Ecological benefits of planting winter rapeseed in western China

To evaluate the ecological benefits of popularizing winter rapeseed planting in western China, a wind tunnel simulation test was conducted with four kinds of farmland surface, i.e., winter rapeseed, winter wheat, wheat stubble, and bare field just after spring sowing, collected from west Gansu in April. The results showed that winter rapeseed surface had a roughness of 4.08 cm and a threshold wind velocity as high as 14 m·s-1, being more effective in blown sand control than the other three surfaces. Under the same experimental conditions, the wind erosion modulus and sand transportation rate of winter rapeseed surface were only 4.1% and 485% of those of the bare field just after spring sowing, and the losses of soil organic matter, alkali-hydrolyzed N, available P and K, catalase, urease, alkaline phosphatase, invertase, and microbes of winter rapeseed surface due to wind erosion were only 1.4%, 5.1%, 1.6%, 2.7%, 9.7%, 3.6%, 6.3%, 6.7% and 1.5% of those of the bare field, respectively. It was suggested that popularizing winter rapeseed planting in west China could control wind erosion, retain soil water and nutrients, increase multi-cropping index, and improve economic benefits of farmland. In addition, it could benefit the regional desertification control and ecological environment improvement.