AN ANALYSIS ON THE TREND OF LAND DESERTIFICATION IN NORTHERN CHINA DURING THE LAST DECADE BASED ON EXAMPLES FROM SOME TYPICAL AREAS
从若干典型地区的研究对近十余年来中国土地沙漠化演变趋势的分析

Nowdays, desertification is the impoverishment of terrestrial ecosystems under the impact of man. Land degradation due to poor management has plagued north China for a long time. Since end of 1950's to the middle of 1970's, the area of degraded land has averagely expanded 1560 sq. km annually, and during the last decade it w as up to 2100 sq. km in Northern China Recently, the total area of degraded land approximates to 197 thousand sq. km. The situation of desertification becomes very serious in expleited land of sandy steppe and the vicinity of coal mines. Howerver, a number of typical examples have proved that some measures for land conservation are feasible and the process of desertification has effectively been controlled. The potential productivity of cultivated land and pasture has gradually been resetored.