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Scientific Reports volume 13, Article number: 23049 (2023 ) Cite this article Laser Diffraction Particle Size Analyzer
Understanding multiple-factor effects on particle size selectivity by extreme rainfall events in Ala-Shan Gobi desert is of great significance for better estimation of potential Asian dust emission sources. Artificial rainfall simulation experiments were used to investigate the particle size selectivity characteristics by extreme rainfall events under different rainfall intensities (20 mm h−1 and 40 mm h−1), slope gradients (3° and 15°) and gravel coverages (0, 30%, and 60%). Moreover, the relations of clay content (Clc), silt content (Sic), fine particle (< 50 μm) content (Fic) and enrichment ratio of fine particles (ER<50) with multiple factors were regressed and validated. Results show that rainfall intensity significantly (P < 0.05) affect runoff and sediment yield processes, but slope gradient was a dominant factor that changed particle size distribution (PSD). The selectivity of fine particles was higher at low rainfall intensity (20 mm h−1), gentle slope (3°) and moderate gravel coverage (30%), with ER<50 reaching 6.14, which dominate the potential Asian dust emission sources. The interaction were discussed and classified into ‘Synergy’ and ‘Trade-off’. Clc and Fic showed negative exponential relationship with rainfall intensity and slope gradient, but positive exponential relationship with gravel coverage. While Sic and ER<50 showed negative power function relationship with rainfall intensity, slope gradient and gravel coverage. These findings could help to understand the effects of multiple factors on potential sources of Asian dust emission under extreme rainfall events in Gobi region of northwestern China and provide basic science reference for the prediction of dust emission in this region.
Wei Yang & Xiaoli Jiang
Yan Liu, Hongyan Li, … Yuqing Cao
Xia Pan, Zhenyi Wang & Yong Gao
In China, Gobi desert or ‘desert with a gravel surface’ is mainly located in the northwestern arid region, with an area of 72 × 104 km21,2. Frequent occurring of sand or dust storms by wind erosion in northwestern China damaged cultivated lands, constructions and traffic routes2. Long-range transportation of suspended dust storms by westerly winds becomes a part of the global dust cycle, and has effect on biogeochemical cycles, solar radiation balance and even sea-land materials in Northeastern Asia and distant North Pacific1,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. Gobi deserts of China are recognized as major potential sources of dust emission in Central Asia4,11,12.
Previous investigations demonstrated that Gobi surface has strong resistance to wind erosion, and only erodible fine particles (< 50 µm) could be possible sources of dust emission in Ala-Shan Gobi desert2,12. Despite existing inconsistent opinions, particles sorted by rainfall or ephemeral streams are recognized as an important potential source of these erodible fine particles12,13,14,15. For example, Wang et al. indicated that one important source of fine particles in Ala Shan Gobi desert is from water erosion processes by ephemeral streams. We also found water erosion by rainfall in Ala Shan Gobi desert12,16.
Particle size selectivity is a natural phenomenon during erosion processes by rainfall and receives increasing concerns due to its complexity17,18,19. Different size fractions were found to be sorted by different mechanisms20,21. For example, finer particles (< 50 µm) with clay and silt composition are more likely to be eroded than coarser ones and transported through suspension18,22,23,24. In addition, coarser particles may increase with rainfall duration and can be transported by bed-rolling21,23. In the context of global warming, it was reported that temperature in northwestern China has increased 0.36 °C per decade, which is approximately triple of the global average25,26. Accordingly, precipitation in northwestern China showed an increasing trend with spatial difference27. The frequency of the extreme precipitation also showed an increasing trend with the rising temperature28. The extreme rainfall event, with significant higher rainfall intensity than the history recorded, may occurs in the future with higher frequency under climate change. Thus, it is necessary to understand the particle size selectivity processes under the extreme rainfall events and their further effects on the potential sources of dust emission to provide scientific reference for better projection of dust emission in the Gobi region in the future under high frequency of extreme rainfall events.
