Analysis on the Spatial Pattern of Land Use in Urban Rural Fringe Zone——A Case Study of Xigu District in Lanzhou City

This study aimed to provide theoretical basis for an optimized land use of Xigu District in Lanzhou City,Gansu Province.With the support of GIS platform,structural characteristics of 11 land use types in Xigu District were analyzed by utilizing fragmentation degree,shape index,fractal dimension,diversity and such landscape pattern indices.

Impacts of multi-scenario land use change on ecosystem services and ecological security pattern: A case study of the Yellow River Delta

The Yellow River Delta(YRD), a critical economic zone along China's eastern coast, also functions as a vital ecological reserve in the lower Yellow River. Amidst rapid industrialization and urbanization, the region has witnessed significant land use/cover changes(LUCC), impacting ecosystem services(ES) and ecological security patterns(ESP). Investigating LUCC's effects on ES and ESP in the YRD is crucial for ecological security and sustainable development. This study utilized the PLUS model to simulate 2030 land use scenarios, including natural development(NDS), economic development(EDS), and ecological protection scenarios(EPS). Subsequently, the InVEST model and circuit theory were applied to assess ES and ESP under varying LUCC scenarios from 2010 to 2030. Findings indicate:(1) Notable LUCC from 2010 to 2030, marked by decreasing cropland and increasing construction land and water bodies.(2) From 2010 to 2020, improvements were observed in carbon storage,water yield, soil retention, and habitat quality, whereas 2020–2030 saw increases in water yield and soil retention but declines in habitat quality and carbon storage. Among the scenarios, EPS showed superior performance in all four ES.(3) Between 2010 and 2030, ecological sources, corridors, and pinchpoints expanded, displaying significant spatial heterogeneity. The EPS scenario yielded the most substantial increases in ecological sources,corridors, and pinchpoints, totaling 582.89 km^(2), 645.03 km^(2),and 64.43 km^(2), respectively. This study highlights the importance of EPS, offering insightful scientific guidance for the YRD's sustainable development.

Optimization of water-urban-agricultural-ecological land use pattern:A case study of Guanzhong Basin in the southern Loess Plateau of Shaanxi Province,China

Extensive land use will cause many environmental problems.It is an urgent task to improve land use efficiency and optimize land use patterns.In recent years,due to the flow decrease,the Guanzhong Basin in Shaanxi Province is confronted with the problem of insufficient water resources reserve.Based on the Coupled Ground-Water and Surface-Water Flow Model(GSFLOW),this paper evaluates the response of water resources in the basin to changes in land use patterns,optimizes the land use pattern,improves the ecological and economic benefits,and the efficiency of various spatial development,providing a reference for ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin.The research shows that the land use pattern in the Guanzhong Basin should be further optimized.Under the condition of considering ecological and economic development,the percentage change of the optimum area of farmland,forest,grassland,water area,and urban area compared with the current land use area ratio is+2.3,+2.4,-6.1,+0.2,and+1.6,respectively.The economic and ecological value of land increases by14.1%and 3.1%,respectively,and the number of water resources can increase by 2.5%.

Spatial patterns and driving forces of land use change in China during the early 21st century

Land use and land cover change as the core of coupled human-environment systems has become a potential field of land change science （LCS） in the study of global environmental change. Based on remotely sensed data of land use change with a spatial resolution of 1 km × 1 km on national scale among every 5 years, this paper designed a new dynamic regionalization according to the comprehensive characteristics of land use change including regional differentiation, physical, economic, and macro-policy factors as well. Spatial pattern of land use change and its driving forces were investigated in China in the early 21 st century. To sum up, land use change pattern of this period was characterized by rapid changes in the whole country. Over the agricultural zones, e.g., Huang-Huai-Hai Plain, the southeast coastal areas and Sichuan Basin, a great proportion of fine arable land were engrossed owing to considerable expansion of the built-up and residential areas, resulting in decrease of paddy land area in southern China. The development of oasis agriculture in Northwest China and the reclamation in Northeast China led to a slight increase in arable land area in northern China. Due to the ＂Grain for Green＂ policy, forest area was significantly increased in the middle and western developing regions, where the vegetation coverage was substantially enlarged, likewise. This paper argued the main driving forces as the implementation of the strategy on land use and regional development, such as policies of ＂Western Development＂, ＂Revitalization of Northeast＂, coupled with rapidly economic development during this period.

