Desertification is a global environmental issue that significantly threatens ecosystem stability and vegetation restoration in arid regions. This study proposes a multiple treatment strategy combining Artemisia sphaerocephala Krasch. gum (ASKG) with Enzyme-Induced Carbonate Precipitation (EICP) to enhance wind erosion control and seed germination. The effects of this approach were evaluated through field experiments. The results showed that single EICP treatment improved soil water retention and surface strength. However, high-concentration EICP treatment (>= 0.2 mol/L Cementation Solution, CS) induced salt stress, which suppressed plant survival. In contrast, when low-concentration EICP (0.1 mol/L CS) was combined with ASKG, a stable crust formed, improving surface strength and crust thickness, while preventing damage to the crust during early plant growth. The addition of 1.0 g/L ASKG reduced wind erosion depth by 67%, increased average moisture content to 7.4%, and promoted better seed germination, showing strong ecological compatibility and long-term stability. Furthermore, the second EICP treatment optimized the soil pore structure by adding CaCO3 precipitates, which increased average moisture content to 10.6% and increased surface strength by 114.5%. Microstructural analysis revealed that ASKG formed film or mesh structure around CaCO3 crystals, enhancing soil wind erosion resistance and water retention. Overall, the findings suggest that the multiple treatment strategy of EICP combined with ASKG successfully overcomes the ecological limitations of traditional high-concentration EICP, providing a sustainable solution for wind erosion control and vegetation restoration in desert areas.

Rainfall-induced landslides are a significant hazard in areas covered by granite residual soil in northern Guangdong Province. To study the response of granite residual soil landslides to rainfall, the most severely affected area during the floods in June 2022 and April 2024 was chosen as the study area. Geological investigations and field artificial rainfall tests were conducted to explore the deformation evolution characteristics of granite residual soil slopes under continuous heavy rainfall and to reveal the failure mechanism of rainfall-induced landsliding events. The results indicate that the granite residual soil can be divided into two layers, and the slope structure can be subdivided into three models from the geological point of view. Given that the deformation and failure characteristics of the surficial landslides are highly similar across the three models, the three models can be consolidated into a single model composed of granite residual soil and weathered granite. The intensity and persistence of rainfall are the main triggering factors of landslides in this area. The landslides are primarily characterized by surficial sliding with a traction sliding failure mode, mainly involving a granite residual soil layer thickness of about 1-3 m. The increased rate of water content and the range of pore water pressure can be used as primary indicators for slope deformation and failure. Additionally, shear dilatancy deformation during slope movement effectively mitigates deformation rates. Furthermore, debris flow is identified as a secondary disaster resulting from landslides, with landslide deposits serving as potential sources for debris flow.

Several scarab beetles (Scarabaeidae) cause major damage in agriculture, horticulture, and forestry. Especially root feeding scarab larvae cause substantial economic losses on crops, forage plants and recreational areas. In Europe, the entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) Beauveria brongniartii and Metarhizium brunneum are applied against the most problematic, native scarabs, the common cockchafer ( Melolontha melolontha) ) and the garden chafer ( Phyllopertha horticola). ). While the control of cockchafer larvae with B. brongniartii is well-researched, conclusive results from field applications for the control of the garden chafer with M. brunneum remain elusive. We therefore assessed the performance of commercially available fungal strains of M. brunneum against garden chafer larvae in pot and large-scale field experiments. The application of M. brunneum significantly increased the abundance of fungal propagules in the soil by approximately a factor of ten, irrespective of high levels of naturally occurring Metarhizium spp. Furthermore, the applied strains infected and propagated on the larvae and the mortality of garden chafer larvae was slightly increased due to the fungal treatments. We found three other EPF species frequently infecting garden chafer larvae (mean infection rates: 13-25%), including B. brongniartii which is considered to be a specific pathogen of the cockchafer. Thus, the applied fungal strains were only part of a consortium of natural enemies which reduces garden chafer populations strongly as a whole. Hence, we suggest that the application of EPF may be advisable on areas with reduced natural enemies such as golf courses but is probably redundant on meadows harboring a diverse consortium of antagonists.

Most of the small-arch-shed-recycling machines in China use manual disassembly and manual recycling, with low recycling efficiency and low mechanization. Therefore, this paper designs a small recovery machine for arch sheds, greatly improving the efficiency of the recycling of arch sheds, which can realize the lifting and collection of the arch shed rod and orderly recycling of the shed film. By performing univariate experimental studies in the field, on the basis of field experiments, we carried out an experimental analysis with machine speed and different soil moisture contents as the influencing factors and took the removal rate of the shed rod, the removal rate of the shed film, and the damage rate of seedlings as the test indexes. The test results show that the optimal parameter combination is a travel speed of 1.1 m/s, at which the operation effect is the best. The results show that under the optimal operation effect, the removal rate of the shed rod was 95.72%, the removal rate of the shed film was 98.63%, the seedling injury rate was only 2.11%, and the removal rate of the shed rod was only 4.01%, which met the requirements of the recovery operation of the arch shed and means that this approach is conducive to the recycling of the arch shed materials and the realization of sustainable development. In actual operation, the parameters should be adjusted according to the actual situation in the field to meet the different recovery needs of arch sheds.