Besides important influences of rainfall characteristics, other factors also impact size selectivity processes, like original soil properties29,30, slope gradient29,31, soil surface coverage17,32 and antecedent soil moisture22,33. Previous investigations indicated that the composition of the eroded sediment would be similar to original soils in sufficient erosion conditions23,34. Fractions of silts were observed to show decreasing tendency with the increase of slope gradient during rainfall experiments by Han et al.22. However, an enrichment ratio of clay and silt fractions showed no significant differences with variations of slope gradient in study by Vaezi et al.31. The detachment of different sediment fractions is severely affected by soil surface cover through its influences on hydrodynamics of raindrop and overland flows19. Koiter et al.29 indicated interactions of slope gradients, vegetation cover and antecedent soil moisture contents on the enrichment of fine particles (< 63 µm) by interrill erosion.
Continuous pavement with gravel coverage is one of important surface properties in Gobi deserts, and gravels are ubiquitous in the Gobi desert with high spatial differences2,12,35,36. According to Zhang et al.37, the gravel coverage ranged at 22–91% in northwestern China. However, the influences of these gravels on particle size selectivity by extreme rainfall events in Gobi desert region were not well revealed, as well as the effects of other influencing factors like rainfall intensity and slope gradient.
In this study, laboratory artificial rainfall experiments were conducted with soils collected from the Ala Shan Gobi desert under extreme rainfall events with rainfall intensities (20 mm h−1 and 40 mm h−1) nearly 2 and 4 times of the history maximum rainfall intensity, two slope gradients (3° and 15°) and three gravel coverages (0, 30%, and 60%). Main objectives of this article are: (i) to analyze the effects of rainfall intensity, slope gradient and gravel coverage on the characteristics of particle size selectivity induced by extreme rainfall events; (ii) to understand interactions of multiple influencing factors on the particle size selectivity by extreme events. The study is of significance to understand the effects of multiple factors on potential sources of Asian dust emission under extreme rainfall events in Gobi region of northwestern China and provide basic scientific reference for the prediction of dust emission in this region.
Experimental soils were collected from the western Ala-Shan Gobi desert of Inner Mongolia (42°01′ N, 101°22′ E) in China (Fig. 1). Samples were collected up to depth of 40 cm. Experimental soil samples were air dried naturally to soil content at 2.70% and passed through a 2-mm sifter for the separation of soils and stones. Then the stones were passed through a 10-mm sifter. The sieved soils (< 2 mm) and stones (2–10 mm) were prepared to simulate the Gobi surface for the artificial rainfall experiments. The tested clay (< 2 µm) content, silt (2–50 µm) content and sand (50–2000 μm) content in the sieved is 2.72%, 9.73% and 87.56%, respectively. Besides, the median particle diameter (d50) of the sieved soil is 190 µm.
Location of soil sampling site in the Ala Shan Gobi desert and the slope gradient distribution in Ejina Qi County.
Movable steel boxes (2 m × 1 m × 0.4 m; length × width × height) and the artificial simulated rainfall system (EL-RS3/5) with Veejet 80,100 nozzels were used for laboratory simulation experiments at State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing China. Homogeneity of rainfall intensity was ensured at higher than 90%.
According to the global precipitation data (GPM (IMERG V06)), the rainfall intensity ranged at 0–133.91 mm h−1 with the time resolution of 30 min in the northwestern region of China in the past ten years (2012–2022). The average annual rainfall amount (45 mm) and maximum rainfall intensity (9 mm h−1) were recorded from Guaizihu Meteorological Station (41°13′N, 102°22′E, 960 m a.s.L) nearest the sampling site. Considering the increasing trend of both rainfall intensity and the frequency of the extreme rainfall events in the context of climate change27,28, the experimental rainfall intensities were set as 20 mm h−1 and 40 mm h−1 (nearly 2 times and 4 times of the history maximum rainfall intensity at Guaizihu Meteorological Station) to simulate the extreme rainfall events in the field of the Ala Shan Gobi with the global warming. The rainfall duration was set at 60 min for all artificial experiments.
According to the extraction data of slope distribution of sampling region by ArcGIS (10.3), the steep slope gradient could reach 22°, despite 95.7% of the area with slope gradient less than 3° (Fig. 1). Thus, two slope gradients (3° and 15°) were set for the indoor simulation experiments.
