Physical and Environmental Geography Commons^™

Impacts Of The Degraded Alpine Swamp Meadow On Tensile Strength Of Riverbank: A Case Study Of The Upper Yellow River, Peng Gao, Haili Zhu, Zhiwei Li, Jiangtao Fu, Guorong Li, Yabin Liu, Xilai Li, Xiasong Hu

Geography and the Environment - All Scholarship

In the meandering riverbank of the Upper Yellow River (UYR), the native alpine swamp meadow (AS) has continuously degenerated into an alpine meadow (AM) due to climate change and intensified grazing. Its implication on river morphology is still not well known. This study examined this effect by in situ measurings of (1) physical properties of roots and their distribution in the soil-root mixture of the upper bank layer, and (2) the tensile strength in terms of excavating tests for triggering cantilever collapses of AS and AM riverbanks. The results showed that the root number in AS was significantly greater than …