Spatial patch structure and adaptive strategy for desert shrub of Reaumuria soongorica in arid ecosystem of the Heihe River Basin

In many arid ecosystems, vegetation frequently occurs in high-cover patches interspersed in a matrix of low plant cover. However, theoretical explanations for shrub patch pattern dynamics along climate gradients remain unclear on a large scale. This context aimed to assess the variance of the Reaumuria soongorica patch structure along the precipitation gradient and the factors that affect patch structure formation in the middle and lower Heihe River Basin (HRB). Field investigations on vegetation patterns and heterogeneity in soil properties were conducted during 2014 and 2015. The results showed that patch height, size and plant-to-patch distance were smaller in high precipitation habitats than in low precipitation sites. Climate, soil and vegetation explained 82.5% of the variance in patch structure. Spatially, R. soongorica shifted from a clumped to a random pattern on the landscape towards the MAP gradient, and heterogeneity in the surface soil properties (the ratio of biological soil crust (BSC) to bare gravels (BG)) determined the R. soongorica population distribution pattern in the middle and lower HRB. A conceptual model, which integrated water availability and plant facilitation and competition effects, was revealed that R. soongorica changed from a flexible water use strategy in high precipitation regions to a consistent water use strategy in low precipitation areas. Our study provides a comprehensive quantification of the variance in shrub patch structure along a precipitation gradient and may improve our understanding of vegetation pattern dynamics in the Gobi Desert under future climate change.

     

Rainfall interception of typical ecosystems in the Heihe River Basin: Based on high temporal resolution soil moisture data

Journal of Geographical Sciences - Rainfall interception is of great significance to the fully utilization of rainfall in water limited areas. Until now, studies on rainfall partitioning process of...     

Integration of InVEST-habitat quality model with landscape pattern indexes to assess mountain plant biodiversity change: A case study of Bailongjiang watershed in Gansu Province

Journal of Geographical Sciences - Mountains in western China, hosted rich biodiversity and millions of people and inhabitant with vital ecosystem services, had experienced the most serious...     

Integration of nighttime light remote sensing images and taxi GPS tracking data for population surface enhancement

The population distribution grid at fine scales better reflects the distribution of residents and plays an important role in investigating urban systems. The recent years have witnessed a growing trend of applying the nighttime light data to the estimation of population at micro levels. However, using the nighttime light data alone to estimate population may cause the overestimation problem due to excessively high light radiance in specific types of areas such as commercial zones and transportation hubs. In dealing with this issue, this study used taxi trajectory data that delineate people’s movements, and explored the utility of integrating the nighttime light and taxi trajectory data in the estimation of population in Shanghai at the spatial resolution of 500 m. First, the initial population distribution grid was generated based on the NPP-VIIRS nighttime light data. Then, a calibration grid was created with taxi trajectory data, whereby the initial population grid was optimized. The accuracy of the resultant population grid was assessed by comparing it with the refined survey data. The result indicates that the final population distribution grid performed better than the initial population grid, which reflects the effectiveness of the proposed calibration process.     

Recognition of Significant Surface Soil Geochemical Anomalies Via Weighted 3D Shortest-Distance Field of Subsurface Orebodies: A Case Study in the Hongtoushan Copper Mine,NE China

Natural Resources Research - Quantitative prediction of concealed mineralization is always confronted with difficulties in comprehensive analysis between 2D and 3D data and between qualitative and...     

Preface to the special issue “Tectonics and depositional infilling of western Pacific marginal sea”

Marine Geophysical Research -     

Benthic foraminiferal fauna and sediment provenance of Eocene syn-rift sequences in Taiwan: implication for onset of Asian epi-continental marginal seas off China coast

Marine Geophysical Research - Early Cenozoic rift basins developed commonly on the Mesozoic basement along the SE Asia Continent. However, Eocene–Oligocene sequences were only exposed widely...     