The actual gravel coverage in sampling site was reported to range from 18% to 43% in photographic analyses, and 30% gravel coverage was a critical coverage in sediment transportation by wind in Ala Shan Gobi12. Hence, the gravel coverage was set at 0%, 30% and 60%, respectively. The setting of the experimental gravel coverage indoor is based on relation of gravel coverage and gravel mass. As shown in Fig. 2, the well mixed experimental gravels (2–10 mm) were weighed evenly spread on a 1m × 1m blue PVC plastic plate and photographed vertically with an automatic optical camera (about 3 m above). After that, the photos were processed and categorized by PHOTOSHOP software (2020) for the determination of gravel coverage on the surface. The relation of the gravel coverage and gravel mass was established by multiple sets (5 sets with more than 3 times shoot for each set) as shown in Eq. (1).
where, y is the gravel coverage (%) and x is the gravel mass (kg).
Experimental gravel distribution on an 1m × 1m blue PVC plastic plate.
Firstly, soils were filled into movable boxes with permeable gauze at the bottom of the box to ensure water infiltration from holes at the bottom of the box for water infiltration. The filling of experimental soils is from bottom to up by two layers with the soil bulk density controlling at 1.55 g cm−3 for the lower-layer (10–20 cm) and at 1.45 g cm−3 for the upper layer (0–10 cm). Then, the prepared stones (2–10 mm) were weighed according to the relation of gravel coverage and gravel mass for the simulation of different gravel coverage (0%, 30% and 60%) and spread evenly on the surface of the filled slope.
The whole experimental processes were recorded with video cameras for the determination of the erosion processes. No rills were observed for all experiments. Runoff were measured by 16-L plastic buckets. Besides, 500-mL plastic bottles were used to collect runoff samples at 3-min intervals for sediment concentration measurement by the method of oven-drying (105 °C). A 100-mL glass baker was used to collect the runoff for the determination of the particle size distribution (PSD) in the eroded sediment by the Malvern Mastersizer 2000 laser diffraction device (Malvern Instruments Ltd.). All experiments were conducted with duplicate tests.
Three indicators were applied to characterize the particle size selectivity during the erosion process: (i) PSD; (ii) the median particle diameter (d50); and (iii) the enrichment ratio of fine particles (ER<50). PSD is further classified into three grades, i.e., clay fraction (< 2 µm), silt fraction (2–50 µm) and sand fraction (50–2000 µm). The smaller d50 is in the eroded sediment, the finer sediment particles are eroded or transported32. ER<50 is used to indicate the selective of clay and silt fractions during the erosion processes, which is calculated as the ratio of fine particles (< 50 µm) content in the eroded sediment to fine particles (< 50 µm) content in the original soil22.
The differences of PSD, d50 and ER<50 in the eroded sediment under different experimental conditions were analyzed by Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with the least significant difference (LSD) procedure at 95% confidence (SPSS 26.0). Differences analysis of variables between two rainfall intensities and two slope gradients were analyzed by the paired T-test. Multiple regression analysis (SPSS 26.0) was applied for the determination of the relations between variables of particle size selectivity and multiple influencing factors. Furthermore, regression equations were validated by the coefficient of determination (R2) and the Nash coefficient (ENS) with a set of independent data from duplicate experiments.
Multi-way analysis of variance by SPSS (26.0) was applied to determine whether the interactions of multiple factors have significant effects on the observed soil particle size selectivity variables at 95% confidence with P < 0.0538. The interactions of pairwise factors included rainfall intensity and slope gradient (RI-SG), rainfall intensity and gravel coverage (RI-GC) and slope gradient and gravel coverage (SG-GC). Then the type of the interaction effects by pairwise factors were classified into synergy effects and trade-off effects based on the contribution by each single factor to the changes of variables (PSD, d50 and ER<50). Synergy effects mean that the single factor of pairwise factors has identical contribution to variables (PSD, d50 and ER<50), while trade-off effects mean that the single factor of pairwise factors has the opposite contribution to variables (PSD, d50 and ER<50).
The runoff rate first increased with rainfall duration and then kept stable under different experimental conditions (Fig. 3), and this phenomenon is consistent with previous studies in the semi-arid region of northwestern China39. Stable runoff time (SRtime) was determined when the changing rate of the runoff was less than 5%. As shown in Table 1, runoff yield time (RT) ranged at 15.5–31.5 min and the mean runoff rate after stable (SRmean) ranged at 483.9–1087.9 mL min−1 under different experimental conditions. Both RT and SRtime showed significant (P < 0.05) decreasing trend but SRmean showed significant (P < 0.05) increasing trend with the increase of rainfall intensity. However, these variables did not show significant differences with changes of slope gradient and gravel coverage.
