ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Effects of Different Mulching Materials
on Reducing Soil Dust from Bare Soil
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Forestry College, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China
Submission date: 2017-09-29
Final revision date: 2018-01-02
Acceptance date: 2018-01-02
Online publication date: 2018-08-13
Publication date: 2018-11-20
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2019;28(1):303-310
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ABSTRACT
Soil dust is one of the sources of PM2.5, and most soil dust is derived from bare soil. Our
laboratory experiment was conducted to explore the effects of different mulching materials, including
cobblestones (CS), green waste (GW), pine bark (PB), and organic mulching mats (OMM) on reducing
the generation of soil dust from bare soil by different wind speeds near the ground (2 m/s, 4 m/s, 7 m/s,
9 m/s, and 12 m/s). The results showed that all 4 mulching materials reduced the generation of
atmospheric soil dust. Both GW and OMM had the best effect at reducing dust generation when
the wind speed near the ground <4 m/s, and OMM had the best effect when wind speed was >4 m/s.
The mulching materials GW and PB could be completely blown away when the wind speed near
the ground reached 7 m/s and 9 m/s, respectively. It appears that OMM is the best mulching material
for covering bare soil in Beijing.