Spatio-temporal pattern of net primary productivity in Hengduan Mountains area,China: impacts of climate change and human activities

Net primary productivity(NPP), a metric used to define and identify changes in plant communities, is greatly affected by climate change, human activities and other factors. Here, we used the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach(CASA) model to estimate the NPP of plant communities in Hengduan Mountains area of China, and to explore the relationship between NPP and altitude in this region. We examined the mechanisms underlying vegetation growth responses to climate change and quantitatively assessed the effects of ecological protection measures by partitioning the contributions of climate change and human activities to NPP changes. The results demonstrated that: 1) the average total and annual NPP values over the years were 209.15 Tg C and 468.06 g C/(m2·yr), respectively. Their trend increasingly fluctuated, with spatial distribution strongly linked to altitude(i.e., lower and higher NPP in high altitude and low altitude areas, respectively) and 2400 m represented the marginal altitude for vegetation differentiation; 2) areas where climate was the main factor affecting NPP accounted for 18.2% of the total research area, whereas human activities were the primary factor influencing NPP in 81.8% of the total research area, which indicated that human activity was the main force driving changes in NPP. Areas where climatic factors(i.e., temperature and precipitation) were the main driving factors occupied 13.6%(temperature) and 6.0%(precipitation) of the total research area, respectively. Therefore, the effect of temperature on NPP changes was stronger than that of precipitation; and 3) the majority of NPP residuals from 2001 to 2014 were positive, with human activities playing an active role in determining regional vegetation growth, possibly due to the return of farmland back to forest and natural forest protection. However, this positive trend is decreasing. This clearly shows the periodical nature of ecological projects and a lack of long-term effectiveness.     

Spatial pattern of rural settlements in the upper reaches of the Minjiang River

A quantitative analysis of the spatial pattern of rural settlements in the upper reaches of the Minjiang River was made with the major data sources being the relevant ETM image and the national geographical database of China (including contour line, river and road) at the scale of 1:250 000, and using image interpretation and field investigation to obtain spatial information on rural settlements. The results of the spatial analysis technique of GIS and correlation analysis showed that most settlements (78.2 %) were located in the mountain area at 1500 ∼ 2700 m altitude, and almost half in the arid valley area. More than 80.0 % of settlements had their slopes above 15°. Most settlements had good access to water resources, roads and communications, and tended to cluster close to the road network rather than the river. About half of the rural settlements in the study area were relatively concentrated, while the others were decentralized. Those with higher altitude usually had land with steep slope, inconvenient water and road accesses, and were located far apart from each other. In view of such a situation, further research should be done to make reasonable countermeasures on these settlements for better living conditions and ecosystem stability.     

Remote sensing classification of western Sierra Leone using landsat TM and ETM +

The study examines the changes of land cover/use resources for the period under investigation.An unsupervised vegetation classification is being performed that provides five distinctive classes and thus assesses these changes in five broad land cover classes-high/moist forests,forest regrowth,mixed savanna,bare land/ grass and water.The remote sensing images used in this work are both images of TM and ETM+in different time periods(1986 to 2001)to determine land cover/use changes.A fairly accuracy report is recorded after performing the unsupervised classification,which shows vegetation has been depleted for over the years.Changes created are mostly human and to a lesser extent environment.Human activities are mainly encroachment thus altering the landscape through activities such as population growth,agriculture,settlements,etc.and environment due to some perceive climatic changes.This vegetation classification highlights the importance to acquire and publish information about the country’s partial vegetation cover and vegetation change including vegetation maps and other basic vegetation influencing factors,leading to an understanding of its evolution for a period.     