STUDY ON THE SPATIAL PATTERNS OF LAND-USE CHANGE AND ANALYSES OF DRIVING FORCES IN NORTHEASTERN CHINA DURING 1990-2000

Land-use change is an important aspect of global environment change. It is,in a sense, the direct result of human activities influencing our physical environment. Supported bythe dynamic serving system of national resources, including both the environment database and GIStechnology, this paper analyzed the land-use change in northeastern China in the past ten years(1990 ― 2000). It divides northeastern China into five land-use zones based on the dynamic degree(DD) of land-use: woodland/grassland ― arable land conversion zone, dry land ― paddy fieldconversion zone, urban expansion zone, interlocked zone of farming and pasturing, and reclamationand abandoned zone. In the past ten years, land-use change of northeastern China can be generalizedas follows: increase of cropland area was obvious, paddy field and dry land increased by 74. 9 and276. 0 thousand ha respectively; urban area expanded rapidly, area of town and rural residenceincreased by 76. 8 thousand ha; area of forest and grassland decreased sharply with the amount of1399. 0 and 1521. 3 thousand ha respectively; area of water body and unused land increased by 148. 4and 513. 9 thousand ha respectively. Besides a comprehensive analysis of the spatial patterns ofland use, this paper also discusses the driving forces in each land-use dynamic zones. The studyshows that some key biophysical factors affect conspicuously the conversion of different land-usetypes. In this paper, the relationships between land-use conversion and DEM, accumulated temperature(≥10℃) and precipitation were analysed and represented. We conclude that the land-use changes innortheast China resulted from the change of macro social and economic factors and local physicalelements. Rapid population growth and management changes, in some sense, can explain the shaping ofwoodland/grassland ― cropland conversion zone. The conversion from dry land to paddy field in thedry land ― paddy field conversion zone, apart from the physical elements change promoting theexpansion of paddy field, results from two reasons: one is that the implementation of market-economyin China has given fanners the right to decide what they plant and how they plant their crops, theother factor is originated partially from the change of dietary habit with the social and economicdevelopment. The conversion from paddy field to dry land is caused primarily by the shortfall ofirrigation water, which in turn is caused by poor water allocation managed by local governments. Theshaping of the reclamation and abandoned zone is partially due to the lack of environmentprotection consciousness among pioneer settlers. The reason for the conversion from grassland tocropland is the relatively higher profits of farming than that of pasturing in the interlocked zoneof farming and pasturing. In northeastern China, the rapid expansion of built-up areas results fromtwo factors: the first is its small number of towns; the second comes from the huge potential forexpansion of existing towns and cities. It is noticeable that urban expansion in the northeasternChina is characterized by gentle topographic relief and low population density. Physiognomy,transportation and economy exert great influences on the urban expansion.

Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Soil Nitrogen Distribution under Different Land Uses in a Watershed in the Hilly Area of Purple Soil,China