Topographical Mapping of a Bare Tidal Flat Outside a Mangrove Area based on the Waterline Method and an Iterative Hydrodynamic Model: A Case Study of Yingluo Bay,South China

A change in the elevation of bare tidal flats outside a mangrove area is an indispensable factor for the sustainable development of mangroves. Waterline extraction, as an effective and economical tool used in reconstructing the terrain of an intertidal zone, has been widely applied to open-coast tidal flats by constructing a digital elevation model (DEM). However, mangrove wetlands are usually located in wave-sheltered sites, such as estuaries and bays that have narrow tidal channels flanked by tidal flats. Changes in water level are affected by the dry-wet processes of complex landforms caused by tides. This article takes as a study case the area of Yingluo Bay, which covers the core region of the Zhanjiang and Shankou National Mangrove National Nature Reserve in southwestern China. Waterline extraction based on seventeen multisource and multispectral satellite images obtained from December 2014 to April 2015, combining the finite-volume coastal ocean model (FVCOM) hydrodynamic model in an iterative process, was used to generate a topographical map of the bare tidal flat outside the mangrove area in Yingluo Bay. The quality of the iterative DEMs was evaluated via six transects of a ground-based survey using Real - time kinematic (RKT) GPS in May 2015. The mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean square error (RMSE) of the DEM decreased with an increase in the number of iterations. In this study, the DEM in the third iteration was used as the final output because the difference from the previous iterative DEM satisfied an inversion-stopping criterion. The MAE and RMSE of the final DEM with the measured data were 0.072 and 0.09?m, respectively, without considering small tidal creeks. The method used in this study can be an effective and highly precise approach for detecting and reconstructing the historical terrain of a bare tidal flat outside a mangrove area. This work also has great importance regarding intertidal resource management and the sustainable development of mangroves facing the vulnerable coastal ecological environment.     

南海大洋钻探及海洋地质与地球物理前沿研究新突破

南海是西太平洋地区规模最大且具有代表性的边缘海盆地之一。经过近几十年的研究积累,尤其是通过实施5个国际大洋钻探航次(1999–2018年)与国家自然科学基金委“南海深海过程演变”重大研究计划(2011–2019年),我国科学家获得了大量宝贵的第一手资料,取得了一系列创新进展与重大突破,标志着南海海洋地质与地球物理研究正走向国际前沿。重要研究成果包括:(1)新提出南海是“板缘张裂”盆地,与经典的大西洋型陆缘模式不同;(2)大洋钻探首次获取了基底玄武岩样品,结合中国在南海首次深拖地磁测量实验,精确测定了南海海盆玄武岩年龄,揭示南海海盆从东向西分段扩张;(3)大洋钻探结果发现南海陆缘岩石圈减薄之初岩浆迅速出现,未发现缓慢破裂造成的蛇纹岩出露;(4)发现南海扩张结束后仍存在大量岩浆活动,可能受控于多种构造与地幔因素;(5)地球化学证据与地球动力学模拟都显示南海岩浆的形成受到周边俯冲带的影响。目前我国的海洋地球科学正在进入崭新的发展阶段,有望以南海为基点,开始拓展到周边大洋,通过主导大型研究计划以及建设我国大洋钻探平台,以提升我国在南海、西太平洋与印度洋海洋地质科学研究的实质性影响力与引领地位。     

Jason-2高度计电离层GIM误差分析及修正研究

基于Jason-2高度计2015年地球物理数据集(GDR)38个周期太平洋海域的全球电离层图(GIM)电离层校正值和双频校正值的数据,分不同季度和不同纬度区域比较二者的差异,结果表明:GIM值与双频校正值之间存在明显的差异,GIM校正值普遍高于双频校正值,说明GIM高估了电离层路径延迟,GIM校正值与双频校正值的差异与季节和纬度区间有关。用梯度下降法得到GIM值的修正方程,将修正方程应用于2016年Jason-2的全年数据,修正后的GIM值与双频校正值十分接近,在各年份中均具有良好的适用性。在单频高度计不能使用电离层双频校正算法的情况下,可以利用不同季度和不同纬度区域的修正方程对同等高度的高度计GIM值进行修正以达到双频校正值的精度水平。