Climate-Vegetation Coverage Interactions in the Hengduan Mountains Area, Southeastern Tibetan Plateau, and Their Downstream Effects

Little is known about the mechanism of climate-vegetation coverage coupled changes in the Tibetan Plateau(TP)region,which is the most climatically sensitive and ecologically fragile region with the highest terrain in the world.This study,using multisource datasets(including satellite data and meteorological observations and reanalysis data)revealed the mutual feedback mechanisms between changes in climate(temperature and precipitation)and vegetation coverage in recent decades in the Hengduan Mountains Area(HMA)of the southeastern TP and their influences on climate in the downstream region,the Sichuan Basin(SCB).There is mutual facilitation between rising air temperature and increasing vegetation coverage in the HMA,which is most significant during winter,and then during spring,but insignificant during summer and autumn.Rising temperature significantly enhances local vegetation coverage,and vegetation greening in turn heats the atmosphere via enhancing net heat flux from the surface to the atmosphere.The atmospheric heating anomaly over the HMA thickens the atmospheric column and increases upper air pressure.The high pressure anomaly disperses downstream via the westerly flow,expands across the SCB,and eventually increases the SCB temperature.This effect lasts from winter to the following spring,which may cause the maximum increasing trend of the SCB temperature and vegetation coverage in spring.These results are helpful for estimating future trends in climate and eco-environmental variations in the HMA and SCB under warming scenarios,as well as seasonal forecasting based on the connection between the HMA eco-environment and SCB climate.

Modeling of Deposition Process of Particulate Organic Matter (POM) with Sand on Vegetated Area in a River

The transport and deposition of particulate organic matter (POM) in river streams has recently received much attention as one of important ecological processes in rivers. We focused on interacted behaviors of sand particles in bed load and POM in vegetated area on sand bars. The purpose of this study is to clarify the characteristics of deposition of POM with bed load on sandbars with the riparian vegetation. A basic experiment on POM transport and deposition with vegetation is conducted in a laboratory flume. It demonstrates that several issues still remain to be future investigated. In particular, the shear due to the bed roughness in the vegetated area and the transport and deposition process of sand particles and POM are required to be described by the proper modeling which will be introduced into a simulation model of various fluvial processes. The main results of this study are that ripples are formed by bed load in riparian vegetation and POM deposition is promoted by ripple behavior. Based on these results, the POM deposition with ripples in vegetated area is described by a conceptual model which will affect various aspects in ecosystem management based on fluvial processes.

Analysis of the Temporal and Spatial Evolution of Recovery and Degradation Processes in Vegetated Areas Using a Time Series of Landsat TM Images (1986-2011): Central Region of Chihuahua, Mexico

This paper analyzed the temporal and spatial evolution of vegetation dynamics in various land covers in the basin of the Laguna Bustillos, Region of Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua, Mexico. We used an NDVI time series for the months of March to April (early spring). The series was constructed from Landsat TM images for the period 1986-2011. The results show an increase of NDVI for vegetated areas, especially in conifer cover, while shrub and grassland showed a positive trend but with lower statistical significance. The increase in minimum temperatures in early spring, during the study period, was the most important factor in explaining the increase of NDVI in vegetated areas. A spatially distributed analysis shows large areas without an NDVI trend, corresponding to areas with sparse vegetation cover (degraded areas). Moreover, there are also areas with a negative trend (loss of vegetation), explained by the exploitation of trees to produce firewood which is mainly carried out by the ejidos in the region. These results help to focus human and financial resources in places where the benefit will be greatest.

