This study describes the spatial and temporal variation of a drought index and makes inferences regarding the environmental factors that influence this variability in the Hengduan Mountains. A drought index is typical...This study describes the spatial and temporal variation of a drought index and makes inferences regarding the environmental factors that influence this variability in the Hengduan Mountains. A drought index is typically used to determine the moisture conditions and the magnitude of water deficiency in a given area. Based on data from 26 meteorological stations over the period 1960-2012, the spatial and temporal variations of the drought index were analyzed using a thin plate smoothing splines method that considered elevation as a covariate. The drought index was estimated based on the potential evapotranspiration(E0) as defined by the Penman Monteith model modified by FAO(1998). The results of the reported analysis showed that the drought index in the Hengduan Mountains has been decreasing since 1960 at a rate of-0.008/a. This represented a progressive shift from the "sub-humid" class, which typified the wider area in the Hengduan Mountains, toward the "humid" class, which appeared in the Hengduan Mountains areas. The drought index was relatively high in the north and low in the south and the variation of the drought index varied with seasons. The drought index showed increasing trends in summer and autumn and it is greater in autumn than in summer, while it showed a decreasing trend in spring and winter. Drought index is inversely proportional to the soil relative humidity and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI).展开更多
Soil salinity is one of the most severe environmental problems worldwide. It is necessary to develop a soil-salinity-estimation model to project the spatial distribution of soil salinity. The aims of this study were t...Soil salinity is one of the most severe environmental problems worldwide. It is necessary to develop a soil-salinity-estimation model to project the spatial distribution of soil salinity. The aims of this study were to use remote sensed images and digital elevation model(DEM) to develop quantitative models for estimating soil salinity and to investigate the influence of vegetation on soil salinity estimation. Digital bands of Landsat Thematic Mapper(TM) images, vegetation indices, and terrain indices were selected as predictive variables for the estimation. The generalized additive model(GAM) was used to analyze the quantitative relationship between soil salt content, spectral properties, and terrain indices. Akaike's information criterion(AIC) was used to select relevant predictive variables for fitted GAMs. A correlation analysis and root mean square error between predicted and observed soil salt contents were used to validate the fitted GAMs. A high ratio of explained deviance suggests that an integrated approach using spectral and terrain indices with GAM was practical and efficient for estimating soil salinity. The performance of the fitted GAMs varied with changes in vegetation cover.Salinity in sparsely vegetated areas was estimated better than in densely vegetated areas. Visible red and near-infrared bands, and the second and third components of the tasseled cap transformation were the most important spectral variables for the estimation. Variable combinations in the fitted GAMs and their contribution varied with changes in vegetation cover. The contribution of terrain indices was smaller than that of spectral indices, possibly due to the low spatial resolution of DEM. This research may provide some beneficial references for regional soil salinity estimation.展开更多
基金support for this research of Chinese Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2016T90961, 2015M570864)Openended fund of State Key Laboratory of Cryosphere Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SKLCSOP-2014-11)+2 种基金Project of Northwest Normal University (China) Young Teachers Scientific Research Ability Promotion Plan (NWNU-LKQN13-10)Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (41271133, 41273010, 41361106, 41261104)Project of Major National Research Projects of China (No. 2013CBA01808)
文摘This study describes the spatial and temporal variation of a drought index and makes inferences regarding the environmental factors that influence this variability in the Hengduan Mountains. A drought index is typically used to determine the moisture conditions and the magnitude of water deficiency in a given area. Based on data from 26 meteorological stations over the period 1960-2012, the spatial and temporal variations of the drought index were analyzed using a thin plate smoothing splines method that considered elevation as a covariate. The drought index was estimated based on the potential evapotranspiration(E0) as defined by the Penman Monteith model modified by FAO(1998). The results of the reported analysis showed that the drought index in the Hengduan Mountains has been decreasing since 1960 at a rate of-0.008/a. This represented a progressive shift from the "sub-humid" class, which typified the wider area in the Hengduan Mountains, toward the "humid" class, which appeared in the Hengduan Mountains areas. The drought index was relatively high in the north and low in the south and the variation of the drought index varied with seasons. The drought index showed increasing trends in summer and autumn and it is greater in autumn than in summer, while it showed a decreasing trend in spring and winter. Drought index is inversely proportional to the soil relative humidity and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI).
基金financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41001363 and 41471335)the Ocean Public Welfare Scientific Research Project, China (No. 201305021)
文摘Soil salinity is one of the most severe environmental problems worldwide. It is necessary to develop a soil-salinity-estimation model to project the spatial distribution of soil salinity. The aims of this study were to use remote sensed images and digital elevation model(DEM) to develop quantitative models for estimating soil salinity and to investigate the influence of vegetation on soil salinity estimation. Digital bands of Landsat Thematic Mapper(TM) images, vegetation indices, and terrain indices were selected as predictive variables for the estimation. The generalized additive model(GAM) was used to analyze the quantitative relationship between soil salt content, spectral properties, and terrain indices. Akaike's information criterion(AIC) was used to select relevant predictive variables for fitted GAMs. A correlation analysis and root mean square error between predicted and observed soil salt contents were used to validate the fitted GAMs. A high ratio of explained deviance suggests that an integrated approach using spectral and terrain indices with GAM was practical and efficient for estimating soil salinity. The performance of the fitted GAMs varied with changes in vegetation cover.Salinity in sparsely vegetated areas was estimated better than in densely vegetated areas. Visible red and near-infrared bands, and the second and third components of the tasseled cap transformation were the most important spectral variables for the estimation. Variable combinations in the fitted GAMs and their contribution varied with changes in vegetation cover. The contribution of terrain indices was smaller than that of spectral indices, possibly due to the low spatial resolution of DEM. This research may provide some beneficial references for regional soil salinity estimation.