The Relationship Between Vegetation Characteristics and Altitudes in Transitional Permafrost Zone in Xidatan, Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Many studies showed that permafrost has profound influence on alpine ecosystem. However, former researches were mainly focused on typical points by temporal scales. There were few studies about the correlation between vegetation characteristics and different altitudes covering a large region in spatial pattern, especially in transitional permafrost(TP). There were continuous permafrost(CP) discontinuous permafrost(DCP) and seasonal frozen ground(SFG) in this study region. The types of permafrost changed from SFG to DCP, and finally become CP as the altitudes of Xidatan increase. In this paper, 112 845 points interpreted by HJ1-B(environment and disaster monitoring and prediction small satellite constellation), vegetation investigation points, thawing layer thickness research sites, ground temperature and water content observation plots were used to examine the spatial pattern of vegetation which were located in different altitudes in Xidatan, a typical TP region, in Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Vegetation characteristics, soil moisture content(SMC) and thaw depths were collected in 15 August to 25 August2012. Characteristics of vegetation were mainly represented by fractional vegetation cover(FVC) derived from the normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI), as well as above ground biomass(AGB). In this paper, we analyzed that the distinction of vegetation characteristics in each range through statistics data. These ranges were divided by varied altitudes. For examples, the ranges were divided into 50 m or 100 m. In this study we use a large area plots method to further discuss the relationship between the features of vegetation and the different regions of permafrost based on altitudes shifts in Xidatan. A diagram described the vegetation characteristics variability with rising altitudes in transitional permafrost region was drawn in this paper. Our results illustrated the FVCs first increased in SFG region and then decreased in DCP zone slowly, and in CP region FVCs soared then dropped dramatically. With the altitudes increased, the curve of FVCs indicated a parabolic distribution except a little difference in the first 200 m range.

Dead shrub patches as ecosystem engineers in degraded drylands

A long-term drought has led to the mass mortality of shrubs in the semi-arid Israeli Negev.The most impacted shrub species is the Noaea mucronata(Forssk.)Asch.and Schweinf.In a four-year study,we found that herbaceous vegetation growth was greater in the dead shrub patches than in the surrounding inter-patch biocrusted spaces,suggesting that the dead shrub patches encompass improved micro-habitats.However,unexpectedly,the soil moisture in the dead shrub patches was consistently lower than that of the inter-patch biocrusted spaces.At the same time,soil quality in the dead shrub patches was higher than that in the inter-patch spaces.Therefore,it seems that the overall better soil conditions in the dead patches overcome the scarcity of soil-water,supporting increased herbaceous productivity.For explaining the discrepancy between herbaceous vegetation and soil-water,we formulated a conceptual framework,which highlights the key factors that regulate soil-water dynamics in this dryland ecosystem.We demonstrate that herbaceous vegetation is facilitated in the dead shrub patches by a legacy effect that takes place long after the shrubs have died.The dead shrub patches encompass a unique form of ecosystem engineering.The study highlights the complex and unpredicted impacts of prolonged droughts on dryland ecosystems.