Dynamic Study on Soil Fungi Population in Artificial Vegetation Areas of Shapotou in Ningxia

[Objective] The changes of fungi in different soil layers and sand dunes of artificial vegetation areas in Ningxia Shapotou during different times were studied. [Method]The number of soil fungi in different soil layers at same plot and in same soil layer at different plots were changed significantly.The quantitative distribution of fungi was the most in Cuiliugou but the fewest in quicksand among all soil types.[Result] The quantity of soil fungi in grasslands was varied in different soil layers at the same sample and in the same soil layer at different sample plots. The quantity of fungi from different soil types distributed mostly in Cuiliugou, a natural desert steppe, but little in quicksand. The species and quantity of fungi in CuiLiugou was the most in different types of sand-fixing lands. [Conclusion] The quantity of soil fungi in artificial vegetation areas raises with the increase of sand-fixing ages, The enhancement of vegetation construction and artificial management measures in inland is helpful for improving present situation of desertification.

Study on the Forest Vegetation and Its Water and Soil Conservation Value in Fuxian Lake Drainage Area in Yunnan Province

By using French SPOT5 satellite remote sensing image to contrast on the spot,the forest vegetation in Fuxian Lake basin was categorized into 23 forest types,6 vegetation subtypes,5 vegetation types,and the areas were respectively calculated.The tree species structure and the coverage degree of every kind of forest vegetation were investigated,and the characteristics of forest vegetation were analyzed.The results showed that the soil conservation amount of forest in Fuxian Lake basin was 137.50×106 t/a,and the soil conservation value was 622.30×106 yuan/a.Moreover,the water source conservation value was 506.84×106 yuan/a.

Research on Vegetation Recovery of Mountainous Parks in City-and-town Concentration Areas in China

Based on the analysis of features and problems of green lands in mountainous parks in towns concentration areas,the paper has illustrated the significance for vegetations'recovery.By taking Tashan Park in Neijiang City for example,it has investigated the eco-environment and vegetations of this park.The results show that its terrain is precipitous,eco-environment is weak,slope vegetation is less,rocks'exposing rate is high and community structure is simple.In view of the survey results,it has proposed two methods for vegetation recovery that are natural recovery and artificial recovery.In particular,it has explored how to conduct vegetation recovery on green lands of different gradients of slopes by using plants'selection and community disposition.

New Vegetation Index and Its Application in Estimating Leaf Area Index of Rice

Leaf area index （LAI） is an important characteristic of land surface vegetation system, and is also a key parameter for the models of global water balancing and carbon circulation. By using the reflectance values of Landsat-5 blue, green and red channels simulated from rice reflectance spectrum, the sensitivities of the bands to LAI were analyzed, and the response and capability to estimate LAI of various NDVIs （normalized difference vegetation indices）, which were established by substituting the red band of general NDVI with all possible combinations of red, green and blue bands, were assessed. Finally, the conclusion was tested by rice data at different conditions. The sensitivities of red, green and blue bands to LAI were different under various conditions. When LAI was less than 3, red and blue bands were more sensitive to LAI. Though green band in the circumstances was less sensitive to LAI than red and blue bands, it was sensitive to LAI in a wider range. When the vegetation indices were constituted by all kinds of combinations of red, green and blue bands, the premise for making the sensitivity of these vegetation indices to LAI be meaningful was that the value of one of the combinations was greater than 0.024, i.e. visible reflectance （VIS）〉0.024. Otherwise, the vegetation indices would be saturated, resulting in lower estimation accuracy of LAI. Comparison on the capabilities of the vegetation indices derived from all kinds of combinations of red, green and blue bands to LAI estimation showed that GNDVI （Green NDVI） and GBNDVI （Green-Blue NDVI） had the best relations with LAI. The capabilities of GNDVI and GBNDVI to LAI estimation were tested under different circumstances, and the same result was acquired. It suggested that GNDVI and GBNDVI performed better to predict LAI than the conventional NDVI.

