Reconstructing provincial cropland area in eastern China during the early Yuan Dynasty (AD1271-1294)

Reconstructing historical land use and land cover change (LUCC) at the regional scale is an important component of global environmental change studies and of improving global historical land use datasets. By analyzing data in historical documents, including military-oriented cropland (hereafter M-cropland) area, the number of households engaged in M-cropland (hereafter M-household) reclamation, cropland area, and the number of households, we propose a conversion relationship between M-cropland area and cropland area reclaimed by each household. A provincial cropland area estimation method for the Yuan Dynasty is described and used to reconstruct the provincial cropland area for AD1290. Major findings are as follows. (1) Both the M-cropland and cropland areas of each household were high in the north and low in the south during the Yuan Dynasty, which resulted from different natural conditions and planting practices. Based on this observation, the government-allocated M-cropland reclamation area to each household was based on the cropland area reclaimed by each household. (2) The conversion relationship between M-cropland and cropland areas per household showed conversion coefficients of 1.23 and 0.65 for the south and north, respectively. (3) The cropland area in the entire study area in AD1290 was 535.4×10⁶ mu (Chinese area unit, 1 mu=666.7 m²), 57.8% in the north and 42.2% in the south. The fractional cropland areas for the entire study area, north, and south were 6.8%, 6.6%, and 7.1%, respectively and the per capita cropland areas for the whole study area, north, and south were 6.7, 15.6, and 4.1 mu, respectively. (4) Cropland was mainly distributed in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River (including the Fuli area), Huaihe River Basin (including Henan Province), and middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River (including Jiangzhe, Jiangxi, and Huguang provinces).     

Spatial features of land use/land cover change in the United States

With the classification data covering American land-use/land-cover (LUCC) with 30 m resolution from the project of National Land Cover Data (NLCD), we normalized them and made their resolution changed into 1 km ×1 km, created the data of American land-use grade and analyzed the spatial distribution and features of American LUCC as well as the influence of population and altitude on the land-use grade in light of methods of sampling analysis and correlation study. Based on the analysis, we concluded that forestry and grassland, accounting for 71.24% of the whole country, has taken the main part of American land cover, and besides, construction and arable land has occupied 19.22% of the total land, the rest of land cover types, including water area, wetland and underdeveloped land, is 9.54% of the country's total. The developing potential of American land resources is enormous with less destroyed and disturbed ecological environment. Although, in some sense, the population and altitude influence the spatial variation of American land-use grade respectively, the influence of spatial variation of altitude and population density on that of land-use grade is not significanct.     

土地利用对岩溶作用碳汇的影响研究综述

耦合水生光合作用的岩溶作用碳汇新模式的提出使得碳酸盐岩的风化过程成为寻找“陆地剩余碳汇”(residual land sink) 的新方向。传统意义上,碳酸盐岩风化在全球碳循环模型中被认为是未快速响应地表环境变化的地质过程,然而最新一系列研究表明人类土地利用显著改变了这一地质循环过程。文章总结了岩溶作用碳汇对不同土地利用/覆被变化的具体响应,并对其机理进行了系统分析。发现土地利用与覆被变化影响岩溶作用碳循环过程主要源自土壤CO2浓度和径流量变化以及外源酸（硝酸和硫酸）的介入。证据显示在土地利用对岩溶作用碳汇的调控中土壤CO2浓度与径流量是复杂且相互制约的两个机制,人类活动产生的外源酸干扰在不同层面上的影响也不同。由于地表水生生态系统所产生的内源有机碳（AOC）的巨大稳碳能力(水生碳泵效应)在以往的研究中并没有与碳酸盐岩风化过程相联系,因而其对土地利用变化的响应过程和机理是岩溶碳循环研究的最新方向。基于土地利用调控碳酸盐岩风化过程的复杂性和多样性特点,综合考虑岩溶作用产生的DIC(溶解无机碳)与AOC在不同土地利用情况下的相互关系以及定量分析各环境因素的具体效应成为了合理制定人为土地利用调控策略的必要前提,也是岩溶作用碳汇研究的未来发展方向。      

