The impact of ecosystem functional type changes on the La Plata Basin climate

In this paper, the effects of land cover changes on the climate of the La Plata Basin in southern South America are investigated using the Weather and Research Forecasting (WRF) Model configured on a 30/10km two-way interactive nested grid. To assess the regional climate changes resulting from land surface changes, the standard land cover types are replaced by time-varying Ecosystem Functional Types (EFTs), which is a newly devised land-cover classification that characterizes the spatial and interannual variability of surface vegetation dynamics. These variations indicate that natural and anthropogenic activities have caused changes in the surface physical parameters of the basin, such as albedo and roughness length, that contributed to regional climate changes. EFTs are obtained from functional attributes of vegetation computed from properties of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to represent patches of the land surface with homogeneous energy and gas exchanges with the atmosphere. Four simulations are conducted, each experimental period ranging from September to November in two contrasting years, 1988 and 1998. The influence of an identical EFT change on the surface heat fluxes, 2-m temperature and humidity, 10-m winds, convective instabilities and large-scale moisture fluxes and precipitation are explored for 1988 (a dry year) and 1998 (a wet year). Results show that the surface and atmospheric climate has a larger response to the same EFT changes in a dry year for 2-m temperature and 10-m wind; the response is larger in a wet year for 2-m water vapor mixing ratio, convective available potential energy, vertically integrated moisture fluxes and surface precipitation. For EFTs with high productivity and a weak seasonal cycle, the nearsurface temperature during the spring of 1988 and 1998 increased by as much as 1℃ in the central and western portions of La Plata Basin. Additionally, for higher productivity EFTs, precipitation differences were generally positive in both dry and wet years, although the patterns are not uniform and exhibit certain patchiness with drier conditions.     

Adjoint Assimilation in Marine and an Example of Application

This paper aims at a review of the work carried out to date on the adjoint assimilation of data in marine ecosystem models since 1995. The structure and feature of the adjoint assimilation in marine ecosystem models are also introduced. To illustrate the application of the adjoint technique and its merits, a 4-variable ecosystem model coupled with a 3-D physical model is established for the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea. The chlorophyll concentration data derived from the SeaWiFS ocean colour data are assimilated in the model with the technique. Some results are briefly presented.     

Modelling water infiltration in cracked paddy field soil

Periodic paddy field flooding is a major source of groundwater recharge. Many paddy fields thus are used as groundwater recharge ponds after harvesting the first crop of the summer. Following rice harvesting, paddy field surfaces may crack into fissures as a result of drainage and exposure to sunlight. Field observation indicates that applying precipitation to the paddy field can increase the rate of infiltration. To quantitatively evaluate the amount of infiltration in a cracked paddy field, this study sets up a simple soil crack model to simulate the field infiltration process. A three‐dimensional groundwater model FEMWATER is adopted to simulate water movement in the paddy field subjected to various crack conditions. Using the field and laboratory data of irrigation water requirements, soil physical properties, hydraulic conductivities and soil profiles obtained from Ten‐Chung, FEMWATER simulates the water movement in the dry cracked paddy. Simulation results show that if the cracks develop extensively and penetrate the ploughed soil, the infiltration rate may increase significantly. The infiltration fluxes of crack with depths of 80, 60 and 27·5 cm are 18·77, 14·50 and 8·06 times higher than that of 20 cm, respectively. The simulation results of cracks with 80 cm depth correlated closely with field observations. The results of the study elucidate the processes of unsaturated water movement in a dry cracked paddy field. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spatial analysis of the impact of land-use on surface runoff and soil erosion-a case study of western Jilin

IntroductionNever before hasit beensotrue than now,thatlandis ali mitedresource.Population growth and as-sociated human activities,especially agricultureacross the world have not only led to land degrada-tion,but soil loss at rates that have pushed arablesoils to frontier thresholds.In the absence of arablesoil,the human environment would cease to groworeven demise(Ramet al.,2006).Studies haveshownthat in many regions of the world,runoff andsoil erosion differ withland-use type.Judson(1965)re…     

