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Arid Land Geography ›› 2023, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (9): 1481-1492.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2022.615

• Biology and Pedology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Simulation experiment on soil moisture and solute transport in different subsidence stress regions

WEN Xin1,2(),SHANG Haili1,2(),HUANG Xianwu2,LI Jianwei2,LI Yilin2,YANG Hongyu2   

  1. 1. State Key Laboratory of Coal Resources and Safe Mining, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
    2. School of Mining and Coal, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou 014010, Inner Mongolia, China
  • Received:2022-11-20 Revised:2023-01-15 Online:2023-09-25 Published:2023-09-28

Abstract:

Mining subsidence in the Shanxi-Shaanxi-Inner Mongolia border region of northwestern China has caused ecological damage by strongly disturbing the surface soil. To explore the mechanism by which mining subsidence influences soil water and salt transport, physical soil subsidence and numerical soil-water and salt-transport models were established in the HYDRUS-2D water-salt model using soil bulk density data from different stress areas of the subsidence profile. The variation in soil moisture, total salt, and different solute-ion content with soil depth and migration time in different subsidence stress regions during soil evaporation was studied. The results showed that: (1) At 0-40 cm depth, the effect of subsidence and tension significantly enhanced soil evaporation, resulting in soil water content in the extrusion zone significantly higher than the tension zone. (2) The total soil salt content in each subsidence stress region varied strongly with depth, and salt accumulation was observed in the 20-40 cm and 60-80 cm soil layers. Moreover, the salt accumulation depth in the right tensile area showed a downward migration trend. (3) The accumulation concentrations of Ca2+, SO42-, Mg2+, and Cl- in the subsidence tensile zone were greater than the extrusion zone. The concentrations of Ca2+, SO42-, and CO32- showed a single peak of accumulation with depth and a significant decrease in accumulation depth in the subsidence and extension areas. (4) The HYDRUS-2D water-salt model can accurately simulate soil water and salt transport in mining subsidence soil profiles. Compared with the measured soil salt and water content values, the average relative error, root mean square error, and coefficient of determination of the simulated values were respectively as follows: ≤0.5, ≤0.5, and >0.95. In the mining subsidence areas of the Shanxi-Shaanxi-Inner Mongolia border region, salt migration through the subsidence tensile stress area of the soil can greatly alleviate the problem of land salinization caused by strong evaporation. This study thus provides an important theoretical basis for implementing science-based ecological restoration projects in mining subsidence areas, for establishing differentiated ecological restoration models, and for accelerating ecological self-healing capabilities.

Key words: mining subsidence, soil moisture migration, soil solute transport, HYDRUS-2D