Quantification of soil spatial and temporal variability at watershed scale is important in ecological modeling, precision agriculture, and natural resources management. The spatio-temporal variations of soil nitrogen under different land uses in a small watershed （12.10 km^2） in the hilly area of purple soil at the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in southwestern China were investigated by using conventional statistics, geostatistics, and a geographical information system in order to provide information for land management and control of environmental issues. A total of 552 soil samples （o to 15 cm） from 276 sites within the watershed were collected in April and August of 2o11, and analyzed for soil total nitrogen （STN） and nitrate nitrogen （NO3-N）. We compared spatial variations of STN and NO3-N under different land uses as well as the temporal variations in April （dry season） and August （rainy season）. Results showed that STN contents were deeply affected by land-use types; median STN values ranged from 0.94to 1.27g.kg-I, and STN contents decreased in the following order： paddy field 〉 foresfland 〉 sloping cropland. No significant difference was found for STN contents between April and August under the same land use. However, NO3- N contents were 23.26, 10.58, and 26.19 mg·kg^-1 in April, and 1.34, 8.51, and 3.00 mg·kg^-1 in August for the paddy field, sloping cropland and forestland, respectively. Nugget ratios for STN indicatedmoderate spatial dependence in the paddy field and sloping cropland, and a strong spatial dependence in forestland. The processes of nitrogen movement, transformation, absorption of plant were deeply influenced by land use types; as a result, great changes of soil nitrogen levels at spatial and temporal scales were demonstrated in the studied watershed.

Multifractal characteristics and spatial variability of soil particle-size distribution in different land use patterns in a small catchment of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region,China

Characterizing soil particle-size distribution is a key measure towards soil property.The purpose of this study was to evaluate the multifractal characteristics of soil particle-size distribution among different land-use from a purple soil catchment and to generalize the spatial variation trend of multifractal parameters across the catchment.A total of 84 soil samples were collected from four kinds of land use patterns(dry land,orchard,paddy,and forest)in an agricultural catchment in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region,China.The multifractal analysis method was applied to quantitatively characterize the soil particle size distribution.Six soil particle size distribution(PSD)multifractal parameters(D(0),D(1),D(2),(35)a(q),(35)f[a(q)],α(0))were computed.Additionally,a geostatistical analysis was employed to reveal the spatial differentiation and map the spatial distribution of these parameters.Evident multifractal characteristics were found.The trend of generalized dimension spectrum of four land use patterns was basically consistent with the range of 0.8 to 2.0.However,orchard showed the largest monotonic decline,while the forest demonstrated the smallest decrease.D(0)of the four land use patterns were ranked as:dry land<orchard<forest<paddy,the order of D(1)was:dry land<paddy<orchard<forest,D(2)presented a rand-size relationship as dry land<forest<paddy<orchard.Furthermore,all land-use patterns presented asΔf[α(q)]<0.The rand-size relationship ofα(0)was same as D(0).The best-fitting model for D(0),D(1),D(2)andΔf[α(q)]was spherical model,forΔα(q)was gaussian model,and forα(0)was exponential model with structure variance ratio was 1.03%,49.83%,0.84%,1.48%,22.20%and 10.60%,respectively.The results showed that soil particles of each land use pattern were distributed unevenly.The multifractal parameters under different land use have significant differences,except forΔα(q).Differences in the composition of soil particles lead to differences in the multifractal properties even though they belong to the same soil texture.Farming behavior may refine particles and enhance the heterogeneity of soil particle distribution.Our results provide an effective reference for quantifying the impact of human activities on soil system in the Three Gorges Reservoir region.

Using autologistic spatial models to simulate the distribution of land-use patterns in Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province

Nowadays, spatial simulation on land use patterns is one of the key contents of LUCC. Modeling is an important tool for simulating land use patterns due to its ability to integrate measurements of changes in land cover and the associated drivers. The conventional regression model can only analyze the correlation between land use types and driving factors but cannot depict the spatial autocorrelation characteristics. Land uses in Yongding County, which is located in the typical karst mountain areas in northwestern Hunan province, were investigated by means of modeling the spatial autocorrelation of land use types with the purpose of deriving better spatial land use patterns on the basis of terrain characteristics and infrastructural conditions. Through incorporating components describing the spatial autocorrelation into a conventional logistic model, we constructed a regression model （Autologistic model）, and used this model to simulate and analyze the spatial land use patterns in Yongding County. According to the comparison with the conventional logistic model without considering the spatial autocorrelation, this model showed better goodness and higher accuracy of fitting. The distribution of arable land, wood land, built-up land and unused land yielded areas under the ROC curves （AUC） was improved to 0.893, 0.940, 0.907 and 0.863 respectively with the autologistic model. It is argued that the improved model based on autologistic method was reasonable to a certain extent. Meanwhile, these analysis results could provide valuable information for modeling future land use change scenarios with actual conditions of local and regional land use, and the probability maps of land use types obtained from this study could also support government decision-making on land use management for Yongding County and other similar areas.