Agricultural impacts on ecosystem functioning in temperate areas of North and South America

Land use has a large impact on ecosystem functioning, though evidences of these impacts at the regional scale are scarce. The objective of this paper was to analyze the impacts of agricultural land use on ecosystem functioning (radiation interception and carbon uptake) in temperate areas of North and South America. From land cover maps generated using high-resolution satellite images we selected sites dominated by row crops (RC), small grain crops (SG), pastures (PA), and rangelands (RA) in the Central Plains of USA and the Pampas of Argentina. These two regions share climatic characteristics and the agricultural conditions (crop types) are also very similar. Both areas were originally dominated by temperate grasslands. In these sites we extracted the temporal series of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from the NOAA satellites for the period 1989–1998 and calculated the mean seasonal NDVI curve for each site. Additionally, we calculated the mean annual NDVI, the maximum NDVI, the date of the year when the max NDVI was recorded and the interannual variability of these three attributes. We compared the mean values of each NDVI-derived attribute between land cover types and between continents. The NDVI seasonal patterns for each land cover type were roughly similar between the Central Plains and the Pampas during the growing season. The largest differences were observed during the winter and spring, when the NDVI of all land cover types in the Central Plains remained at lower values than in the Pampas. This was probably caused by the high annual thermal amplitude in the Central Plains that results in a much more restricted growing season. As a result of these differences in the shape of the NDVI curve, the mean annual NDVI in the Central Plains was lower than in the Pampas for all land cover types but the maximum NDVI did not differ importantly. In both regions, row crops delayed the date of the NDVI peak, small grain crops advanced it and pastures did not change it importantly, compared with rangelands. The interannual variability of the NDVI attributes was higher for small grains than for row crops in both regions. However, small grains crops were consistently more variable between years in the Central Plains than in the Pampas. The opposite occurred with pastures and rangelands, which were more variable in the Pampas than in the Central Plains. This paper confirms and generalizes previous findings that showed important imprints of land use on ecosystem functioning in temperate ecosystems. Our results support the idea that the changes in land cover that have occurred in the Central Plains and the Pampas leaded to similar changes in the way that ecosystems absorb solar radiation and in the patterns of carbon uptake.     

Simulation of coupled pelagic-benthic ecosystem of the Yellow Sea Cold Water Mass

A one-dimensional coupled pelagic-benthic box model for the Yellow Sea Cold Water Mass （YSCWM） is developed. The model is divided into three boxes vertically according to the depths of thermocline and euphotic layer. It simulates well the oligotrophic shelf ecosystem of the YSCWM considering effects of nutrients deposition and microbial loop. Main features of vertical structure of various variables in ecosystem of the YSCWM were captured and seasonal variability of the ecosystem was well reconstructed. Calculation shows that the contribution of microbial loop to the zooplankton can reach up to 60%. Besides, input of inorganic nutrients from atmospheric deposition is an important mechanism of production in upper layer of the YSCWM when stratified.     

Resource Flows of Villages with Contrasting Lifestyles in Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, Central Himalaya, India

Resource use efficiency analyses of village ecosystem are necessary for effective and efficient planning of resource utilization. This paper deals with economic and energy input-output analyses of different components of village ecosystem in representative buffer zone villages, which are practicing transhumance and settled way of lifestyles in Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve （NDBR） of Garhwal Himalaya. While the villages practicing transhumance used various natural resources spatially segregated,the villages practicing settled way of lifestyle have to manage resources from a limited spatial area through rotation and varied extraction intensities. Forests subsidized the production activity in both type of villages and the per capita resource extractions were found to be greater in tran~humance village than settled village. Though crops provided maximum energy, in terms of economic criteria, animal husbandry played important role in both settled and transhumance villages. As villages representing both the situations showed different ways of adjustments to the conservation oriented land use changes, management authority needs to address the eco-development plans fulfilling the aspirations of all people traditionally using the resources of the Reserve to reduce the conflicts and encourage their participation in the conservation of the area.     