Runoff rate changes with rainfall duration under different experimental conditions (RI is rainfall intensity, SL is slope gradient, and GC is gravel coverage).
As shown in Fig. 4, sediment load showed higher variations on 3° slope than those on 15° slope. The mean sediment load (SLmean) ranged at 38.8–62.1 g min−1, showing significant (P < 0.05) increasing trend with the increase of rainfall intensity and no significant (P < 0.05) differences with changes of slope gradient and gravel coverage.
Sediment yield changes with rainfall duration under different experimental conditions.
As shown in Fig. 5, PSD in the eroded sediment varied with the experimental conditions. The contents of clay, silt and sand in the eroded sediment ranged at 2.1%–22.3%, 2.0%–43.2% and 30.0%–95.0%, respectively, under different experimental conditions. The changes of different size fractions with rainfall duration showed higher fluctuations at gentle slopes (3°; Fig. 5a–c), while kept stable at steeper slope (15°; Fig. 5d–f).
Changes of PSD in the eroded sediment with rainfall duration under different experimental conditions.
At gentle slopes (3°), clay and silt contents showed increasing trends with rainfall duration under 20 mm h−1, whilst they first increased and then decreased with rainfall duration under 40 mm h−1. However, both rainfall intensity and gravel coverage did not change the increasing trend of sand contents with rainfall duration at gentle slopes (3°).
As shown in Table 2, silt content (Sic) after rainfall was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than the original value under different experimental conditions, the clay content (Clc) after rainfall was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than the original value except experimental conditions at 15° slope or at 0% coverage and the fine particle (< 50 µm) content (Fic) after rainfall was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than the original value except experimental conditions at 0% coverage. The sand content (Sac) after rainfall was significantly (P < 0.05) lower than the original value under different experimental conditions.
As shown in Fig. 6, mean d50 ranged at 7.61–806.09 μm and the mean peak value of d50 (d50peak) ranged at 314.15–806.06 μm under different experimental conditions. The d50peak only occurred at 30% gravel coverage under rainfall intensity of 20 mm h−1, whilst the d50 showed great fluctuations and occurred peak values except steep slope (15°) and moderate gravel coverage (30%) under rainfall intensity of 40 mm h−1. Compared with the original value, d50 in the eroded sediment after rainfall event was significantly (P < 0.05) lower under 20 mm h−1, but did not show significant (P < 0.05) differences under 40 mm h−1. In terms of the effects of different influencing factors, d50 showed significant (P < 0.05) increasing trend with the increase of rainfall intensity, but did not show significant (P < 0.05) differences with variations of slope gradient and gravel coverage.
Changes of d50 in the eroded sediment under different experimental conditions.
As shown in Fig. 7, ER<50 showed higher fluctuations (more than 50%) at gentle slopes (3°; Fig. 7a,c) than that at steeper slopes (15°; Fig. 7b,d). At gentle slopes (3°), ER<50 showed dramatic variations with rainfall duration and gravel coverage, with the At 3° slopes, ER<50 showed increasing trend with rainfall duration under rainfall intensity of 20 mm h−1, whilst ER<50 first increased and then decreased with rainfall duration under rainfall intensity of 40 mm h−1. At steep slopes (15°), ER<50 showed decreasing trend with rainfall duration under 40 mm h−1. At gentle slopes (3°), ER<50 ranged at 0.53–6.14 under 20 mm h−1 and at 0.18–5.18 under 40 mm h−1. ER<50 showed significant (P < 0.05) decreasing trend with the increase of slope gradient, ranging at 1.43–3.17 under 20 mm h−1 and at 0.97–4.63 under 40 mm h−1, respectively. In most experimental conditions (except 20 mm h−1 and 3°, 0% gravel coverage), fine particles were enriched in the eroded sediment with ER<50 > 1 (Table 2). Specifically, the selectivity of fine particles was higher at low rainfall intensity (20 mm h−1), gentle slope (3°) and moderate gravel coverage (30%), with ER<50 reaching 6.14. ER<50 did not show significant (P < 0.05) differences with the variations of rainfall intensity and gravel coverage.
Changes of ER<50 in the eroded sediment under different experimental conditions.