Spatio-temporal Pattern and Spatial Heterogeneity of Ecotones Based on Land Use Types of Southeastern Da Hinggan Mountains in China

Ecotones have received great attention due to its critical function in energy flux, species harbor, global carbon sequestration, and land-atmosphere interaction. This study investigated land use pattern and spatial heterogeneity of the ecotones among agricultural land, forest land, and grassland of the southeastern Da Hinggan Mountains in the northeastern China. The change of these delineated ecotones under different slopes and aridity conditions was analyzed by two landscape indices, edge density(ED) and core area percentage of landscape(CPL), to explore the inter-linkage between spatial structure of ecotones and socioeconomic development and land management. Specifically, the ecotones such as agriculture-forest(AF) ecotone, forest-grassland(FG) ecotone, and agriculture-forestgrassland(AFG) ecotone moved from the arid southeast to the humid northwest. The flat area with small slope is more edge-fragmented than the steep area since the ED decreases as the slope increases. The AF ecotone mostly found in the humid region is moving to more humid areas while the agriculture-grassland(AG) ecotone mostly found in the dry region is moving towards the drier region.

Land use/cover change and ecological network in Gansu Province,China during 2000-2020 and their simulations in 2050

Land use/cover change(LUCC)constitutes the spatial and temporal patterns of ecological security,and the construction of ecological networks is an effective way to ensure ecological security.Exploring the spatial and temporal change characteristics of ecological network and analyzing the integrated relationship between LUCC and ecological security are crucial for ensuring regional ecological security.Gansu is one of the provinces with fragile ecological environment in China,and rapid changes in land use patterns in recent decades have threatened ecological security.Therefore,taking Gansu Province as the study area,this study simulated its land use pattern in 2050 using patch-generating land use simulation(PLUS)model based on the LUCC trend from 2000 to 2020 and integrated the LUCC into morphological spatial pattern analysis(MSPA)to identify ecological sources and extract the ecological corridors to construct ecological network using circuit theory.The results revealed that,according to the prediction results in 2050,the areas of cultivated land,forest land,grassland,water body,construction land,and unused land would be 63,447.52,39,510.80,148,115.18,4605.21,8368.89,and 161,752.40 km^(2),respectively.The number of ecological sources in Gansu Province would increase to 80,with a total area of 99,927.18 km^(2).The number of ecological corridors would increase to 191,with an estimated total length of 6120.66 km.Both ecological sources and ecological corridors showed a sparse distribution in the northwest and dense distribution in the southeast of the province at the spatial scale.The number of ecological pinch points would reach 312 and the total area would expect to increase to 842.84 km^(2),with the most pronounced increase in the Longdong region.Compared with 2020,the number and area of ecological barriers in 2050 would decrease significantly by 63 and 370.71 km^(2),respectively.In general,based on the prediction results,the connectivity of ecological network of Gansu Province would increase in 2050.To achieve the predicted ecological network in 2050,emphasis should be placed on the protection of cultivated land and ecological land,the establishment of ecological sources in desert areas,the reinforcement of the protection for existing ecological sources,and the construction of ecological corridors to enhance the stability of ecological network.This study provides valuable theoretical support and references for the future construction of ecological networks and regional land resource management decision-making.