区域尺度土地利用/土地覆盖变化对气温日较差的影响

利用NCAR CAM4.0模式,针对潜在植被和当代植被两种典型土地覆盖类型,通过平衡态试验探讨土地利用/土地覆盖变化（land use/land cover change, LUCC）对气候的影响。结果表明,LUCC对气温日较差有明显影响。日较差的响应与LUCC变化的区域有紧密的联系。在中纬度,LUCC引起日较差减小,这主要由日最高气温的降低造成。在低纬度东亚地区,日较差的减小主要由日最高气温的降低造成;而在印度半岛,日较差的减小主要由日最低气温的升高决定。这种区域性的差异,主要是由于植被蒸腾和冠层蒸发的作用,LUCC能够显著调节气温日较差的变化。     

关中-天水经济区土地利用变化对净第一性生产力影响测评

净第一性生产力是表现陆地生态过程的关键参数,土地利用变化深刻影响区域的净第一性生产力。选取关中-天水经济区为研究区域,尝试对30 m精度的1980-2011年4期9月份左右Landsat 7的遥感影像以及CASA模型来估算关中-天水经济区的净第一性生产力,并用2011年遥感图像解译获得该年的土地利用数据,以及土地利用变化情况。在此基础上分析土地利用变化对净第一性生产力的影响,并且对关天经济区各县市净初级生产力进行了对比和分析。结果表明：1980-2011年,关中-天水经济区土地利用耕地、林地、居民建筑用地变化明显,南部秦岭山区多为林地与草地,净第一性生产力高达625.37 g C·m-2·a-1,而关中平原与天水地区人口居住区与开垦区净第一性生产力明显下降,最低达47.78 g C·m-2·a-1,人为的开发与利用土地降低了区域的净第一性生产力。所以,要继续施行落实退耕还林政策,控制城镇用地较大速度的扩增,以保持好区域的生态服务功能。     

The impact of land use/cover change on storage and quality of soil organic carbon in midsubtropical mountainous area of southern China

Land use/cover change (LUCC) is widely recognized as one of the most important driving forces of global carbon cycles. The influence of converting native forest into plantations, secondary forest, orchard and arable land on stores and quality of soil organic carbon (SOC) was investigated in mid-subtropical mountainous area of southern China. The results showed that LUCC had led to great decreases in SOC stocks and quality. Considerable SOC and light-fraction organic carbon (LFOC) had been stored in the native forest (142.2 t hm?2 and 14.8 t hm?2 respectively). When the native forest was converted to plantations, secondary forest, orchard and arable land, the SOC stocks decreased by 25.6%, 28.7%, 38.0%, 31.8% and 51.2%, respectively. The LFOC stocks decreased by 52.2% to 57.2% when the native forest was converted to woodland plantations and secondary forest, and by 82.1% to 84.2% when converted to economic plantation, orchard and arable land. After the conversion, the ratios of LFOC to SOC (0–60 cm) decreased from 13.3% to about 3.0% to 10.7%. The SOC and LFOC stored at the upper 20 cm were more sensitive to LUCC when compared to the subsurface soil layer. Also, the decline in carbon storage induced by LUCC was greater than the global average level, it could be explained by the vulnerable natural environment and special human management practices. Thus, it is wise to enhance soil carbon sequestration, mitigate elevated atmospheric co2 and develop ecological services by protecting vulnerable environment, restoring vegetation coverage, and afforesting in mountainous area in mid-subtropics.     

Impacts of land use on the hydrological response of tropical Andean catchments

Changes in land use and land cover are major drivers of hydrological alteration in the tropical Andes. However, quantifying their impacts is fraught with difficulties because of the extreme diversity in meteorological boundary conditions, which contrasts strongly with the lack of knowledge about local hydrological processes. Although local studies have reduced data scarcity in certain regions, the complexity of the tropical Andes poses a big challenge to regional hydrological prediction. This study analyses data generated from a participatory monitoring network of 25 headwater catchments covering three of the major Andean biomes (páramo, jalca and puna) and links their hydrological responses to main types of human interventions (cultivation, afforestation and grazing). A paired catchment setup was implemented to evaluate the impacts of change using a ‘trading space‐for‐time’ approach. Catchments were selected based on regional representativeness and contrasting land use types. Precipitation and discharge have been monitored and analysed at high temporal resolution for a time period between 1 and 5 years. The observed catchment responses clearly reflect the extraordinarily wide spectrum of hydrological processes of the tropical Andes. They range from perennially humid páramos in Ecuador and northern Peru with extremely large specific discharge and baseflows, to highly seasonal, flashy catchments in the drier punas of southern Peru and Bolivia. The impacts of land use are similarly diverse and their magnitudes are a function of catchment properties, original and replacement vegetation and management type. Cultivation and afforestation consistently affect the entire range of discharges, particularly low flows. The impacts of grazing are more variable but have the largest effect on the catchment hydrological regulation. Overall, anthropogenic interventions result in increased streamflow variability and significant reductions in catchment regulation capacity and water yield, irrespective of the hydrological properties of the original biome. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Hydrological Processes. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

