Key evidence of the role of desertification in protecting the underlying permafrost in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau
Previous research has shown that the temperature of underlying permafrost decreases after the ground surface is covered with sand. No significant conclusions have yet been drawn that explain why this happens, because the heat transfer mechanism effects of the sand layer on the underlying permafrost...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4606803 2023-05-15T17:55:41+02:00 Key evidence of the role of desertification in protecting the underlying permafrost in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau Xie, Shengbo Qu, Jianjun Lai, Yuanming Xu, Xiangtian Pang, Yingjun 2015-10-15 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4606803/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26468777 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep15152 en eng Nature Publishing Group http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4606803/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26468777 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep15152 Copyright © 2015, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY Article Text 2015 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1038/srep15152 2015-11-01T01:16:20Z Previous research has shown that the temperature of underlying permafrost decreases after the ground surface is covered with sand. No significant conclusions have yet been drawn that explain why this happens, because the heat transfer mechanism effects of the sand layer on the underlying permafrost remain unclear. These mechanisms were studied in the present work. We found that the upward shortwave radiation flux of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau ground surface with a sand layer covering was higher than that of the surface without sand; thus, the atmospheric heat reflected by the sand layer is greater than that reflected by the surface without sand. Therefore, the net radiation of the surface with the sand layer is lower than that of the surface without sand, which reduces the heat available to warm the sand layer. Because sand is both a porous medium and a weak pervious conductor with poor heat conductivity, less heat is conducted through the sand layer to the underground permafrost than in soil without the sand deposition layer. This phenomenon results in a decrease in the ground temperature of the permafrost under the sand layer, which plays a key role in protecting the permafrost. Text permafrost PubMed Central (PMC) Scientific Reports 5 1 |
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Article Xie, Shengbo Qu, Jianjun Lai, Yuanming Xu, Xiangtian Pang, Yingjun Key evidence of the role of desertification in protecting the underlying permafrost in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau |
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Previous research has shown that the temperature of underlying permafrost decreases after the ground surface is covered with sand. No significant conclusions have yet been drawn that explain why this happens, because the heat transfer mechanism effects of the sand layer on the underlying permafrost remain unclear. These mechanisms were studied in the present work. We found that the upward shortwave radiation flux of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau ground surface with a sand layer covering was higher than that of the surface without sand; thus, the atmospheric heat reflected by the sand layer is greater than that reflected by the surface without sand. Therefore, the net radiation of the surface with the sand layer is lower than that of the surface without sand, which reduces the heat available to warm the sand layer. Because sand is both a porous medium and a weak pervious conductor with poor heat conductivity, less heat is conducted through the sand layer to the underground permafrost than in soil without the sand deposition layer. This phenomenon results in a decrease in the ground temperature of the permafrost under the sand layer, which plays a key role in protecting the permafrost. |
format |
Text |
author |
Xie, Shengbo Qu, Jianjun Lai, Yuanming Xu, Xiangtian Pang, Yingjun |
author_facet |
Xie, Shengbo Qu, Jianjun Lai, Yuanming Xu, Xiangtian Pang, Yingjun |
author_sort |
Xie, Shengbo |
title |
Key evidence of the role of desertification in protecting the underlying permafrost in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau |
title_short |
Key evidence of the role of desertification in protecting the underlying permafrost in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau |
title_full |
Key evidence of the role of desertification in protecting the underlying permafrost in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau |
title_fullStr |
Key evidence of the role of desertification in protecting the underlying permafrost in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau |
title_full_unstemmed |
Key evidence of the role of desertification in protecting the underlying permafrost in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau |
title_sort |
key evidence of the role of desertification in protecting the underlying permafrost in the qinghai–tibet plateau |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4606803/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26468777 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep15152 |
genre |
permafrost |
genre_facet |
permafrost |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4606803/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26468777 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep15152 |
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Copyright © 2015, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
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https://doi.org/10.1038/srep15152 |
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