Fractal Analysis on the Spatial Structure of Land Use Patterns in a Non-Point Source Polluted Area in Southern China

Based on the TM remote sensing interpretation of land use data of a non-point source polluted area in southern China in 2015, supported by ArcGIS and the fractal theory, this paper established the perimeter-area fractal equation of the spatial structure of land use types, quantitatively calculated the fractal dimension and stability index of various land use types in this non-point source polluted area in 2015, and analyzed the spatial structure characteristics of land use types. The results showed that the fractal dimension values of the different land use types in the research area ranged 1.141–1.657, and the whole fractal dimension of the research area was 1.206. To be specific, the fractal dimension values of unused land, grass land and rural residential land were high, and the fractal dimension values of dry land, paddy filed and waters were low, and the fractal dimension values of urban land, industrial traffic construction land and forest land were moderate. The area of the land use types whose stability index values were 0.2–0.4 accounted for 89.5% of total area, suggesting that the stability of the spatial structure of land use types of Beibei District in 2015 was not high generally. The rural residential land and urban land of the research area should be planned and managed more properly from now on.

GIS-based Study on the Evolution of County-scale Land Use Landscape Pattern —A Case Study of Da'an City, China

With land use landscape pattern of Da'an City in west Jilin Province as an example, internal mechanism of regional land use changes was explored on the basis of GIS and remote sensing interpretation data. County-scale RS images were processed in ENVI, relevant indexes of land use change and landscape ecology selected to analyze quantity structure change, dynamic change and transition matrix of land use, and evolution trends of land use/cover change and landscape pattern in the study area analyzed. The results showed that from 1995 to 2005 Da'an City has witnessed a decreasing mean patch area of farmland, grassland and woodland, aggravating fragmentation of woodland and grassland; declining landscape diversity and increasing dominance degrees of certain landscapes; diversified land use types but lower rationality, increasing areas of certain landscape types.

Spatiotemporal landscape pattern changes and their effects on land surface temperature in greenbelt with semi-arid climate:A case study of the Erbil City,Iraq

Urban expansion of cities has caused changes in land use and land cover(LULC)in addition to transformations in the spatial characteristics of landscape structure.These alterations have generated heat islands and rise of land surface temperature(LST),which consequently have caused a variety of environmental issues and threated the sustainable development of urban areas.Greenbelts are employed as an urban planning containment policy to regulate urban expansion,safeguard natural open spaces,and serve adaptation and mitigation functions.And they are regarded as a powerful measure for enhancing urban environmental sustainability.Despite the fact that,the relation between landscape structure change and variation of LST has been examined thoroughly in many studies,but there is a limitation concerning this relation in semi-arid climate and in greenbelts as well,with the lacking of comprehensive research combing both aspects.Accordingly,this study investigated the spatiotemporal changes of landscape pattern of LULC and their relationship with variation of LST within an inner greenbelt in the semi-arid Erbil City of northern Iraq.The study utilized remote sensing data to retrieve LST,classified LULC,and calculated landscape metrics for analyzing spatial changes during the study period.The results indicated that both composition and configuration of LULC had an impact on the variation of LST in the study area.The Pearson's correlation showed the significant effect of Vegetation 1 type(VH),cultivated land(CU),and bare soil(BS)on LST,as increase of LST was related to the decrease of VH and the increases of CU and BS,while,neither Vegetation 2 type(VL)nor built-up(BU)had any effects.Additionally,the spatial distribution of LULC also exhibited significant effects on LST,as LST was strongly correlated with landscape indices for VH,CU,and BS.However,for BU,only aggregation index metric affected LST,while none of VL metrics had a relation.The study provides insights for landscape planners and policymakers to not only develop more green spaces in greenbelt but also optimize the spatial landscape patterns to reduce the influence of LST on the urban environment,and further promote sustainable development and enhance well-being in the cities with semi-arid climate.

Spatial patterns of urban land use growth in Beijing

By using digitized land use maps of Beijing in 1982, 1992 and 1997 and employing GIS spatial analysis techniques, this paper conducts an empirical study on the spatial differentiation and spatial patterns of urban land use growth in Beijing in the period of 1982–1997. It is observed that urban land use growth in Beijing went beyond the control of urban planning, in terms of the extraordinary high growth rate and undesired spatial pattern. The rate of urban expansion after 1982, which was predominated by growth of industrial land, was extraordinary high compared to its historical period. While its growth centers have been actively shifting toward the northern part, rather than toward the southern and eastern parts as designated by the latest General Plan (1991–2010) of Beijing, its spatial pattern of urban land use growth in general was in distinct concentric sprawl, which seriously violated the General Plan of Beijing.

