Abstract:Due to irrational landuse, grassland has degraded severely and wind erosion occurs remarkably in recent years. By employing sand sampler and mobile wind tunnel, an observation for 6 years was made to analyze the mechanisms of wind erosion in Xilamuren grassland, the center of North Yinshan Mountains. Results show that:(1) Vegetation is the decisive factor for controlling wind erosion and the inhibiting effect of vegetation height on wind erosion is greater than that of vegetation coverage. (2) Wind erosion modulus in the initial period of enclosure reaches 1 313.7 t/(km2·a) and with the improvement of the grassland vegetation, wind erosion decreases year by year. (3) The deflation content gives priority to fine sand particles that account for more than 60%. For every 1000 kg soil eroded by wind, 15 kg organic matter, 227 g available nitrogen, 262 g available phosphorus and 120 g available potassium lose in the region at the same time, being a tremendous fertility loss. Therefore, the protection of base grassland and restoration of degraded grassland are two fundamental approaches to control wind erosion on the grassland.