Vegetation changes in the agricultural-pastoral areas of northern China from 2001 to 2013

Climate change and human activity have resulted in increasing change of vegetation growth globally. Numerous studies have been conducted on extreme climate events and analyses of ecological environment evolution. However, such studies have placed little emphasis on vegetation change and spatial variation in this type of ecotone. Accordingly, this study analyzed the changes in vegetation type and growth using the 16-d composite MOD13A1 product with 1-km resolution and MOD12Q1 product with 1-km resolution. We used the mean, maximum, standard deviation normalized-difference vegetation index（NDVI） values, and the rate of change（ROC） of NDVI value to explain vegetation changes within the studied ecotone. Our results showed that significant vegetation type and growth changes have occurred in the study area. From 2001 to 2013, for example, with the exception of 2001, 2004 and 2009, a certain extent of grassland area was converted to cropland. Drought severity index（DSI） results indicate that there exists drought in 2001, 2004 and 2009. Such temporal changes in cropland and grassland area confirmed the ecological vulnerability of the ecotone. At the same time, vegetation varied spatially from west to east and from south to north. The mean, maximum and standard deviation NDVI values were all sorted in descending order based on differences in latitude and longitude, as follows： NDVI_（2013）〉NDVI_（2009）〉NDVI_（2004）〉NDVI_（2001）

Leaf area index retrieval based on canopy reflectance and vegetation index in eastern China

The aim of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of using Landsat TM data to retrieve leaf area index (LAI). To get a LAI retrieval model based ground reflectance and vegetation index, detailed field data were collected in the study area of eastern China, dominated by bamboo, tea plant and greengage. Plant canopy reflectance of Landsat TM wavelength bands has been inversed using software of 6S. LAI is an important ecological parameter. In this paper, atmospheric corrected Landsat TM imagery was utilized to calculate different vegetation indices (VI), such as simple ratio vegetation index (SR), shortwave infrared modified simple ratio (MSR), and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). Data of 53 samples of LAI were measured by LAI-2000 (LI-COR) in the study area. LAI was modeled based on different reflectances of bands and different vegetation indices from Landsat TM and LAI samples data. There are certainly correlations between LAI and the reflectance of TM3, TM4, TM5 and TM7. The best model through analyzing the results is LAI = 1.2097*MSR + 0.4741 using the method of regression analysis. The result shows that the correlation coefficient R2 is 0.5157, and average accuracy is 85.75%. However, whether the model of this paper is suitable for application in subtropics needs to be verified in the future.

Assessment of Human Impacts on Vegetation in Built-up Areas in China Based on AVHRR,MODIS and DMSP_OLS Nighttime Light Data,1992–2010

Since the reform and opening-up program started in 1978,the level of urbanization has increased rapidly in China.Rapid urban expansion and restructuring have had significant impacts on the ecological environment especially within built-up areas.In this study,ArcGIS 10,ENVI 4.5,and Visual FoxPro 6.0 were used to analyze the human impacts on vegetation in the built-up areas of 656Chinese cities from 1992 to 2010.Firstly,an existing algorithm was refined to extract the boundaries of the built-up areas based on the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System(DMSP_OLS)nighttime light data.This improved algorithm has the advantages of high accuracy and speed.Secondly,a mathematical model(Human impacts(HI))was constructed to measure the impacts of human factors on vegetation during rapid urbanization based on Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer(AVHRR)Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI)and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS)NDVI.HI values greater than zero indicate relatively beneficial effects while values less than zero indicate proportionally adverse effects.The results were analyzed from four aspects:the size of cities(metropolises,large cities,medium-sized cities,and small cities),large regions(the eastern,central,western,and northeastern China),administrative divisions of China(provinces,autonomous regions,and municipalities)and vegetation zones(humid and semi-humid forest zone,semi-arid steppe zone,and arid desert zone).Finally,we discussed how human factors impacted on vegetation changes in the built-up areas.We found that urban planning policies and developmental stages impacted on vegetation changes in the built-up areas.The negative human impacts followed an inverted′U′shape,first rising and then falling with increase of urban scales.China′s national policies,social and economic development affected vegetation changes in the built-up areas.The findings can provide a scientific basis for municipal planning departments,a decision-making reference for government,and scientific guidance for sustainable development in China.