The influence of land use change on the spatial–temporal variability of habitat quality between 1990 and 2010 in Northeast China

Land use changes are a direct consequence of interactions between humans and nature.Analysing the spatial and temporal changes in habitat quality brought about by land use change can provide a scientific basis for ecological protection and land planning.Based on the analysis of land use change from 1990 to 2010 in Northeast China,we used the InVEST(integrated valuation of ecosystem services and trade-offs)module to evaluate habitat quality based on watershed subdivision.The results show that:(1)the main land use changes from 1990 to 2010 were the transition from grasslands and forest lands to agricultural lands,which led to a decrease in connectivity of landscape and an increase in fragmentation;(2)areas of high habitat quality were distributed north of the Greater Khingan Mountains,the region of the Lesser Khingan Mountains and east of the Changbai Mountains,while the central plain had low habitat quality;(3)agricultural lands had the largest effect on habitat degradation among all habitat threats.During these 2 decades,the contribution of agricultural lands to habitat degradation were 43.4%in 1990,44.6%in 2000 and 43.9%in 2010;and,(4)at a landscape scale,patch density and splitting index present noticeable negative correlations with habitat quality index.Habitat quality was significantly affected by landscape fragmentation and decreased connectivity.

Spatio-temporal patterns of land use change along the Bohai Rim in China during 1985-2005

Based on TM image data and other survey materials, this paper analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of land use change in the Bohai Rim during 1985-2005. The findings of this study are summarized as follows： （1） Land use pattern changed dramatically during 1985-2005. Industrial and residential land in urban and rural areas increased by 643,946 hm2 of which urban construction land had the largest and fastest increase of 294,953 hm2 at an annual rate of 3.72%. （2） The outward migration of rural population did not prevent the expansion of residential land in rural areas by 184,869 hm2. This increase reveals that construction of rural residences makes seriously wasteful and inefficient use of land. （3） Arable land, woodland and grassland decreased at a rate of -0.02%, -0.12% and -1.32% annually, while unused land shrank by 157,444 hm^2 at an annual rate of -1.69%. （4） The change of land use types showed marked fluctuations over the two stages （1985-1995 and 1995-2005） In particular, arable land, woodland and unused land experienced an inversed trend of change. （5） There was a significant interaction between arable land and woodland, industrial construction land in urban and rural areas showed a net trend of increase during the earlier period, but only adjustment to its internal structure during the second period. The loss of arable land to the construction of factories, mines and residences took place mainly in the fringe areas of large and medium-sized cities, along the routes of major roads, as well as in the economically developed coastal areas in the east. Such changes are closely related to the spatial differentiation of the level of urbanization and industrialization in the region.

Fractal features of soil profiles under different land use patterns on the Loess Plateau, China

Fractal theory is becoming an increasingly useful tool to describe soil structure dynamics for a better understanding of the performance of soil systems. Changes in land use patterns significantly affect soil physical, chemical and biological properties. However, limited information is available on the fractal characteristics of deep soil layers under different land use patterns. In this study, the fractal dimensions of particle size distribution（PSD） and micro-aggregates in the 0–500 cm soil profile and soil anti-erodibility in the 0–10 cm soil profile for 10 typical land use patterns were investigated in the Zhifanggou Watershed on the Loess Plateau, China. The 10 typical land use patterns were： slope cropland, two terraced croplands, check-dam cropland, woodland, two shrublands, orchard, artificial and natural grasslands. The results showed that the fractal dimensions of PSD and micro-aggregates were all significantly influenced by soil depths, land use patterns and their interaction. The plantations of shrubland, woodland and natural grassland increased the amount of larger micro-aggregates, and decreased the fractal dimensions of micro-aggregates in the 0–40 cm soil profile. And they also improved the aggregate state and aggregate degree and decreased dispersion rate in the 0–10 cm soil profile. The results indicated that fractal theory can be used to characterize soil structure under different land use patterns and fractal dimensions of micro-aggregates were more effective in this regard. The natural grassland may be the best choice for improving soil structure in the study area.

