Potato has become one of the primary cash crops in the arid region of the Loess Plateau. However, what and how cereal crops to rotate with potato is better for the farmer’s income and environment is unclear now. 11 potato based rotation systems were simulated in Yulin, using EPIC model based on local information. Results showed 1) Though mean potato yield decreased from 6.84 to 5.38 t/hm, the m...

Re-vegetation is an important practice for eco-environmental rebuilding of degraded environments. Accordingly, re-vegetation has been widely used to reduce erosion and protect soils against degradation in the Loess Plateau. However, little research has been conducted to study the effects of long-term re-vegetation on soil properties, which is essential to reveal corresponding changes in soil qu...

Glacial-interglacial changes in the distribution of C3/C4 vegetation on the Chinese Loess Plateau have been related to East Asian summer monsoon intensity and position, and could provide insights into future changes caused by global warming. Here, we present δ(13)C records of bulk organic matter since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) from 21 loess sections across the Loess Plateau. The δ(13)C val...

We have conducted a detailed mineral magnetic study of loess unit 8 (L8) and paleosol unit 8 (S8) from three localities (Jingbian, Yichuan, and Duanjiapo) along a N-S transect in the Chinese loess plateau. As expected, the lowfield magnetic susceptibility (χ) has higher values in S8 and lower values in L8. Similarly, superparamagnetic particle concentrations increase in S8 with increasingly hum...

Rainfall-induced landslides are a major threat in the hilly and gully regions of the Loess Plateau. Landslide mapping via field investigations is challenging and impractical in this complex region because of its numerous gullies. In this paper, an algorithm based on an object-oriented method (OOA) has been developed to recognize loess landslides by combining spectral, textural, and morphometric...

Sustainability of agricultural landscapes depends largely on land-use practices. As one of the most productive and widespread agricultural soils, loess is often deep and easily eroded, posing grand challenges for environmental sustainability around the world. One prime example is the Loess Plateau of China, which has been cultivated for more than 7500 years. Based on long-term data sets, this s...

This article presents magnetic data of a 300-m-thick Mio-Pliocene red clay and Quaternary loess-paleosol sequence near Chaona town in the Central Chinese Loess Plateau. Detailed magnetostratigraphy shows that the aeolian red clay began to accumulate at ca. 8.1 Ma. Here, we presented a high-resolution rock magnetic data at 20-40 cm intervals within 4.5-8 ka span per sample of this section, which...

The Loess Plateau is one of the most seriously eroded areas in the world. This study determined the effects on runoff, soil loss, and phosphorus loss of six land use systems in hillslope of the Loess Plateau: farmland, wasteland and four forest treatments (Seabuckthorn + poplar, immature seabuckthorn, mature seabuckthorn, and immature Chinese pine). Differences were significant (P<0.05) for run...

The complete genomic RNA of the Chinese sacbrood virus (CSBV) strain, which infects the honeybees in the Loess plateau, was sequenced and analyzed. The CSBV-SX strain contains 8705 nucleotides, which includes a single large open reading frame (99-8681 nucleotides) encoding 2860 amino acids. A novel efficient identification method was used to investigate the samples infected by CSBV. The putativ...

The degraded ecosystem in the Loess Plateau region of China is very vulnerable, which has a great impact on regional sustainable development. Taking the Loess Plateau of Yan’an, Shaanxi province, China, as the study area, this study quantitatively evaluated conditions of the ecological environment. Based on natural factors, environmental factors, and socio-economic factors of Yan’an in 1997, 20...