Evaluation of Spectral Scale Effects in Estimation of Vegetation Leaf Area Index Using Spectral Indices Methods

Spectral index methodology has been widely used in Leaf Area Index(LAI) retrieval at different spatial scales. There are differences in the spectral response of different remote sensors and thus spectral scale effect generated during the use of spectral indices to retrieve LAI. In this study, PROSPECT, leaf optical properties model and Scattering by Arbitrarily Inclined Layers(SAIL) model, were used to simulate canopy spectral reflectance with a bandwidth of 5 nm and a Gaussian spectral response function was employed to simulate the spectral data at six bandwidths ranging from 10 to 35 nm. Additionally, for bandwidths from 5 to 35 nm, the correlation between the spectral index and LAI, and the sensitivities of the spectral index to changes in LAI and bandwidth were analyzed. Finally, the reflectance data at six bandwidths ranging from 40 to 65 nm were used to verify the spectral scale effect generated during the use of the spectral index to retrieve LAI. Results indicate that Vegetation Index of the Universal Pattern Decomposition(VIUPD) had the highest accuracy during LAI retrieval. Followed by Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI), Modified Simple Ratio Indices(MSRI) and Triangle Vegetation Index(TVI), although the coefficient of determination R^2 was higher than 0.96, the retrieved LAI values were less than the actual value and thus lacked validity. Other spectral indices were significantly affected by the spectral scale effect with poor retrieval results. In this study, VIUPD, which exhibited a relatively good correlation and sensitivity to LAI, was less affected by the spectral scale effect and had a relatively good retrieval capability. This conclusion supports a purported feature independent of the sensor of this model and also confirms the great potential of VIUPD for retrieval of physicochemical parameters of vegetation using multi-source remote sensing data.

Soil Organic Carbon and Its Fractions Across Vegetation Types:Effects of Soil Mineral Surface Area and Microaggregates

Soil organic carbon(SOC)can act as a sink or source of atmospheric carbon dioxide;therefore,it is important to understand the amount and composition of SOC in terrestrial ecosystems,the spatial variation in SOC,and the underlying mechanisms that stabilize SOC.In this study,density fractionation and acid hydrolysis were used to assess the spatial variation in SOC,the heavy fraction of organic carbon(HFOC),and the resistant organic carbon(ROC)in soils of the southern Hulun Buir region,northeastern China,and to identify the major factors that contribute to this variation.The results showed that as the contents of clay and silt particles(0–50μm)increased,both methylene blue(MB)adsorption by soil minerals and microaggregate contents increased in the 0–20 and 20–40 cm soil layers(P<0.05).Although varying with vegetation types,SOC,HFOC,and ROC contents increased significantly with the content of clay and silt particles, MB adsorption by soil minerals,and microaggregate content(P<0.05),suggesting that soil texture,the MB adsorption by soil minerals,and microaggregate abundance might be important factors influencing the spatial heterogeneity of carbon contents in soils of the southern Hulun Buir region.

Effects of vegetation strata and human disturbance on bird diversity in green areas in a city in southern Chile

Background: Urbanisation is a dominant geographical trend and an important component of global change, with unprecedented implications for socio?economic, cultural and environmental characteristics. However, green areas, including original fragments, can help to conserve native diversity, improving the functioning of these artificial systems in the long term. Urban areas can still provide habitats usable by wild birds, however the structural charac?teristics of the habitat formed by different types of green area differ, and therefore dissimilar bird diversities are to be expected. The object of this study was to characterise the α and β diversities of birds in different green areas and to analyse how diversity relates to ten variables that characterise the habitat.Methods: We studied the green areas in the city of Temuco, southern Chile(Park, Square and Median strips of main streets), evaluating the variables:(a) surface area,(b) vegetation,(c) estimated human impact as the proportions of vegetation and bare soil by area, and the vehicle traffic. The bird assemblage structures were characterised by α(intra?environment) diversity and β diversity(between environments) and the statistical analysis identified the environmen?tal variables related with the presence and abundance of birds. A statistical model was constructed to describe the contribution of the variables to bird diversity.Results: We found significant differences between the diversity of bird species in the three types of green area. The β showed medium to high similarity between the different study units. There was a negative correlation with bare soil areas; the correlations with vehicle flow, plant structure and tree and shrub cover were not significant, meaning that these variables did not explain the variation in the richness of bird species between the green areas. However the surface area did explain this variation presenting a positive potential relation. There was also a high correlation with the origin(native) of shrub species.Conclusions: The bird diversity varied significantly according to the type of urban green area. The environmental variables presenting significant correlations with bird diversity were: surface area, native species of shrub stratum, shrub cover, and bare soil area. The best multiple regression model showed that the three most important variables for bird diversity are the surface area of the green area, the cover of the shrub stratum and the presence of native shrub species.