Landscape Dynamics and Driving Factors in Da＇an County of Jilin Province in Northeast China During 1956-2000

The landscape pattern of Da＇an County, Northeast China has undergone significant changes since the 1950s as a result of climatic change and human activities. The aim of this paper is to quantitatively study landscape pattern and its spatial dynamics of Da＇an County at the landscape level over the nearly 50-year span. Patch dynamics were examined according to land use and land cover change processes built from a series of images, as well as topographic maps, and temporal patterns built from landscape pattern metrics. The transition matrix of landscape patch types and changes of various landscape metrics were applied. The results showed that, from 1956 to 2000, the landscape within the study area had undertaken a complicated evolution in landscape structure and composition. The outstanding characteristic is that saline-alkali land increased and grassland decreased. As some smaller patches amalgamated, the heterogeneity of patch decreased. All those changes were the synthetic result of both climatic and anthropogenic influences, but the predominant factor was different in different parts. In the southern part of the study area, the landscape pattern changes resulted from the modification of climate obviously, while in the northern part, the landscape pattern changes were mainly caused by human activities, such as the conversion between farmland and saline-alkali land. This phenomenon showed that human activities played more important role in the north than in the south of Da＇an County.     

Relationship between settlements and topographical factors: An example from Sichuan Province,China

Terrain can influence the spatial distribution of settlements. Studies on the terrain characteristics of settlements can help to understand the effects of the environment on human activities. This paper provides a quantitative analysis of the relationship between settlements and topographical factors. A statistically significant sample of residential locations and ASTER GDEM V2 were used to investigate terrain traits and settlements distributions. We selected eight topographical factors and introduced a practical concept, distributive entropy, into assessing the aggregation extent of the settlements' spatial distribution. The study showed that topography varies within the study area, and distributive entropy indicates that settlements have distinctive distribution tendency in statistic approach. According to the results of this study, mountain inhabitants prefer to settle in valleys. Additionally, with distributive entropy, residential suitability was divided to three levels: suitable, normal, and unsuited. The results showed that suitable area is small in Sichuan Province, accounting for 8.2%～29.9%; however, unsuited area is large, accounting for 33%～63.3%.     

Desertification hazard and farming-grazing sustainable development in Lingwu-Yanchi region of Ningxia

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Impacts of land use change on landscape patterns in mountain human settlement: The case study of Hantai District(Shaanxi,China)

Mountain area is an important geographical unit of land,and its ecology is sensitive and fragile.Over the past few decades,human activities have caused dramatic changes in land use in mountainous areas,which caused changes in landscape patterns and impacts on the ecological environment.It is unknown how the mechanism of land use affects the landscape pattern at different scales.The Hantai District,a typical human settlement in the mountain area in Shaanxi,China,was chosen as the study area.Based on the remote sensing images,the mathematical models and landscape indexes were adopted to evaluate the impact of land use change from 1998 to 2017 on the landscape pattern at different scales,and its main driving forces were analyzed.The results showed that the urbanized land expanded largest from 15.39%to 24.30%,and cultivated land experienced the largest decline from 43.54%to 35.35%.Changes in land use have made the patch morphology of most land types developed from a natural random to a sawtooth shape,and its spatial pattern evolved from a ruleset to a fragmented expansion.This reflects the continuous strengthening of human intervention in the process of regional development.Under the jurisdiction of Hantai District,the biggest change in landscape pattern is in Hanzhong City and Qili Town.The improved economy and increasing population and urbanization rate were the main factors that cause these changes.This research could provide necessary information for understanding the evolution mechanism of land resources in mountainous human settlements for mountainous areas with significant geomorphic differentiation.     

Land use and land cover change within the Koshi River Basin of the central Himalayas since 1990

Land change is a cause and consequence of global environmental change.Land use and land cover have changed considerably due to increasing human activities and climate change,which has become the core issue of major international research projects.This study interprets land use and land cover status and the changes within the Koshi River Basin(KRB)using Landsat remote sensing(RS)image data,and employs logistic regression model to analyze the influence of natural and socioeconomic driving forces on major land cover changes.The results showed that the areas of built-up land,bare land and forest in KRB increased from 1990 to 2015,including the largest increases in forest and the highest growth rate in construction land.Areas of glacier,grassland,sparse vegetation,shrub land,cropland,and wetland all decreased over the study period.From the perspective of driving analysis,the role of human activities in land use and land cover change is significant than climate factors.Cropland expansion is the reclamation of cropland by farmers,mainly from early deforestation.However,labor force separation,geological disasters and drought are the main factors of cropland shrinkage.The increase of forest area in India and Nepal was attributed to the government’s forest protection policies,such as Nepal’s community forestry has achieved remarkable results.The expansion and contraction of grassland were both dominated by climatic factors.The probability of grassland expansion increases with temperature and precipitation,while the probability of grassland contraction decreases with temperature and precipitation.     