Rainfall intensity played significant roles in runoff and sediment yield, as the mean runoff rate after stable (SRmean) and the mean sediment load after stable (SLmean) showed significant (P < 0.05) differences with rainfall intensity, but did not show significant differences with slope gradient and gravel coverage (Table 1). Clay content (Clc), silt content (Sic) and fine particle (< 50 µm; Fic) content showed significant (P < 0.05) differences before and after rainfall events under different experiments (Table 2), which is consistent with results of previous studies18,22,23,24.
Although variables of Clc, Sic, Fic and ER<50 showed decreasing trend with the increase of rainfall intensity, these variables did not show significant (P < 0.05) differences with rainfall intensity. The sand content (Sac) did not show significant differences with the rising rainfall intensity, however, d50 showed significant (P < 0.05) increasing trend when rainfall intensity increased from 20mm h−1 to 40 mm h−1. This is mainly due to the high sand content of the experimental soil.
As shown in Table 1 and Figs. 3 and 4, slope gradient did not show significant (P < 0.05) impacts on runoff and sediment yields, as RT, SRmean and SLmean did not show significant (P < 0.05) differences at different slope gradients. This is different with the results of higher runoff and sediment yield at steeper slopes in previous studies in other areas19. As shown in Table 2, Clc, Slc, Fic and ER<50 were significantly (P < 0.05) lower but Sac was significantly (P < 0.05) higher when slope gradient increased from 3° to 15°, which suggested that slope gradient was a dominant factor that significantly (P < 0.05) changed PSD. Fine particles are carried out in the runoff at gentle slope and coarse particles and small aggregates are transported with higher runoff kinetic energy at steeper slope gradients and thus increases d50 on 15° slope..However, the content of fine particles is weaken with the aggregating processes at steeper slopes40. Therefore, higher fine particle selectivity is shown at gentle slope (3°) with lower runoff energy, which is consistent with the previous study41.
Compared with bared surface (0% gravel coverage), fine particles (Clc, Slc, Fic) and ER<50 showed insignificant increasing trend under gravel coverage (30% and 60%). This suggested the insignificant increasing effects of gravel coverage on fine particle selectivity. Slc and Fic showed highest values and d50, d50peak showed lowest values under gravel coverage of 30%, which suggested that 30% gravel coverage setting was the most important for sorting and distribution of fine particles in runoff. Rainfall infiltration increases with the increase of gravel coverage, and runoff rates decrease with increasing gravel coverage by dissipating water flow42,43, which further affects the surface runoff and fine particle selectivity44,45. Thus, higher gravel coverage within a certain range can affect fine particle selectivity more significantly.
Pairwise factors of rainfall intensity and slope gradient (RI-SG) and pairwise factors of slope gradient and gravel coverage (SG-GC) showed significant interaction effects on PSD, d50 and ER<50, but pairwise factors of rainfall intensity and gravel coverage (RI-GC) did not show significant interaction effects on PSD, d50 and ER<50 (Table 3).
Specifically, the increase of both rainfall intensity and slope gradient could decrease Clc, Sic, Fic and ER<50 and increase Sac and d50. The synergy interaction effects of RI-SG resulted in the decline of Clc, Fic and ER<50, and led to the rise of Sac and d50. Steeper slopes and higher rainfall intensities increased runoff kinetic energy and resulted in the less fine particle selectivity, which is consistent with previous studies18,29,40,46.
Whilst, the increase of slope gradient decreased Clc, Sic, Fic and ER<50, however, these variables increased when gravel coverage increased from 0 to 30% and 60%. The trade-off interactions of SG-GC resulted in the decline of Clc, Sic, Fic and ER<50. In contrast, the increase of slope gradient increased Sac, but Sac decreased when gravel coverage increased from 0 to 30% and 60%. The trade-off interaction effects of SG-GC led to the rise of Sac. These results also suggested the dominant roles of slope gradient on particle size selectivity by rainfall.
The relations between fine particles selectivity, including clay content (Clc), silt content (Sic), fine particle (< 50 μm) content (Fic) and ER<50 and influencing factors were regressed as Eqs. (2–5).
where, RI is rainfall intensity, SG is slope gradient, and GC is gravel coverage.