Soil and Vegetation Spectral Coupling Difference (SVSCD) for Minerals Extraction from Hyperion Data in Vegetation Covered Area

Remote sensing data have been widely applied to extract minerals in geologic exploration, however, in areas covered by vegetation, extracted mineral information has mostly been small targets bearing little information. In this paper, we present a new method for mineral extraction aimed at solving the difficulty of mineral identification in vegetation covered areas. The method selected six sets of spectral difference coupling between soil and plant(SVSCD). These sets have the same vegetation spectra reflectance and a maximum different reflectance of soil and mineral spectra from Hyperion image based on spectral reflectance characteristics of measured spectra. The central wavelengths of the six, selected band pairs were 2314 and 701 nm, 1699 and 721 nm, 1336 and 742 nm, 2203 and 681 nm, 2183 and 671 nm, and 2072 and 548 nm. Each data set's reflectance was used to calculate the difference value. After band difference calculation, vegetation information was suppressed and mineral abnormal information was enhanced compared to the scatter plot of original band. Six spectral difference couplings, after vegetation inhibition, were arranged in a new data set that requires two components that have the largest eigenvalue difference from principal component analysis(PCA). The spatial geometric structure features of PC1 and PC2 was used to identify altered minerals by spectral feature fitting(SFF). The collecting rocks from the 10 points that were selected in the concentration of mineral extraction were analyzed under a high-resolution microscope to identify metal minerals and nonmetallic minerals. Results indicated that the extracted minerals were well matched with the verified samples, especially with the sample 2, 4, 5 and 8. It demonstrated that the method can effectively detect altered minerals in vegetation covered area in Hyperion image.

Study on the change rule of groundwater level and its impacts on vegetation at arid mining area

The shallow groundwater in Shendong mining area was broken because of large-scale underground mining activities. Selecting 32201 working-face as research area, analyzed the change rule of groundwater level and aquifer thickness under mining impact with a large number of water level observation data. Then, the impacts of groundwater level change on vegetation were analyzed by the relationship theory of arid area groundwater and vegetation. The results show that the aquifer structure and the water condition of supply flow and drainage are changed by the water proof mining. The groundwater level recovere only a little compared with the original groundwater level in two years. But the great change of groundwater level do not have notable influences on vegetation of this mining area, and further study indicates that there are certain conditions where groundwater level change impacted on vegetation. When the influence of groundwater level change was evaluated, the plant ecological water level, warning water level and spatial distribution character of original groundwater and mining-impacted groundwater-level change should be integrated.

Comparative and Empirical Study on Vegetable Input-Output Efficiency of Suburban and Rural Areas

On the basis of comparative analysis on the vegetable input-output efficiency of suburban and rural areas in 2011- 2012,this paper made co-integration test,impulse response and variance decomposition for the vegetable input-output relationship of suburban areas in 1998-2012. Comparative analysis indicated that the vegetable input-output benefit of suburban area declines,while that of rural area rises; empirical analysis indicated that there is a long-term stable relationship between labor cost of vegetable planting and vegetable income and between material cost of vegetable planting and vegetable income,but the vegetable income itself has certain lag effect,followed by material cost,and the labor cost has minimum influence. Finally,it came up with recommendations for improving suburban vegetable input-output relationship,including improving vegetable input security mechanism,improving farmers' quality and innovation ability,and increasing technological input.

