Abstract:Erosion characteristics of two kinds of typical aeolian soils in Horqin Sandy Land were studied using portable wind tunnel. Results show that soil loss rates of flowing sand and farmland samples increase in power function with increasing of wind velocity. The threshold wind velocity of air-dried farmland sample is about 3.7 m/s, while the velocity of flowing sand is about 4.3 m/s. The soil loss rate of farmland sample is larger than flowing sand sample in a range of a lower wind velocity, but soil loss rate of flowing sand sample is larger than that of farmland sample when wind velocity is more than 5.7 m/s. In addition, the difference between the soil loss rates increases with increasing of wind velocity. Soil loss rate decreases in power function with increasing of soil water moisture. Anyway, loss rate of flowing sandy sample decreases more rapidly than that of farmland sample. Threshold wind velocity of flowing sand sample linearly increases with increasing of soil water moisture, while the velocity of farmland sample increases in quadratic equation with increasing of soil moisture. The difference of wind erosion characteristics of the soils is attributed to different properties of the soils. Increasing of soil water moisture can efficiently decrease wind erosion in the region in erosion duration.