A pilot study on the possible impacts of sea level rise on East China

The possible global sea level rise and its magnitude in the next century induced by the doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration are briefly discussed. The rates of crustal sinking, ground surface aggradation, and sediment compaction which might give rise to the regional characteristics of relative sea level (RSL) changes, are studied in detail. Attention is focused on the following problems that are closely associated to the sea level rise in the next century: 1) the flood susceptibility of the low-lying East China plains in the next century and its historical evidences, 2) the frequency of disastrous floods and storm surges, 3) the aggradational rate and the potential danger to the dikes along the Changjiang River's lower reaches and 4) the salt water intrusion and the water quality in the Changjiang River estuary. The study shows that the adverse impacts would be very great even if only the lower estimate of sea-level rise in the next century is considered. Therefore, comprehensive research must be conducted and decision must be made to cope with the approaching sealevel rise. Han Jiagu, 1984. The impact of geographical changes on the history of Tianjin, paper submitted to the Symposium of Environmental Changes.     

京津冀地区NDVI变化及气候因子驱动分析

植被覆盖动态监测及与气候变化的响应,是陆地生态系统研究的重要内容。本文以2001-2013年间京津冀地区MOD13A 3月合成NDVI数据,结合生长季的降水和气温资料,运用偏相关和复相关分析、趋势分析方法,研究了该区域NDVI的变化特征和空间分布,以及其区域植被覆盖变化的气候驱动力。结果表明,该区域NDVI最大值在13a间缓慢增加,植被覆盖呈现改善趋势;NDVI和生长季降雨量及平均气温的平均偏相关系数分别为0.20和-0.14,表明在年际变化水平上,京津冀地区NDVI总体与降水量呈正相关,与平均气温呈负相关,且降水对NDVI的影响大于温度对NDVI的影响。对植被覆盖驱动分区得出,降水和气温驱动型占区域面积的5.68%;单独降水驱动型和气温驱动型分别占4.51%、0.18%;区域内植被覆盖变化主要受非气候因子驱动型为主,所占比例为89.63%,表明人类活动对植被变化的影响巨大。     

丽江地区人居环境的GIS空间分析

应用地理信息系统(GIS)的空间分析功能对云南省丽江地区的地势变化、坡度、坡向以及居民点分布与地形的关系等基本问题进行了定量分析,为丽江地区人居环境的深入研究提供了分析的依据;同时,探讨了应用GIS空间分析功能研究人居环境的一般过程和方法流程.     

Causes of land loss in Tuvalu,a small island nation in the pacific

Studies on land loss in Tuvalu reveal the following findings. Although both sea level rise and coastal erosion can cause land loss in the tropic Pacific oceanic islands, their mechanisms are different. When sea level rises, the low elevation coastal zone submerges and the erosion datum plane rises, the beach process progresses normally as always, resulting in no beach sediment coarsening. When the sea level is stable, coastal erosion removes finer sediment from reef flat, beach and land, resulting in beach sediment coarsening. The human-induced coastal erosion in the tropic Pacific oceanic islands has the following features. 1) Erosion occurs or intensifies immediately after inappropriate human activities. 2) It occurs near the places having human activities and places related to the above places in sediment supply. 3) It often occurs on original prograding or stable coasts (on lagoon coasts for atolls) because there are more coastal engineering projects and other human activities on such coasts. 4) It is chronic, covering a long period of time. The coastal geological events in Tuvalu islands do not accord with the features resulted from sea level rise but do accord with the features resulted from coastal erosion, particularly from human-induced erosion. The land loss in Tuvalu is mainly caused by inappropriate human activities including coastal engineering and aggregate mining, and partly caused by cyclones. Moreover, all recent measurements (satellite altimetry,thermosteric sea level data and tide observations) so far have not been able to verify any sea level rise around Tuvalu islands.     