Effects of ecological projects on vegetation in the Three Gorges Area of Chongqing, China

The construction of the Three Gorges Reservoir and the resettlement project have caused increasing contradictions between human and land,and led to the deterioration of the ecological environment. In order to ameliorate ecological environment of the Three Gorges Area, the government carried out several ecological restoration projects to improve the vegetation coverage from 1990 s. This paper aims to quantitatively analyze the impact of ecological projects on the vegetation in the Three Gorges Area of Chongqing, China. Landsat and MODIS data from 1992 to 2015 were used to estimate vegetation coverage. In addition, the land cover data of the European Space Agency(ESA) was used to explore the impact of ecological projects on land cover change. The cropland accounted for about 62% and the forestland accounted for about 34% of the total area. There was more than 90% of the study area covered with high or very high vegetation coverage.From 1992 to 2015, a total of 272.7 km;croplands were converted into forestland in the Ecological Migration Project(EMP), 795.6 km;in the Grain for Green Project(GGP), and 13.77 km;in the Ecological Restoration Zone Project(ERZP). Among the three projects, the GGP was the most powerful measure,with a contribution rate of 1.6%. The implementation of the ecological projects improved vegetation coverage, which indicated that the ecological projects measures were effective in ecological restoration.

The Building Extraction Based on Object Oriented Classification Method in High Vegetation Coverage Area

Quickly extraction of building information technology is an important application in urban development planning, electronic information, national defense and others. This paper takes Landsat-8 multispectral and panchromatic data as data source, using the local variance method to select the optimal segmentation scale, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the normalized building index (NDBI) and panchromatic brightness value of an object oriented classification rule extraction. The high vegetation coverage area of buildings, and through the spatial relationships and distinguishing feature of collections of buildings independent buildings and villages. The results showed that Google earth high resolution image analysis and accuracy evaluation. the results of the extraction based on the overall accuracy of village extraction was 83%, the accuracy of extraction of independent buildings was 70%, according to the L8 remote sensing data, object oriented classification method can quickly and accurately extract the high vegetation coverage area of the building.

Vegetation Restoration Monitoring in Yingxiu Landslide Area after the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake

A total of more than 50000 landslides has occurred in Sichuan province since the"5·12"Wenchuan earthquake,resulting in serious damage to the surface vegetation in southwestern China.In this study,we select Yingxiu,the epicenter of Wenchuan earthquake,as the experimental area.The vegetation coverage information of the experimental area is extracted from the remote sensing images collected in the year of 2005,2011 and 2013,respectively.The surface vegetation coverage in different periods is analyzed,and the vegetation recovery rate of the whole area is calculated.The experimental results show that in the first three years after the earthquake,the speed of vegetation restoration is slow,and the vegetation coverage rate is less than 20%better than 0.241,while in 2013,the vegetation coverage increases significantly.

Seasonal variation in soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen in an artificial sand-binding vegetation area in Shapotou, northern China

In this study, seasonal variation characteristics of surface soil microbial biomass carbon （MBC） and soil microbial biomass nitrogen （MBN） of an artificial vegetation area located in Shapotou for different time periods were studied using the chloroform fumigation method, and the results were compared with those of near-natural vegetation areas and mobile dunes. Results showed that the MBC and MBN levels in the 0-5 cm soil layer were higher in autumn than in summer and spring. As the prolongation of vegetation restoration raised the MBC and MBN levels in summer and autumn, no clear variation was found in spring. However, the MBC and MBN in 5-20 cm had no obvious seasonal variation. During summer and autumn, the variation trend of MBC and MBN in the vertical direction was shown to be 0-5 〉 5-10 〉 10-20 cm in the vegetation area, while for mobile dunes, the MBC and MBN levels increased as the depth increased. The natural vegetation area was shown to possess the highest MBC and MBN levels, and yet mobile dunes have the lowest MBC and MBN levels. MBC and MBN levels in artificial sand-binding vegetation increased with the prolongation of vegetation restoration, indicating that the succession of sand-binding vegetation will result in the ac- cumulation of soil carbon and nitrogen, as well as the restoration of soil fertility.