Is snow more distructive agent than rain from the perspetive of land degradation?
- 1University of Belgrade-Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy, Department of Chemistry, Njegoševa 12, 11000 Belgrade, Republic of Serbia (mkasaningrubin@chem.bg.ac.rs)
- 2Innovation Center of the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, Karnegijeva 4, Belgrade, Serbia (mstefanovic@tmf.bg.ac.rs)
- 3Institute for Testing of Materials IMS, Vojvode Mišića Bl. 43, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia (nevenka.mijatovic@institutims.rs)
- 4Faculty of Chemistry, University of Belgrade , Studentski trg 12-16, Belgrade, Serbia (tosti@chem.bg.ac.rs)
- 5School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China (xiechx7@mail2.sysu.edu.cn)
Badlands, between researcher also known as natural field laboratories, present areas formed in a wide range of lithologies and different climate conditions. Complex mineralogical and physico-chemical sediment composition make them suitable for numerous laboratory experiments that can replicate changes that occur in the field.
As climate is one of the most significant factors in badlands forming and since climate changes are one of the biggest environmental concerns nowadays in this research badlands material was exposed to different conditions with the aim to monitor changes caused by extreme climate.
Three samples of badlands from China were organized in twelve sets and treated with rain, acid rain, ice (presenting snow) and acid ice (frozen acid rain). Six sets were treated with rain and acid rain of different intensity and under high and low temperatures during fifteen cycles, while the other six were treated with ice and acid ice during fifteen cycles, dried at 50°C for three cycles and then treated with ice and acid ice for additional five cycles. All of the samples were photographed after each cycle to follow physical change occurring on the sample surface Leachate was collected and volume, electrical conductivity, pH and ion concentration were measured.
Generally parameters did not oscillate much neither between samples, nor between treatments except electrical conductivity that was higher in the samples treated with ice and acid ice. Physical changes that occurred during the experiment present the main difference. In all of the samples high temperature caused the most noticeable decay, in samples treated with rain, sediment decay was minimal, while in samples treated with ice a noticeable decay occurred.
This experiment confirmed that high temperature/drought has great impact on land degradation, but interestingly pointed out that ice/snow and its thawing have greater impact on degradation then rain and its intensity. These kind of result opens up a new perspective on climate impact on forming and badlands evolution that should be further examined.
How to cite: Antic, N., Stefanovic, M., Mijatovic, N., Tosti, T., Xie, C., and Kašanin-Grubin, M.: Is snow more distructive agent than rain from the perspetive of land degradation?, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-577, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-577, 2022.
