Vegetation change of ecotone in west of Northeast China plain using time-series remote sensing data

Multi-temporal series of satellite SPOT-VEGETATION normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and normalized difference water index (NDWI) data from 1998 to 2007 were used for analyzing vegetation change of the ecotone in the west of the Northeast China Plain. The yearly and monthly maximal values,anomalies and change rates of NDVI and NDWI were calculated to reveal the interannual and seasonal changes in vegetation cover and vegetation water content. Linear regression method was adopted to characterize the trends in vegetation change. The yearly maximal NDVI decreased from 0.41 in 1998 to 0.37 in 2007,implying the decreasing trend of vegetation activity. There was a significant decrease of maximal NDVI in spring and summer over the study period,while an increase trend was observed in autumn. The vegetation-improved regions and vegetation-degraded regions occupied 17.03% and 20.30% of the study area,respectively. The maximal NDWI over growing season dropped by 0.027 in 1998–2007,and about 15.15% of the study area showed a decreasing trend of water content. Vegetation water stress in autumn was better than that in spring. Vegetation cover and water content variations were sensitive to annual precipitation,autumn precipitation and summer temperature. The vegetation degradation trend in this ecotone might be induced by the warm-drying climate especially continuous spring and summer drought in the recent ten years.     

Land Use Allocation Based on Interval Multi-objective Linear Programming Model： A Case Study of Pi County in Sichuan Province

Adjusting and optimizing land use structure is one of the essential approaches to solve the conflict between land supply and demand. In this study,an uncertain interval multi-objective linear programming model was established and applied to analyzing the suitability of land use structure in Pi County of Sichuan Province. An adjustment scheme for optimizing land use structure was proposed on the basis of development planning drawn up by the local government. The results are summarized as follows: 1) the opti...     

Impacts of climatic change on river runoff in northern Xinjiang of China over last fifty years

The characteristics of climatic change and river runoff, as well as the response of river runoff to climatic change in the northern Xinjiang are analyzed on the basis of the hydrological and meteorological data over the last 50 years by the methods of Mann-Kendall nonparametric test and the nonlinear regression model. The results show that: 1) The temperature and the precipitation increased significantly in the whole northern Xinjiang, but the precipitation displayed no obvious change, or even a decreasing trend in the northern mountainous area of the northern Xinjiang. 2) River runoff varied in different regions in the northern Xinjiang. It significantly increased in the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains and the north of the northern Xinjiang (p=0.05), while slightly increased in the west of the northern Xinjiang. 3) North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) affects river runoff by influencing temperature and precipita-tion. The NAO and precipitation had apparent significant correlations with the river runoff, but the temperature did not in the northern Xinjiang. Since the mid-1990s river runoff increase was mainly caused by the increasing temperature in the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains and the north of the northern Xinjiang. Increased precipitation resulted in increased river runoff in the west of the northern Xinjiang.     

Assimilation of ASAR data with a hydrologic and semi-empirical backscattering coupled model to estimate soil moisture

The most promising approach for studying soil moisture is the assimilation of observation data and computational modeling.However,there is much uncertainty in the assimilation process,which affects the assimilation results.This research developed a one-dimensional soil moisture assimilation scheme based on the Ensemble Kalman Filter(EnKF)and Genetic Algorithm(GA).A two-dimensional hydrologic model-Distributed Hydrology-Soil-Vegetation Model(DHSVM)was coupled with a semi-empirical backscattering model(Oh).The Advanced Synthetic Apertture Radar(ASAR)data were assimilated with this coupled model and the field observation data were used to validate this scheme in the soil moisture assimilation experiment.In order to improve the assimilation results,a cost function was set up based on the distance between the simulated backscattering coefficient from the coupled model and the observed backscattering coefficient from ASAR.The EnKF and GA were used to re-initialize and re-parameterize the simulation process,respectively.The assimilation results were compared with the free-run simulations from hydrologic model and the field observation data.The results obtained indicate that this assimilation scheme is practical and it can improve the accuracy of soil moisture estimation significantly.     