Aiming at the problems of high skin-breaking rate and high impurity rate of sweet potato during harvesting operations, a low-damage fresh-eating sweet potato combine harvester based on a two-segment potato-soil separation device was designed by using a d-type elevator chain combined with a double-buffer clearing platform technology. The results show that the best working parameters of the harvester are a vibrating shaft frequency of 5.2 Hz, elevator chain speed of 0.37 m/s, and cleaning platform speed of 0.58 m/s, in which the sweet potato skin-breaking rate is 1.09% and the impurity rate is 1.90%, which is in line with the standard.

The mechanized harvesting level of potatoes in the arid areas of Northwest China is low and mainly relies on simple machinery to dig the soil surface, and then people manually pick up and bag the potatoes. This harvesting method has the problems of a high labor intensity, low operation efficiency, and high labor cost. Based on this, a wheeled-chassis potato combine harvester with integrated bagging and ton bag-lifting systems was developed, which could complete potato digging, potato-soil separation, potato-film separation, automatic bagging, and field ton bag lifting in one go. Firstly, based on the agronomic requirements and unique terrain characteristics of potato planting in this area, the structural design of the whole machine was completed with SOLIDORKS 2019 3D software. Secondly, the dynamic model was established for a numerical analysis, and the core parameters of key components were determined. The field experiments showed that the potato loss rate was 2.1%, the potato damage rate was 1.7%, the skin breaking rate was 2.5%, the impurity content was 1.9%, and the productivity was 0.15 similar to 0.23 hm(2)/h. The above field test indexes met the requirements of national and industrial standards.

Microwave-assisted mechanical excavation has great application prospects in mines and tunnels, but there are few field experiments on microwave-assisted rock breaking. This paper takes the Sishanling iron mine as the research object and adopts the self-developed high-power microwave-induced fracturing test system for hard rock to conduct field experiments of microwave-induced fracturing of iron ore. The heating and reflection evolution characteristics of ore under different microwave parameters (antenna type, power, and working distance) were studied, and the optimal microwave parameters were obtained. Subsequently, the ore was irradiated with the optimal microwave parameters, and the cracking effect of the ore under the action of the high-power open microwave was analyzed. The results show that the reflection coefficient (standing wave ratio) can be rapidly (<5 s) and automatically adjusted below the preset threshold value (1.6) as microwave irradiation is performed. When using a right-angle horn antenna with a working distance of 5 cm, the effect of automatic reflection adjustment reaches the best among other antenna types and working distances. When the working distance is the same, the average temperature of the irradiation surface and the area of the high-temperature area under the action of the two antennas (right-angled and equal-angled horn antenna) are basically the same and decrease with the increase of working distance. The optimal microwave parameters are: a right-angle horn antenna with a working distance of 5 cm. Subsequently, in further experiments, the optimal parameters were used to irradiate for 20 s and 40 s at a microwave power of 60 kW, respectively. The surface damage extended 38 cm x 30 cm and 53 cm x 30 cm, respectively, and the damage extended to a depth of about 50 cm. The drilling speed was increased by 56.2% and 66.5%, respectively, compared to the case when microwaves were not used. (c) 2024 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

The bearing and deformation characteristics of embankments with rigid-flexible long-short pile composite foundations (RLPCFs) in thick collapsible loess strata are not yet accurately understood. In this study, a large-scale field experiment was conducted, and screw (long) and compaction (short) piles were employed to reinforce a of the foundation of the Lanzhou-Zhangye high-speed railway in thick collapsible loess. The pile load transfer, foundation settlement, pile-soil stress distribution, and load sharing characteristics were analyzed to reveal the bearing properties of the composite foundation. The results show that negative friction arises along the upper part of the pile, and the neutral points of the short pile and long pile are located at 2/5 and 1/3 down the pile lengths, respectively. The short pile eliminates the collapsibility of the shallow loess and enhances the foundation's bearing capacity. The long pile transfers the load of the shallow foundation and pile top to the deep foundation through lateral friction, which reduces the settlement of the shallow foundation. When the soil arch in the embankment is fully formed, the short pile bears approximately 20% of the load, while the long pile and the soil between piles bear 80%. With the increase in embankment filling height, the load borne by the long pile rises, and the load borne by the soil between piles decreases gradually. The top settlement of the cross- of the composite foundation is distributed in a concave basin shape, and the maximum settlement occurs in the center of the embankment. The parameters of the short pile can be obtained on the basis of the collapsibility grade and bearing capacity of the loess foundation, the length and area replacement rate of the long pile can be obtained based on the settlement control requirements of the superstructure of the composite foundation, and the lateral friction of the long pile can be increased by increasing the roughness of the pile and setting the screw.