Dynamics of Coastal Land Use Patterns of Inner Lingdingyang Bay in the Zhujiang River Estuary

To satisfy the growing of land demand from economic development,a large scale of land reclamation from sea has been carried out in Inner Lingdingyang Bay in the Zhujiang(Pearl)River estuary in recent years.As a result,the tidal flat and the water channels became narrow,the frequency of floods increased,and the environment was un-dermined.Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey(GMGS)conducted an integrated project for marine geo-environ-ment and geo-hazards survey in 2003.With the integration of multi-temporal remote sensing images of 1977,1978,1988,1996,and 2003,GIS spatial analyzing approach and GPS technique,as well as field data and other background data of the region,this research investigated the comprehensive characteristics and the drivers of coastal land use dy-namics and shoreline changes in Inner Lingdingyang Bay.The results reveal that the reclaimed coastal land was mainly for agriculture and aquaculture in early years,but now they are used for construction sites of harbors and in-dustries,especially high-tech industry.

The effects of land use and its patterns on soil properties in a small catchment of the Loess Plateau

Due to relatively strong human activities in the hilly area of Loess Plateau, the natural vegetation has been destroyed, and landscape pattern based on agricultural land matrix was land use mosaic composing of shrub land, grassland, woodland and orchard. This pattern has an important effect on soil moisture and soil nutrients. The Danangou catchment, a typical small catchment, was selected to study the effects of land use and its patterns on soil moisture and nutrients in this paper. The results are as follows: The comparisons of soil moisture among seven land uses for wet year and dry year were performed: (1) the average of soil moisture content for whole catchment was 12.11% in wet year, while it was 9.37% in dry year; (2) soil moisture among seven land uses was significantly different in dry year, but not in wet year; (3) from wet year to dry year, the profile type of soil moisture changed from decreasing type to fluctuation-type and from fluctuant type to increasing type; (4) the increasing trend in soil moisture from the top to foot of hillslope occurred in simple land use along slope, while complicated distribution of soil moisture was observed in multiple land uses along slope. The relationships between soil nutrients and land uses and landscape positions were analysed: (1) five nutrient contents of soil organic matter (SOM), total N (TN), available N (AN), total P (TP) and available P (AP) in hilly area were lower than that in other areas. SOM content was less than 1%, TN content less than 0.07%, and TP content between 0.05% and 0.06%; (2) SOM and TN contents in woodland, shrub land and grassland were significantly higher than that in fallow land and cropland, and higher level in soil fertility was found in crop-fruit intercropping land among croplands; (3) soil nutrient distribution and responses to landscape positions were variable depending on slope and the location of land use types.

An overview of the spatial patterns of land surface processes over arid and semiarid regions

With data from the project Collaborative Observation of Semi-arid/Arid Regions in North China, collected during July and September 2008, the spatial patterns of land surface processes over arid and semiarid regions have been investigated based on the ordinary Kriging interpolation approach. Generally, for the radiation processes, downward and upward short-wave radiation have a uniformly increasing trend with latitude, but the spatial patterns of long-wave radiation present notable regional differences: both upward and downward long-wave radiation increase with latitude in the west of North China, while in the east they vary inversely with latitude, suggesting surface temperature and clouds respectively have feedbacks to the long-wave radiation in the west and east of North China. The surface net radiation basically has a negative latitudinal trend. Long-wave radiation budget plays an important role in the spatial pattern of surface net radiation, particularly in the east of North China, although short-wave radiation budget largely determines the magnitude of surface net radiation. For the energy processes, latent and sensible heat flux varies conversely with latitude: more available land surface energy is consumed by evaporating soil water at lower latitudes while more is used for heating the atmosphere at higher latitudes. A soil heat flux maximum and minimum are found in Loess Plateau and Qinghai Plateau respectively, and a maximum is seen in the northeast China.