中国区域土地利用/覆被变化对陆地碳收支的影响

准确估计土地利用/覆被变化（LUCC）对陆地生态系统碳收支的影响已成为当前全球变化和全球碳循环研究的重点内容。本文通过文献调研和数据的整合分析方法总结讨论了近年来中国区域LUCC时空特征及其对陆地碳收支影响,为合理评价中国区域陆地碳平衡以及确定未来研究发展方向提供参考。已有大量研究对近年来中国区域LUCC主要特征进行了探讨,并分别利用卫星遥感方法和IPCC清单法对中国区域陆地碳源汇影响进行了评估。结果表明,目前全国土地利用活动,特别是农林活动正对陆地生态系统碳收支产生了比较显著的积极作用,但基于以上两种方法的研究结论之间差异很大,反映出中国LUCC导致陆地碳收支变化的评估结果仍存在着较大的不确定性。通过分析认为,中国未来的研究工作应着重于发展和利用基于土地利用相互转化面积的计量方法,以提高对中国区域LUCC导致陆地碳收支变化评估的准确性。     

甘肃敦煌西湖荒漠湿地植物群落物种多样性特征研究

 基于375个样方和150条样线的调查,对甘肃敦煌西湖荒漠-湿地生态系统植物群落物种多样性进行了研究。结果表明:①区内共记录植物26种,分属16科24属,芦苇（Phragmites australis）、多枝柽柳（Tamarix ramosissima）和胡杨（Populus euphratica）为绝对优势种,苏枸杞（Lycium ruthenicum）、疏叶骆驼刺（Alhagi sparsifolia）和胀果甘草（Glycyrrhiza inflata）为主要伴生种,其平均重要值依次为0.4728、0.4563、0.4342、0.2908、0.2594和0.2455。植物群落分多枝柽柳群落、胡杨群落、胀果甘草群落、疏叶骆驼刺群落、多枝柽柳沙包群落、苏枸杞群落、芦苇沼泽群落和芦苇群落8个类型。②植物群落物种多样性指数偏低（0.784～1.379）,多枝柽柳群落、胡杨群落和芦苇群落物种多样性指数最大（1.379、1.266和1.194）,群落之间差异显著（P＜0.05）;疏叶骆驼刺群落和苏枸杞群落次之（1.154、1.077）,胀果甘草群落、芦苇沼泽和多枝柽柳沙包群落最低（0.919、0.881、0.784）,各群落之间不存在显著差异。③灌（乔）木层是敦煌西湖植被主要层次,灌（乔）木层物种多样性指数（0.549～1.077）大于草本层（0.052～1.038）。④物种多样性指标H′、D、J和Ma随海拔梯度增加基本均显下降趋势,而指数C变化趋势则相反,表现为上升,均匀度指数变化幅度不显著。⑤物种多样性指标H′、D、J和Ma随经纬度升高变化趋势基本一致,均表现为先下降,后上升,再下降,而优势度指数C变化趋势则相反。     

青海省海东地区土地利用变化及其生态服务价值响应

根据青海省海东地区2002～2008年土地利用变更数据,采用土地利用动态度模型和土地利用综合指数分析该地区近7年来土地利用变化情况,并参考谢高地等人建立的中国陆地生态系统单位面积生态服务价值当量表对该区域当量表进行适当调整,测算了土地利用变化所引起的生态服务价值变化情况。研究表明：（1）2002～2008年,各类型土地利用变化速度各不相同,其中以水利设施用地变化速度最快为12．24％,土地利用程度波动上升;（2）土地利用变化所引起的生态服务价值总体上呈逐步上升趋势,由2002年的82．01×10^8元增加至2008年的88．16×10^8元,增加了6．15×10^8元;（3）各种土地利用类型的生态系统服务价值的敏感性指数均小于1,表明生态系统服务价值对价值系数的变化缺乏弹性,研究结果可信。