The extended duration of mulching in Xinjiang cotton fields leads to a significant decline in the tensile strength of plastic film. When recycling is in operation, the soil and the spring teeth of the machinery used can easily cause secondary damage and fracture the residual film. Establishing appropriate working parameters for recycling is essential to enhance the overall quality of collection efforts. By analyzing the motion process of a chain-tooth residual film pickup device, we identified key working parameters that significantly impact the efficiency of recycling. Employing the finite element method (FEM) and a coupled algorithm incorporating smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH), we developed a coupled finite element model representing the interaction among spring teeth, soil, and residual film. Through simulation and analysis of the process of inserting the spring teeth into the soil to collect film, we derived the governing rules for residual film stress and deformation changes. Utilizing forward speed, rotational angular velocity, and angle of entry into the soil of the spring teeth as test factors and selecting the residual film stress and the residual film deformation as test indices, we conducted a multi-factor simulation test. We established a mathematical model correlating test factors with test indices, and the influence of each factor on the test index was analyzed. Subsequently, we optimized the working parameters of the spring teeth. The results indicated that the optimal working parameters are forward speed of 1111.11 mm/s, rotational angular velocity of 25 rad/s, and angle of entry into the soil of 30 degrees. At these values, the average peak stress of residual film was 4.51 MPa and the height of residual film pickup was 84.48 mm. To validate the optimized the spring teeth impact on performance, field experiments were conducted with recovery rate and winding rate as test indices. The results demonstrated a 92.1% recovery rate and a 1.1% winding rate under the optimal combination of working parameters. The finite element model presented in this paper serves as a reference for designing and analyzing key components of residual film recycling machines.

Methane (CH4) is a powerful greenhouse gas controlled by both biotic and abiotic processes. Few studies have investigated CH4 fluxes in subarctic heath ecosystems, and climate change-induced shifts in CH4 flux and the overall carbon budget are therefore largely unknown. Hence, there is an urgent need for long-term in situ experiments allowing for the study of ecosystem processes over time scales relevant to environmental change. Here we present in situ CH4 and CO2 flux measurements from a wet heath ecosystem in northern Sweden subjected to 16 years of manipulations, including summer warming with open-top chambers, birch leaf litter addition, and the combination thereof. Throughout the snow-free season, the ecosystem was a net sink of CH4 and CO2 (CH4 -0.27 mg C m(-2) d(-1); net ecosystem exchange -1827 mg C m(-2) d(-1)), with highest CH4 uptake rates (-0.70 mg C m(-2) d(-1)) during fall. Warming enhanced net CO2 flux, while net CH4 flux was governed by soil moisture. Litter addition and the combination with warming significantly increased CH4 uptake rates, explained by a pronounced soil drying effect of up to 32% relative to ambient conditions. Both warming and litter addition also increased the seasonal average concentration of dissolved organic carbon in the soil. The site was a carbon sink with a net uptake of 60 g Cm-2 over the snow-free season. However, warming reduced net carbon uptake by 77%, suggesting that this ecosystem type might shift from snow-free season sink to source with increasing summer temperatures. Plain Language Summary: Much attention has been directed toward methane (CH4) dynamics in peatlands and wet ecosystems at high latitudes, which are considered net CH4 sources which intensify the greenhouse effect and lead to further warming. However, few studies have hitherto investigated CH4 fluxes in subarctic heath ecosystems, which likely exhibit both CH4 production and uptake. Therefore, climate-induced changes in CH4 exchange and the overall carbon balance are largely unknown. In this unique long-term field experiment, we investigated the response of biological CH4 uptake (microbial CH4 consumption) to increased summer warming by open-top chambers and deciduous leaf litter input in a wet heath ecosystem in northern Sweden, representative of a large proportion of the tundra landscape. We found that leaf litter addition significantly increases CH4 uptake rates due to a pronounced soil drying effect, which is intensified in combination with warming. Warming enhances CO2 release, while CH4 uptake is controlled by soil moisture. The study demonstrates the sensitivity and capacity of a wet heath ecosystem to function as a net CH4 sink. However, it was also shown that higher summer temperatures might shift the ecosystem toward a net carbon source due to an increase in CO2 release, thereby enhancing the greenhouse effect.