Among them, Clc, Fic showed negative exponential relations with rainfall intensity and slope gradient and positive exponential relations with gravel coverage. Sic and ER<50 met negative power relations with rainfall intensity, slope gradient and gravel coverage. As shown in Fig. 8, the coefficient of determination (R2) and the Nash coefficient (ENS) were all > 0.5 for the regressed equations and this validated the accuracy of the prediction results with data of the duplicate experiments. Again, the slope gradient was demonstrated the dominant factor influencing the changes of PSD (Clc, Sic and Fic) and ER<50, as the coefficient of slope gradient was highest in Eqs. (2–5), followed by rainfall intensity and gravel coverage.
Comparison of predicted values and observed ones (R2 is a coefficient of determination and ENS is a Nash coefficient).
In the Ala Shan Plateau, dust emissions appear to be controlled mainly by the availability of fine particles (< 50 µm) under relatively high wind velocity12. Thus, fine particles (< 50 µm) are recognized as the potential sources of dust emission. In our experiments, high selectivity of fine particles were shown as the fine particle (< 50 µm) after rainfall was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than the original value under gravel coverage. And the slope gradient was the most significant factor influencing the particle size selectivity with higher effects on potential sources of dust emissions (fine particle < < 50 µm) on gentle slopes (< 3°) in the area of Ala Shan Gobi. Due to the high percent (approximately 95.7%) of gentle slopes (< 3°) in the Ala Shan Gobi, slope gradient effects could not be ignored when investigating dust emissions in the Gobi desert areas. Moreover, the synergy effects of pairwise factors rainfall intensity and slope gradient (RI-SG) and the trade-off effects of pairwise factors slope gradient and gravel coverage (SG-GC) could decline the potential sources of dust emission (fine particle < < 50 µm), and the interaction effects of the pairwise factors (RI-SG and SG-GC) should also be well considering when predicting the dust emissions in the Gobi region.
This study is of significance to investigate multiple factors impacts on particle size selectivity under extreme rainfall events using artificial rainfall experiments on the simulated Gobi surface. High selectivity of fine particles (< 50 μm) was shown under different experimental conditions, as clay content (Clc), silt content (Sic), fine particle (< 50 μm) content (Fic) after rainfall event were significantly (P < 0.05) higher than the original value before rainfall events. Among the multiple influencing factors, slope gradient is the dominant factor influencing particle size selectivity and has significant (P < 0.05) negative effects on the enrichment of fine particles (< 50 μm) in the eroded sediment by rainfall. Higher selectivity of fine particles (< 50 μm) is observed on lower rainfall intensity of 20 mm h−1 and 30% gravel coverage on gentle slope (3°). The significant (P < 0.05) synergy effects of RI-SG and the significant (P < 0.05) trade-off effects of SG-GC decline the selectivity of fine particles (< 50 μm) and reduce the enrichment of fine particles (< 50 μm) in the eroded sediment. The regression results showed the negative exponential relations between Clc and Fic with rainfall intensity and slope gradient and the negative power relations between Sic and ER<50 with rainfall intensity, slope gradient and gravel coverage. It is concluded that the potential sources of dust emission are most promoted on gentle slopes (≤ 3°) at 30% gravel coverage under rainfall intensity of 20 mm h−1 in the Ala Shan Gobi desert, as the fine particles (< 50 μm) were recognized as the potential sources of dust emission. The significant effects of slope gradient, the interactions of rainfall intensity and slope gradient (RI-SG) and the interactions of slope gradient and gravel coverage (SG-GC) should be well considered for the prediction of the dust emission in this region. Furthermore, field experiments should be carried out for better understanding the influencing effects of multiple factors on the potential sources of dust emission (fine particles < 50 μm) to make up for the limitations of the indoor experiments.
The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Financial support was provided by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41930640 and 41977069).
Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
Liying Sun, Qingyuan Dai & Ziheng Feng
College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
Liying Sun, Qingyuan Dai & Ziheng Feng
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S.L.Y and D.Q.Y. wrote the main manuscript text, D.Q.Y. prepared all the figures and tables. S.L.Y. mainly reviewed the manuscript. F.Z.H. processed data.
The authors declare no competing interests.
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Sun, L., Dai, Q. & Feng, Z. Effects of multiple factors on particle size selectivity under artificial extreme rainfall events on simulated Gobi surface. Sci Rep 13, 23049 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-50136-x
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-50136-x
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