新疆耕地变化对区域碳平衡的影响

基于“Bookkeeping”模型,对1975-2005 年期间新疆耕地变化对区域碳平衡的影响进行了分析。荒漠土地开垦和耕地转移是新疆耕地变化的两种主要方式,1975-2005 年这两种耕地变化方式使新疆碳储量增加了20.6 Tg C,其中土地开垦使区域碳储量增加了51.8 Tg C,而耕地转移则向大气排放了31.2 Tg C。在1975-1985 年期间,新疆耕地大规模转移,区域碳储量的变化趋势受耕地转移的影响较大;1985 年后随新疆土地开垦规模的增加,碳储量变化趋势主要受土地开垦影响。30 年间,新疆碳储量增加主要是由草地开垦为耕地引起,而耕地转移为草地是新疆碳储量减少的主要原因。新疆地区进行合理的水土开发活动有利于区域碳固定,且长期的耕作管理活动会进一步增强耕地的碳汇功能。     

一种面向LUCC的时空数据存储管理模型

为满足土地利用和地表覆盖变化(land-use and land-cover change,LUCC)动态监测中时空数据统计分析、时空过程模拟、时空演变分析预测、时空数据挖掘的应用需求,需将LUCC数据存储管理方式由单一空间数据推进至时空数据存储管理。本文提出一种基于快照和面向对象的混合时空数据模型,支持矢量和栅格时空数据存储管理、LUCC时空过程模拟、LUCC时空过程建模参数提取和成果数据管理与发布。基于该模型研发了LUCC时空信息系统原型,以LUCC时空信息统计、地表覆盖斑块时空过程模拟、地表覆盖时空转移矩阵计算为例,验证了模型的可行性。     

Global understanding of farmland abandonment: A review and prospects

Since the 1950s, noteworthy farmland abandonment has been occurring in many developed countries and some developing countries. This global land use phenomenon has fundamentally altered extensive rural landscapes. A review of global farmland abandonment under the headings of “land use change–driving mechanisms–impacts and consequences–policy responses” found the following: (1) Farmland abandonment has occurred primarily in developed countries in Europe and North America, but the extent of abandonment has varied significantly. (2) Changing socio-economic factors were the primary driving forces for the farmland abandonment. And land marginalization was the fundamental cause, which was due to the drastic increase of farming opportunity cost, while the direct factor for abandonment was the shrink of agricultural labor forces. (3) Whether to abandon, to what extent and its spatial distributions were finally dependent on integrated effect from the physical conditions, laborer attributes, farming and regional socio-economic conditions at the village, household and parcel scales. With the exception of Eastern Europe, farmland abandonment was more likely to occur in mountainous and hilly areas, due to their unfavorable farming conditions. (4) A study of farmland abandonment should focus on its ecological and environmental effects, while which is more positive or more negative are still in dispute. (5) Increasing agricultural subsidies will be conductive to slowing the rate of farmland abandonment, but this is not the only measure that needs to be implemented.Due to China’s rapid urbanization, there is a high probability that the rate of abandonment will increase in the near future. However, very little research has focused on this rapid land-use trend in China, and, as a result, there is an inadequate understanding of the dynamic mechanisms and consequences of this phenomenon. This paper concludes by suggesting some future directions for further research in China. These directions include monitoring regional and national abandonment dynamics, analyzing trends, assessing the risks and socio-economic effects of farmland abandonment, and informing policy making.