EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Explanation:   Look closely at the center of the above photo.  There is an abandoned farm homestead about to be swallowed by massive, shifting sand dunes.   Who would live in such a setting?

We are west of the town of Chifeng in Inner Mongolia in northern China, in a corner of the natural deserts of the Gobi.  But this landscape is not natural.  It was native grasslands, woodlands, and wetlands.  In recent years, overgrazing of rangeland by livestock and deforestation have stripped the soil of its protective cover.  Wind erosion has scoured out the topsoil which is lofted skyward in massive annual windstorms that dump blankets of dust on Beijing and the region hundreds of kilometers to the south.  These are the anthropogenic (human-caused) deserts of Inner Mongolia.

It is a massive problem and a system in stress.  China is desperately seeking a solution, in part to restore the vital soil, grazing, and agricultural resources of the area, and in part to avert the city dust storms in time for their hosting of the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing.  

We drive onward through the small villages of Mutougou, Diatou, Xiuopu, through the city of Wudan, and the countryside consists of low rolling hills, ancient eroded volcanic plugs, occasional old cinder cones, and dozens of meters of sedimentary layers.  And sand dunes everywhere.  The massive economic losses are apparent. 

The government is attempting a major restoration project by planting fast-growing ground cover and trees, including shelterbelts in agricultural fields and along highways, although in this region, the non-native trees quickly deplete the soil and ground of moisture.  The stress on soil, species, and on the native Mongolian people of the region and their culture remains.