Land use change and its corresponding ecological responses: a review

This paper reviews the research on land use change and its corresponding ecological responses. Patterns of land use changes in spatio-temporal level are produced by the interaction of biophysical and socio-economic processes. Nowadays, the studies derived from different socioeconomic conditions and scales show that at short-term scale, human activities, rather than natural forces, have become a major force in shaping the environment, while biophysical factors control the trends and processes of land use change under the macro environmental background. Providing a scientific understanding of the process of land use change, the impacts of different land use decisions, and the ways that decisions are affected by a changing environment and increasing ecological variability are the priority areas for research: (1) explanation of scale dependency of drivers of land use change; (2) quantification of driving factors of land use change; (3) incorporation of biophysical feedbacks in land use change models; and (4) underlying processes and mechanisms of ecological impacts of land use change.     

Explanation of land use in mountainous area,China: from field to village level

Few studies of land use change were particularly considered the hierarchical data structure originating from different scales and levels. Using interviewing data collected from 107 villages, 1,050 households and 4,780 fields between November 2003 and August 2005, the objective of this paper is to predict the occurrence of land use from field to village level in mountainous area, China, and to improve our understanding of the causes of land use. Household’s behavior in the choice of land use type is guided by multiple, often confiding, household objectives, subject to the available resources, possible productive activities, and external economic and biophysical constraints. For rice model, the household level variables cannot be substituted by village level aggregates. Aggregated variables at village level do not capture any of the variability at the household level. Village level variables can virtually be explained in virtue of the variables of field and household level. The households and the villages show significant clustering of the occurrence of rice, and they explain the 11.3 and 4.5% variance, respectively. For corn model, corn as dependent variable does not show any significant variance component. The variables of household and village level have lower effects on the occurrence of corn. There is a significant relation between slope of a field and the choice to cultivate corn and a significant random effect at the village level. However, cropland size, input–output, transportation cost, even family income in household level and road density and food market development in village level, at some extent, are controlled by slope. These variables do not influence corn cultivation significantly and that those are predominantly determined by slope. In a word, the household level can be crucial in explaining land use at the field level. Multilevel analysis can be applied to statistically model the occurrence of land use, and to explore a number of cross-scale propositions. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Effects of land management practices on labile organic carbon fractions in rice cultivation

A research trial with four land management practices, i.e., traditional tillage-fallow (TTF), traditional tillage-wheat (TTW), conservation tillage-fallow (CTF) and conservation tillage-wheat (CTW), was sampled in the 15th year after its establishment to assess the effects of different management practices on labile organic carbon fractions (LOCFs), such as easily oxidizable organic carbon (EOC), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), particulate organic carbon (POC) and microbial biomass carbon (MBC) in a typical paddy soil, Chongqing, Southwest China. The results indicated that LOCFs were significantly influenced by the combination of no-tillage, ridge culture and crop rotation. And, different combination patterns showed different effectiveness on soil LOCFs. The effects of no-tillage, ridge culture and wheat cultivation on EOC, DOC, POC and MBC mainly happened at 0–10cm. At this depth, soil under CTW had higher EOC, DOC, POC and MBC contents, compared to TTF, TTW and CTF, respectively. Moreover, the contents of LOCFs for different practices generally decreased when the soil depth increased. Our findings suggest that the paddy soil in Southwest China could be managed to concentrate greater quantities of EOC, DOC, POC and MBC. Foundation item: Under the auspices of Key Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40231016)     

Effects of rock fragments on infiltration and evaporation in hilly purple soils of Sichuan Basin,China

This paper presents the results of laboratory experiments showing the effects of rock fragments contained in three different purple soils of the Sichuan basin of southwest China. The experiments investigated how these rock fragments alter the soil’s physical, chemical, and agronomical characteristics such as infiltration and evaporation. We found that the infiltration rate, whether horizontal or vertical, in the three soils has the following order: gray brown purple soil < reddish brown purple soil < brown purple soil. With increasing rock fragment contents the accumulated infiltration decreases, while the total time decreases first and then increases. The minimum occurs at approximately 10–20% of fragment content by weight. The infiltration rate also changes with the distance. In the 0–5 cm range, the initial infiltration rate increases with increasing rock fragment contents, while in the 5–10 cm range, the slope of infiltration curve increases with increasing rock fragment contents. With increasing distance, the slope gradually decreases and finally reaches a stable value. The presence of rock fragments reduces soil water content, the minimal value appearing when the rock fragments were on top of the soil column (soil + rock sample), decreasing with increasing rock fragments for other samples mixed with fragments. Under the constant 40°C temperature, the accumulated evaporation and evaporation rate are minimal for soils covered by rock fragments, and the accumulated evaporation decreases with increasing rock fragment for other soil samples. However, the evaporation rate increases with increasing rock fragments in the first 4 days and decreases thereafter.     

