Abstract:Freeze-thaw cycle is one of the significant characteristics of soil thawing process in the area of seasonal freeze-thaw. In order to reveal the influence of freeze-thaw cycles on soil physical properties and soil anti-scouribility, aeolian sandy soil collected in a sloping farmland in Inner Mongolia was taken as the research object. Two factors of freeze-thaw cycles (0 to 10) and soil water content (6%, 9% and 12%) were controlled to simulate field freeze-thaw cycles and the runoff scouring process. The influence of freeze-thaw cycle on soil water content, bulk density, porosity, and soil anti-scouribility were analyzed quantitatively. The results show that: (1) Soil moisture content increased with the increasing number of freeze-thaw cycles, and was increased by 0.51% to 0.87%. The increasing extent for the soil with high water content was greater than for the soil with lower water content. (2) With the increasing number of freeze-thaw cycles, soil bulk density and porosity were increased and decreased slowly, respectively, with the extent of change decreasing gradually, and finally reached a basically stable state, under which soil bulk density was 0.05±0.01 g/cm3 lower than the soil not subjected to freeze-thaw; (3) When the soil had the same numbers of freeze-thaw cycles, soil bulk density of the soil with high water content (12%) was greater than that of the soil with low water content (6%), but the porosity and soil anti-scouribility showed the opposite trend; (4) The numbers of freeze-thaw cycle had a significant effect on soil anti-scouribility. Soil anti-scouribility significantly decreased with the increasing number of freeze-thaw cycles. However, after sixth freeze-thaw cycles, the change of water content, bulk density, porosity, and soil anti-scouribility gradually decreased. The results can provide a reference for studying the mechanism of soil erosion in the seasonal freez-thaw area.