Abstract:Scaling off is one of the most common diseases that are found on earthen sites.This disease greatly threats the long-term preservation of earthen structures.Recently,lots of studies were carried out to solve this problem by various methods,however,little positive results was achieved in the aspect of in-situ reinforcement project.Currently,the research topic of slope reinforcement as well as solid and water conservation by moss has been studied by a lot of researchers.In this paper,for the purpose of earthen sites reinforcement,the moss was used to change the condition of earthen structure surface and multiple test methods were carried out to assess the reinforcement effectiveness by this biological method.This paper took the earthen sites of Qinghai area as an example,in situ research,measuring the surface insertion resistance by using micro-penetrometer before and after the growth of moss,and comparatively analyzing the change of surface checking.In the laboratory,the earthen sites were divided into five layers from the outer to the inner.Then the X diffraction instrument was used to analyze the mineral composition in each soil layer;particles of each soil layer were analyzed by laser particle size analyzer;and the ion Chromatography was used to analyze the salt content of each soil layer.The field experiments showed that with the moss growing up,the surface insertion resistance of moss solid crust has a significantly increase than the scaling off crust.Moreover,the crack of scaling off was repaired in this process.Additionally,laboratory experiments showed that: firstly,no significant change existed on the mineral composition and contents in the soil layer of moss and scaling off.Secondly,the particle size of soil tented to be decreasing,however,the content of silt and clay increased.Thirdly,the salt content in the powder layer of moss decreased significantly,salt content of other soil layer was greatly improved.After the growth of moss,the strength and particle structure of the scaling off on the original wall surface were obviously improved,and the salt enrichment had been effectively changed.The whole engineering performance of soil mass was improved after the growth of moss.Therefore,it has a broad prospect for the study of reinforcement of moss to scaling off.