基于栅格的安徽省人居环境人文适宜性评价

新时期新型城镇化建设对适宜的人居人文环境提出了切实要求.运用GIS技术,基于夜间灯光遥感影像、交通矢量、兴趣点(POI)、统计年鉴等多源数据,以500 m×500 m栅格为基础单元,选取经济水平、交通通达、历史文化、公共服务等因子(权重分别为0.36、0.27、0.17、0.20),采用综合指数法构建人居环境人文适宜性...     

Hazards and landscape changes (degradations) on Hungarian karst mountains due to natural and human effects

In order to study the karstological processes within the karst ecological system,the geohazards and degradation of karst landscapes on the karst areas of the Bakony mountains(Hungary),we investigated the abiotic elements of the environment,soil and cover deposits,erosion soil decay;the changes in the quantity and quality of karst waters:contamination at swallow holes,contamination of karst springs;and the biogenic factors:surface vegetation coverage by the corine land cover method,plant-ecological examinations,qualification of surface waters with the help of biological water labeling.We recognized that the increasing human activities during the past few centuries have had significant impact on the investigated landscapes of karst areas because of their spatial sensitivity.In the scope of our research we concluded that the landscape changes due to natural and human effects can vary strongly on the different karst areas.These differences can arise from the climatic and geomorphologic situation,the coverlayer’s qualities,etc.,but primarily from the different utilization of the investigated karst areas(e.g.the intensity,characteristics and territorial extension of utilization).On the spot investigation we detected traces of new and fast geomorphological processes(gully formation,landslides,collapses,new sinkhole development) and landforms(sinkholes,gullies,swallow holes),which are clear evidences of the effect of climatic changes.     

ANALYSIS ON SPATIAL DIFFERENCE OF LAND USECHANGE BASED ON PHYSICAL AND CULTURALLANDSCAPE ATTRIBUTES──A Case Study at Mongolian AutonomousCounty of Qian Gorlos, Jilin Province

Land use changes are regarded as landscapepattern change driven by many interactive natural andsocial-economic fact6apCQUES, 1999; JOHANN etal., 1999), and show the competition between land usetypes undet different conditions. Socio-economic attributely contribute to lands use/cover change in shortperiod(BENOIT et al., 1999; TURNER et al., 1995 ),whereas physical conditions constrain essential changetendency and change process. The spatial difference inland use dynamic in Mongolian A…     

On the origin of rice agriculture in southern China and its propagation in East Asia

Based on the archaeological rice cultivation with the¹⁴C dating of about 4000–5000 a B.P. the author holds that the plain at the lower reaches of the Changjiang (Yangtze) River is one origin of rice cultivation in Asia and the other is Allahabad of India. The propagation of ancient rice cultivation in China can be divided into three stages, namely 4000–3000, 2635–2420 and about 1000 a B.P. It is inferred that there were two ways for propagating rice cultivation from China to Japan. One was from lower reaches of Changjiang River to Kyushu by sea way and the other was from Shandong Peninsula to southern Korea and then to Kyushu. The age of propagating rice cultivation into Vietnam from South China is about 1000 a B.P. Being influenced by climatic changes since about 5000 a B.P. the propagation of rice cultivation was stagnated for two times at least, for example, the three warm climatic stages and the two cold stages were quite in correspondence with the propagation and stagnation stages of rice cultivation, respectively, in China. During the ancient times the development of paddy rice was directive related to the fluctuation of sea level which is in keeping with the climatic changes.     