Millennial-centennial scales climate changes of Holocene indicated by magnetic susceptibility of high-resolution section in Salawusu River valley,China

The upmost segment(Holocene series)of the Milanggouwan stratigraphic section(MGS1)in the Salawusu River valley shows 11 sedimentary cycles of dune sands and fluvio-lacustrine facies,or dune sands and paleosols.The analysis of the magnetic susceptibility of this segment suggests that there are 11 magnetic susceptibility cycles with the value alternating from low to high,in which the layers of the dune sands correspond to the lower value of the magnetic susceptibility and the layers of fluvio-lacustrine facies and paleosols correspond to the higher peaks.The study reveals that the low and high magnetic susceptibility values indicate the climate dominated by cold-arid winter monsoon and warm-humid summer monsoon of East Asia,respectively,and the study area has experienced at least 22 times of mil-lennial-centennial scales climate alternation from the cold-arid to the warm-humid during the Holocene.In terms of the time and the climate nature,the variations basically correspond to those of the North Atlantic and some records of cold-warm changes in China as well.They might be caused by the alternation of winter and summer monsoons in the Mu Us Desert induced by global climate fluctuations in the Holocene.     

Comprehensive measurement for carrying capacity of resources and environment of city clusters in central China

Studying the carrying capacity of resources and environment of city clusters in the central China has impor-tant practical guidance significance for promoting the healthy,sustainable and stable development of this region.Ac-cording to their influencing factors and reciprocity mechanism,using system dynamics approaches,this paper built a SD model for measuring the carrying capacity of resources and environment of the city clusters in the central China,and through setting different development models,the comprehensive measurement analysis on the carrying capacity was carried out.The results show that the model of promoting socio-economic development under the protection of resources and environment is the optimal model for promoting the harmony development of resources,environment,society and economy in the city clusters.According to this model,the optimum population scale of the city clusters in2020 is 42.80×106 persons,and the moderate economic development scale is 22.055× 1012 yuan(RMB).In 1996-2020,the carrying capacity of resources and environment in the city clusters took on obvious phase-change characteristics.During the studied period,it is basically at the initial development stage,and will come through the development process from slow development to speedup development.     

Numerical simulation of the genesis of typhoon Durian (2001) over the South China Sea: The effect of sea surface temperature

Typhoon Durian (2001),which formed over the South China Sea (SCS),was simulated by using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The genesis of typhoon Durian which formed in the monsoon trough was reproduced by numerical simulations. The simulated results agree reasonably well with observations. Two numerical experiments in which the sea surface temperature (SST) was either decreased or increased were performed to investigate the impact of the SST on the genesis of the ty-phoon. When the SST was decreased by 5℃ uniformly for all grids in the model,the winds calculated became divergent in the lower troposphere and convergent in the upper troposphere,creating conditions in which the amount of total latent heat release (TLHR) was low and the tropical cyclone (TC) could not be formed. This simulation shows the importance of the convergence in the lower tropo-sphere and the divergence in the upper troposphere for the genesis of the initial vortex. When the SST was increased by 1℃ uni-formly for all grids,a stronger typhoon was generated in the results with an increase of about 10 m s-1 in the maximum surface wind speed. Only minor differences in intensity were noted during the first 54 h in the simulation with the warmer SST,but apparent dif-ferences in intensity occurred after 54 h when the vortex began to strengthen to typhoon strength. This experiment shows that warmer SST will speed the strengthening from tropical storm strength to typhoon strength and increase the maximum intensity reached,while only minor impact can be seen during the earlier stage of genesis before the TC reaches the tropical storm strength. The results sug-gest that the amount of TLHR may be the dominant factor in determining the formation and the intensification of the TC.     

