Quantifying aeolian sand interception by desert river corridors using an observation-constrained model
Description
Three pairs of traps were installed on opposing riverbanks of the Qiemo, Niya, and Yulongkashi Rivers between 2 and 6 November 2024. The locations, elevations, bank positions, and deployment information of the six bank-side monitoring sites are summarized in Table 1. Each trap carried four vertically stacked collectors positioned at 20, 50, 70, and 120 cm above the surface. Based on the site coordinates, the bank-to-bank distances are approximately 1.02 km for Qiemo, 1.13 km for Niya, and 2.54 km for Yulongkashi; the corresponding west-to-east azimuths are approximately 111.7°, 177.4°, and 7.9°, respectively. The east bank of the Qiemo River and the west banks of the Niya and Yulongkashi Rivers were identified as the windward sides during the observation window, with the opposite banks representing leeward positions. Samples were retrieved between 4 and 7 June 2025, oven-dried, and weighed to ±0.01 g. A total of 650 sediment samples were collected from the southern margin of the Taklimakan Desert during field campaign (2024) and through data compilation from published literature (Li et al., 2025).