[Appropriate size and quantity of land gravelization monitoring quadrats in desert areas].

To improve the quantitative monitoring accuracy of land gravelization, we designed quadrats of 10 cm×10 cm, 25 cm×25 cm, 50 cm×50 cm, 75 cm×75 cm, and 100 cm×100 cm in the desert area of Inner Mongolia. Using the measurement results of the 100 cm×100 cm quadrat as the standard values for gravel coverage and unit area gravel mass, we conducted a comparative analysis with the results of other quadrat configurations to determine the appropriate size and quantity of quadrats for monitoring land gravelization in desert areas. The results showed that quadrats of different sizes could all be used for monitoring land gravelization. Without considering time costs, measurement accuracy improved and the number of quadrats required decreased with increasing quadrat area. When time costs were factored in, the advantages of smaller quadrats (10 cm×10 cm or 25 cm×25 cm) became more pronounced. Due to factors such as gravel particle size and composition, the differences in unit area gravel mass between quadrats were much greater than those in gravel coverage. An excessively small quadrat area increased the instability of unit area gravel mass measurements. To ensure measurement stability, the number of qua-drats should be increased, which would raise time costs. Considering both monitoring accuracy and work efficiency, the appropriate quadrat area for land gravelization monitoring could be 25 cm×25 cm, with a recommended quadrat quantity of 9.