Where in our country are alpine desert soils distributed? What is suitable for growing there?

Alpine desert soil, also called cold desert soil, has as its parent material mainly residual and slope deposits from the weathering of various rocks, and also some glacial till. Organic matter accumulation in the soil is weak, 0.4-0.6%, salt content 0.5-1.6%, and calcium carbonate accumulation is obvious. White salt efflorescence and crusts are seen on the surface, porous, containing rather many gravels, and new formations of gypsum are also seen, below which is a gravelly parent material layer.

In our country, alpine desert soil is mainly distributed in the northwestern part of the northern Tibet Plateau, and extends to the Kunlun Mountains and the Pamir Plateau, at an elevation range of 4200-5200 m. The terrain of the alpine desert soil zone is mainly the plateau surface and the low mountains on the plateau.

What is suitable for growing in alpine desert soil? Alpine desert soil is very rarely used, basically not used at all; only in low-lying sections close to the alpine steppe soil zone, after water accumulates, water and grass increase somewhat, but the suitability is narrow, and it is only suitable for grazing goats and sheep.

Characteristics of alpine desert soil

Because physical weathering plays the dominant role in the weathering process, the weathering products are highly lithified. The climate of the alpine desert soil zone is characterized by extreme aridity and severe cold, with an annual average temperature of about -10°C, a winter minimum temperature that can reach -40°C, and annual precipitation below 100 mm. The coverage of alpine desert vegetation is less than 10%, and its composition is mainly Chenopodiaceae and Asteraceae plants. Under the bio-climatic conditions of the alpine desert soil zone, both the weathering process and the soil-forming process are very weak; therefore, alpine desert soil has a thin soil layer, much gravel, and little fine soil; organic matter content is only around 06%, alkaline reaction, pH value around 85. 

Alpine desert soil also has the obvious characteristics of desert soils: the surface layer has a porous, light brown to grayish-white, fragile thin crust (thickness 0-1.5 cm), with polygonal cracks. In the thin crust are mixed small gravels or crushed stones, and salt spots are often present on the surface. The alpine desert soil zone has a cold climate, severe winters, and a long freezing period, and its soil formation belongs to the category of cryogenic processes. However, because the soil is very dry, under low temperatures only a dry frozen layer can form, and the disturbance effect during alternating freeze-thaw is slight; in addition, the soil particles are coarse and capillary action is relatively weak, so the soil freezing process has no obvious markers, and instead fully displays the characteristics of cryogenic weathering products.