土地利用变化及其生态响应综述

1 IntroductionLand use change,as one ofthe m ain driving forces ofglobalenvironm entalchange,is centraltothe sustainable developm ent debate (Figure 1).The types of land use are distinguished as landcover conversion,i.e.,the com plete replacem ent of one …     

基于因子分析方法的中国植被NDVI与气候关系研究

利用1982~2000年NDVI数据和气象台站资料,对我国几种植被型组和气候的相关关系进行了研究。首先利用NDVI结合植被类型图将我国植被划分为9种植被型组;然后利用因子分析方法进行了气候指标的选择并采用相对湿度、平均最高温度和平均风速作为本研究的气候因子;最后对7种植被型组NDVI值同相应季节及其前三个季节的气候指标进行了相关分析。结果表明,利用因子分析方法选择的气候指标可以较好地进行植被气候关系分析;在我国温度条件比水分条件更明显地影响植被的生长,水分条件较其他气候因素对植被生长表现了更明显的滞后效应;而平均风速则对我国荒漠植被生长有较大的影响。     

东南沿海3月连阴雨中的地面陆-海高压

利用１９９３～１９９６年３月份欧洲中心数值预报资料、天气图资料及东南沿海９站地面天气实况资料,对连阴雨部分物理量场的分布、降水的日变化、降水落区等因素进行综合分析。结果表明,陆－海高压是连阴雨天气中最直接、最直观、最重要的天气系统。     

Classification and Gradation of Cultivated Land Quality in Bishan County of Chongqing, China

The conflicts among food security, economic development and ecological protection are the “sticking point” of undeveloped southwestern mountainous areas of China. The objectives of this study are to identify appropriate inte- grated indicators influencing the classification and gradation of cultivated land quality in the southwestern mountainous area of China based on semi-structure interview, and to promote the monitoring of cultivated land quality in this region. Taking Bishan County of Chongqing as a study case, the integrated indicators involve the productivity, protection, ac- ceptability, and stability of cultivated land. The integrated indicators accord with the characteristics of land resources and human preference in southwestern mountainous area of China. In different agricultural zones, we emphasize different indicators, such as emphasizing productivity, stabilization and acceptability in low hilly and plain agricultural integrative zone (LHP-AIZ), protection, productivity and stability in low mountain and hill agro-forestry ecological zone (LMH-AEZ), and acceptability in plain outskirts integrative agricultural zone (PO-IAZ), respectively. The pronounced difference of classification and gradation of cultivated land, regardless of inter-region or intra-region, is observed, with the reducible rank from PO-IAZ, LHP-AIZ to LMH-AEZ. Research results accord with the characteristics of assets management and intensive utilization of cultivated land resources in the southwestern mountainous area of China. Semi-structure interview adequately presents the principal agent of farmers in agricultural land use and rural land market. This method is very effective and feasible to obtain data of the quality of cultivated land in the southwestern mountainous area of China.     

AR模型在土壤水分动态模拟中的应用

土壤水分运动是一个复杂的时间序列系统,其变化与区域气候条件和生态环境密切相关,具有明显的随机性波动。建立土壤水分动态变化模型可以使田间土壤水分的适时适量调节方便可行,对于农田水利工程的规划和管理也有利。利用时间序列分析方法进行丘陵地区紫色土土壤水分含量变化的预测建模研究,应用AR时间序列模型进行土壤水分含量的预测,结果表明AR模型能够较好地拟和及预测土壤水分时间序列。     

Impact of land cover types on the soil characteristics in karst area of Chongqing

The 26 plots including natural forestland, secondary forestland, shrub-grassland, sloping cropland, artificial forest and abandoned field, were selected to discuss the impact of land cover on the soil characteristics in the three karst districts of Chongqing. The results showed that: (1) After the vegetation turned into secondary vegetation or artificial vegetation, or reclamation, soil physical properties would be degraded. In the surface-layer soil of sloping cropland, the contents of > 2 mm water-stable aggregates decreased obviously with apparent sandification. (2) The contents of soil organic matter and total nitrogen are controlled completely by vegetation type and land use intensity. The increasing trend is rather slow in the early days when over-reclamation is stopped and the land is converted to forest and pasture. (3) Herbaceous species increase and woody plants species decrease with the increase of land use intensity, therefore, the soil seed banks degrade more seriously. (4) The soil degradation index has been set up to describe the relative soil degradation degree under the conditions of different vegetation types. (5) Land cover has a significant effect on karst soil characteristics, land degradation in the karst ecosystem is essentially characterized by the different degradation of soil functions that serve as water banks, nutrient banks and soil seed banks.