands and hilly lands, respectively. The results of this study indicated that the velocity of wind erosion threshold in different lands adjacent to sandy areas is less than the average of that cover. Also, the soil texture, EC, and SAR have the most significant effect on soil wind erodibility at P <0.05 in the study area.