黄土高原丘陵沟壑区植被恢复重建后的物种多样性研究

黄土高原丘陵沟壑区是我国物种多样性研究相对较薄弱的地区。目前关于该区植被恢复重建后的物种多样性研究尚未见报道。研究该区植被恢复重建后的物种多样性对退化生态系统的植被恢复重建具有重要的指导意义。本文选取 6个物种多样性指数对纸坊沟流域主要的天然及人工群落物种多样性进行了研究 ,研究发现 :天然灌木林物种多样性最高 ,均匀度最大 ,人工乔木林和天然草本的物种多样性及均匀度接近 ,人工灌木林的多样性和均匀度最小。人工林纯林 (包括纯乔木林、纯灌木林及单一乔灌混交林 )具有很强的抵抗其它乔灌物种入侵和定居的能力 ,对林下草本也有很强的控制能力。因此 ,要建造一个具有较高物种多样性的群落 ,在建造初期就要选择多物种混交 。

Relationships between Soil Depth and Terrain Attributes in a Semi Arid Hilly Region in Western Iran

Soil depth generally varies in mountainous regions in rather complex ways.Conventional soil survey methods for evaluating the soil depth in mountainous and hilly regions require a lot of time,effort and consequently relatively large budget to perform.This study was conducted to explore the relationships between soil depth and topographic attributes in a hilly region in western Iran.For this,one hundred sampling points were selected using randomly stratified methodology,and considering all geomorphic surfaces including summit,shoulder,backslope,footslope and toeslope;and soil depth was actually measured.Eleven primary and secondary topographic attributes were derived from the digital elevation model(DEM) at the study area.The result of multiple linear regression indicated that slope,wetness index,catchment area and sediment transport index,which were included in the model,could explain about 76 % of total variability in soil depth at the selected site.This proposed approach may be applicable to other hilly regions in the semi-arid areas at a larger scale.

An Object-based Approach for Two-level Gully Feature Mapping Using High-resolution DEM and Imagery： A Case Study on Hilly Loess Plateau Region, China

Gully feature mapping is an indispensable prerequisite for the motioning and control of gully erosion which is a widespread natural hazard. The increasing availability of high-resolution Digital Elevation Model(DEM) and remote sensing imagery, combined with developed object-based methods enables automatic gully feature mapping. But still few studies have specifically focused on gully feature mapping on different scales. In this study, an object-based approach to two-level gully feature mapping, including gully-affected areas and bank gullies, was developed and tested on 1-m DEM and Worldview-3 imagery of a catchment in the Chinese Loess Plateau. The methodology includes a sequence of data preparation, image segmentation, metric calculation, and random forest based classification. The results of the two-level mapping were based on a random forest model after investigating the effects of feature selection and class-imbalance problem. Results show that the segmentation strategy adopted in this paper which considers the topographic information and optimal parameter combination can improve the segmentation results. The distribution of the gully-affected area is closely related to topographic information, however, the spectral features are more dominant for bank gully mapping. The highest overall accuracy of the gully-affected area mapping was 93.06% with four topographic features. The highest overall accuracy of bank gully mapping is 78.5% when all features are adopted. The proposed approach is a creditable option for hierarchical mapping of gully feature information, which is suitable for the application in hily Loess Plateau region.

Response of sediment yield to vegetation restoration at a large spatial scale in the Loess Plateau

The impact of vegetation coverage on erosion and sediment yield in the Loess Plateau has been extensively studied,but the research has been primarily based on observations from slope runoff plots or secondary forest regions;the scaling method remains unresolved when it is applied at a large spatial scale,and it is difficult to apply to regions with severe soil and water loss given the predominance of herbs and shrubs.To date,there is little data on the quantitative impact of changes to vegetation on sediment concentration at a large spatial scale.This paper is based on vegetation information from remote sensing images,measured rainfall and sediment data over nearly 60 years,and results from previous runoff and sediment variation research on the Yellow River.We introduce the concepts of a sediment yield coefficient and the percentage of effective vegetation and erodible area,analyze the impact of different vegetation conditions on the flood sediment concentration and sediment yield,and evaluate the effect of rainfall intensity on sediment yield under different vegetation conditions at the watershed scale.We propose models to evaluate the impact of vegetation on sediment yield in the loess gully hilly region,which are based on remote sensing data and support an application at a large spatial scale.The models can be used to assess sediment reduction that results from the current significant improvement of vegetation in the Loess Plateau.