Progress has been made in the application research on desertification prevention and ecological restoration of bentonite, where Xinjiang's habitat is located

Desertification leads to the decline of land quality, air quality and sand hazards, which seriously restricts the sustainable development of regional economy and society, and desertification prevention and control is an important ecological security guarantee
work in sand areas.
The research and development of new sand prevention materials is the key to the current scientific and technological innovation of desertification prevention and control, and new materials must have the advantages
of environmental protection, low price and sustainability.

In view of the above problems, the research team of Li Shengyu of Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, based on the excellent characteristics of bentonite, natural mineral clay (adsorption, water absorption and expansion, cohesion, non-toxicity, etc.
), comprehensively carried out the improvement and fixation effect of bentonite addition on aeolian sand properties through wind tunnel experiments, field tests and geotechnical engineering mechanical tests
.

The results show that bentonite can be adsorbed on the surface of sand grains through water absorption and expansion, forming a significant aggregate structure, improving the physical structure of aeolian sand, enhancing shear resistance and having good wind erosion resistance
.
When bentonite is added by 0.
2%, the wind erosion rate can be reduced by 99%; When the amount of 1% is added, the water retention and water holding capacity of aeolian sand soil can be significantly improved; When the amount of 2% was added, the surface shear strength was significantly higher than that of desert biological crust.
When the amount of 5% is added, the compressive strength of aeolian sand soil reaches 2.
3 kg·^cm-2
.

Bentonite is a kind of natural mineral material with rich reserves, good environmental protection, the use of desertification prevention and improvement of aeolian sand, the cost is lower than the traditional mechanical windproof and sand fixation measures (1000~5000 $/hm²), and has great application potential
in wind and sand disaster management and ecological restoration.

The results were published in Environmental Technology & Innovation
under the title "Bentonite could be an eco-friendly windbreak and sand-fixing material.
" The first author of the paper is Madinai Ablimiti, a master's student of Xinjiang Institute of Raw Land, and the corresponding author is researcher
Li Congjuan.
The research was supported
by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Key R&D Program of the Autonomous Region.

Literature link: https://doi.
org/10.
1016/j.
eti.
2022.
102981

Fig.
1 Bentonite wind protection and sand fixation

Fig.
2 Potential application mode of bentonite in the field of wind and sand fixation