Effect of farmland shelterbelts on gully erosion in the black soil region of Northeast China

The black soil region of northeast China is one of the most important grain-producing areas in China. Increasingly severe gully erosion in this region has destroyed much farmland and reduced grain production. We analyzed SPOT5 imagery from 2007 and TM imagery from 2008 to describe the distributions of gullies and farmland shelterbelts in Kedong County and to assess the effect of farmland shelterbelts on gully erosion. The ima- gery revealed 2311 gullies with average density of 418.51 m km-2, indicating very serious gully erosion. With increasing slope gradient there was an inverse trend between gully density and shelterbelt density, indicating that farmland shelterbelts can prevent gully erosion. The defense effect of farmland shelterbelts against gullyerosion varied with distance： for distances 〈120 m, the defense effect was consistent and very strong; for distances of 120-240 m, a weak linear decrease was found in the defense effect; and for distances 〉240 m, the defense effect of the shelterbelts was significantly weaker. We recommend an optimal planting density of farmland shel- terbelts for the prevention of gully erosion at 1100-1300 m km-2.

Study on specifications of farmland shelterbelt net in Northeastern Plain of China

s: The farmland shelterbelts in Northeastern Plain of China have formed relatively complete net system. The func-tions of shelterbelt net in omnibearing wind check and prevention of frostbite as well as the field of integrated climate effect within shelterbelt net were analyzed, through located observation of meteorological factors. Within the shelterbelt net, the area with more than 10% efficiency of omnibearing wind check was determined as benefited area. The analysis of yield and quality of crops indicated that the sheltering range of shelterbelt net was 25 times tree height. The mature heights of the various varieties of poplar composed the shelterbelts were determined according to their height growth. Based on the comprehensive analysis above, the suitable size of farmland shelterbelt net in Northeastern Plain of China was decided to be 400 m×400 m.

A Method for Spatial Heterogeneity Evaluation on Landscape Pattern of Farmland Shelterbelt Networks:A Case Study in Midwest of Jilin Province,China

On the basis of landscape ecology, combining the Spot 5 high resolution satellite imagery with GIS, a method evaluating the spatial heterogeneity of shelterbelts distribution at landscape scale is put forward in this paper. The distance coefficients of reasonable and existing landscape indexes of farmland shelterbelt networks were com-puted, and then through the classification of the distance coefficients, and the establishment of evaluation rules, the spatial heterogeneity of farmland shelterbelts was evaluated. The method can improve the evaluating system of previ-ous studies on shelterbelts distribution, resolve the disadvantages of lacking spatiality of overall evaluation, and make the evaluation results have more directive significance for shelterbelt management. Based on this method, spatial het-erogeneity of shelterbelt networks was evaluated in the midwest of Jilin Province, China. The results show that the re-gions with fewer shelterbelts and no closed network account for 34.7% of the total area, but only 4.9% of the area has relative reasonable pattern of shelterbelt networks. Many problems exist in the distribution pattern of shelterbelts, therefore, much attention should be paid to construct farmland shelterbelts in the study area.