A comparative study of fish community in four main estuaries of China southeastern coastal areas and their adjacent waters

Based on literature and survery data of fish composition collected by bottom trawl investigation from 2006 to 2007 infour main estuaries of China southeastern coastal areas and their adjacent waters,changes of the taxonomic diversity across spatialand temporal scales of fish community were analyzed by taxonomic diversity indices.The results are as follows:a total number of1397 fish species(including some freshwater species),belonging to 2 classes,42 orders,186 families and 593 genera,were collected inthe studied sea areas.The species richness increased with lower latitudes,particularly so with Perciformes.There were 339 fish spe-cies in the Yangtze River Estuary and adjacent waters,belonging to 2 classes,31 orders,101 families and 231 genera.There were 535fish species in the Minjiang River Estuary and adjacent waters,belonging to 2 classes,33 orders,133 families and 323 genera.A totalnumber of 803 fish species were collected in the Jiulongjiang River Estuary and adjacent waters,which belonged to 2 classes,35 orders,155 families and 419 genera.And 1021 fish species which belonged to 2 classes,32 orders,153 families,and 466 genera were collectedin the Pearl River Estuary and adjacent waters.The numbers of orders and families of fish species from the northern to the southern wa-ters first increased and then decreased.The average variation in taxonomic distinctness(Λ+)gradually decreased with lower latitudes inthe four estuaries and adjacent waters.There were no significant differences in the average taxonomic distinctness(△+)among the fourestuaries and adjacent waters,and fish fauna were closely related with each other,and all of them belonged to the same zoogeographicalfauna(Indian-Malaysia fauna).Fish composition in the Minjiang River Estuary and adjacent waters was more similar to that in the Jiu-longjiang River Estuary and adjacent waters among the four estuaries.Compared with the historical data,the average taxonomic dis-tinctness of fish community showed a great decrease in the Minjiang River Estuary and the Jiulongjiang River Estuary and their adjacentwaters.     

Spatial structure and land use control in Extended Metropolitan Region of Zhujiang River Delta,China

The Zhujiang (Pearl) River Delta is one of the most developed Extended Metropolitan Regions (EMR) in China.With the rapid urbanization,the agglomeration of population and industries has emerged,which has led to dramatic changes of spatial structure and land use in this region.With data of high resolution TM remote sensing images and Google Earth maps,this paper identified and analyzed the spatial pattern of the Zhujiang River Delta EMR using Envy and ArcGIS tools.It was found that 1) the industrial land uses were expanding substantially,particularly on the bank sides of the Zhujiang River estuary;2) large-scale housing developments were concentrated in the fringe of metropolitan areas such as those of Guangzhou and Shenzhen;3) a regional transportation network with the spatial pattern of ″1 circle +2 pieces + 3 axes″ had significantly affected the location choice of manufacture enterprises.At the same time,both highly specialized land use and severely mixed land use patterns were identified.As a consequence of the latter,land use efficiency of the whole EMR areas was reduced.Moreover,ecologic and environmental problems were severe.Based on the above analysis,suggestions were given from the viewpoint of spatial safety,land use efficiency,and the reorganization of spatial structure in the Zhujiang River Delta EMR.     

Microhabitat effect on iron distribution and transfer in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Carex pseudocuraica</Emphasis> in Sanjiang Plain Wetlands

Ten clonal units of Carex pseudocuraica growing in four different microhabitats (perennial flooded ditch water, perennial flooded ditch sediment, seasonal flooded ditch sediment and perennial flooded soil) of the Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China, were collected randomly for phenotypic plasticity analysis. Iron content, chemical and physical properties of substrates and the total Fe of nine plant modules were measured as well. The results show that the performance of the C. pseudocuraica is affected by the microhabitat, with the greatest performance score in perennial flooded ditch water, and the lowest in perennial flooded soil. The biomass allocation indexes indicate that much more mass is allocated to stems and roots to expand colonization area. The distribution of the total Fe in plant modules appears as pyramids from the tip to the root, while marked differences are observed in the distribution proportion of stems, tillering nodes and roots that are allometrically growing. Iron transfer from substrates to the plant is mainly controlled by the substrate type. The differences of iron distribution and transfer in the plant in different microhabitats are attributed to the iron contents of the substrates as well as the phenotypic plasticity of the plant.