内蒙古自治区人居环境综合适宜性评价及空间优化

科学评价区域人居环境适宜性,是开展国土空间开发适宜性评价的前提,对提高区域资源环境承载能力,促进人与自然和谐发展至关重要。本文以内蒙古自治区为案例,基于栅格尺度从自然与人文2个方面对人居环境适宜性进行评价;将适宜性因子作为城乡建设用地扩展的限制条件,采用MCR模型对城乡建设用地进行模拟,提出区域人居环境空间优化方案,主要结论有：水文与气候条件对内蒙古自治区人居环境的整体限制作用较强;内蒙古自治区人居环境临界适宜与不适宜区占比最高,达到52.8%;高度适宜区占比最低为9%,主要分布在前套平原及西辽河平原,全区人居环境适宜性水平整体偏低。内蒙古自治区城乡建设用地人居环境比较适宜与高度适宜区占绝对优势,适宜比例超过73%,从适宜性空间分布来看,南部整体优于北部,东部整体优于西部,地带性特征明显。内蒙古自治区城乡人居环境不适宜与临界适宜主要表现为自然条件不适宜及对自然保护区的不合理占用。内蒙古自治区城乡建设用地模拟结果显示远期呼包地区一体化连片趋势明显,内蒙古自治区可逐步形成以呼包鄂都市区、赤通都市区为主体,以文化特色鲜明、公共设施完善的中心城镇及中心乡村为依托,以人居环境不适宜区为间隔,城乡融合的人居环境空间格局。     

Spatio-temporal distribution of vegetation index and its influencing factors——a case study of the Jiaozhou Bay,China

The coastal zone is an area characterized by intense interaction between land and sea, high sensitivity to regional environmental changes, and concentrated human activities. Little research has investigated vegetation cover changes in coastal zones resulting from climate change and land-use change, with a lack of knowledge about the driving mechanism. Normalized diff erence vegetation index(NDVI) can be used as an indicator for change of the coastal environment. In this study, we analyzed the interannual changes and spatial distribution of NDVI in the coastal zone around Jiaozhou Bay in Qingdao, a coastal city undergoing rapid urbanization in northeast China. The underlying causes of NDVI variations were discussed in the context of climate change and land-use change. Results showed that the spatio-temporal distribution of NDVI displayed high spatial variability in the study area and showed a typical trend of gradually increasing from coastal to inland regions. The significant increase area of NDVI was mainly found in newly added construction land, extending along the coastline towards the inland. Land vegetation cover demonstrated a certain response relationship to sea-land climate change and land-based activities. The impact of land-based human activities was slightly greater than that of sea-land climate change for land vegetation cover. The results indicate that promoting ecological policies can build an ecological security framework of vegetation suitable for the resource characteristics of coastal cities. The framework will buf fer the negative ef fects of sea-land climate change and land-based human activities on vegetation cover and thereby achieve the balance of regional development and ecological benefits in the coastal zone.     

Effects of land-use types on soil organic carbon stocks: a case study across an altitudinal gradient within a farm-pastoral area on the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau,China

A crucial region for China's ‘Grain-forGreen Policy' is located within a traditional farmpastoral area, between 2000 to 3000 m above sea level, on the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.However, the responses of soil organic carbon(SOC) to different land-use patterns in this region are unclear. Here, we determined the SOC(0–20 cm) content of grasslands and forests that are being converted from farmlands, as well as in abandoned arable land and arable land in this region. The factors influencing the reclaimed lands were analyzed along altitudes from 2030 to 3132 m. Our results showed that SOC content was higher for grassland and abandoned arable land than forest and arable land. The SOC content increased with the increase in altitude for total land-use patterns. Further, the grassland and abandoned arable land had higher SOC content than the forest with almost parallel trends along the increase in altitude. However, the proportion of regulated factors of altitude and species richness varied among forest, grassland, and abandoned arable land. Our results indicated that the land-use pattern of returning farmland to grassland and abandoned arable land was more effective in terms of the SOC storage in the superficial layer in this altitude range in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, thereby being beneficial to optimizing land management in this region.