Luo Geping

Ecological response to the climate change on the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang

The Tianshan Mountains is a high and huge mountain body lying across the central part of Xinjiang, China, and is also the main area where the runoff forms in Xinjiang. In this paper, a set of RS-based study methods is put forward for deriving the information about the natural change of the ecology in arid areas, and the relationship between the climate change trend and the corresponding ecological response on the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains since recent 40 years is analyzed from the scales of the land cover ecosystems and landscapes based on the observed data of climate, hydrology, modern glaciers and lakes on the northern slopes of the Tianshan Mountains since recent 40 years and the satellite RS data since recent 10 years by using the RS and GIS technologies. The results are as follows: (1) The overall trend of climate change on the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains since recent 40 years is that both air temperature and precipitation are increased, especially the increase amplitudes of air temperature, precipitation and annual runoff volume are high since the decade of the 1990s; (2) the integrated indexes of the vegetation in all the geographical divisions on the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains are obviously increased since recent 10 years, especially in the artificial oases and the foothill belts, such a change trend is advantageous for improving the vegetation ecology; and (3) the vegetation ecology in the arid areas is extremely sensitive to the climate change, the vegetation coverage and the biomass on the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains are continuously increased because of the climate change since recent 10 years, their increase amplitudes in the plains and during the late stage are obviously higher than that in the mountainous regions and during the early stage.

Temporal and spatial variability response of groundwater level to land use/land cover change in oases of arid areas

This paper conducts a case study on the impacts of land use/cover change (LUCC) on the temporal and spatial variability of the groundwater level in an arid oasis in the Sangong River Watershed by using the geographical information system (GIS), remote sensing (RS) and geostatistical methods. The temporal and spatial variability of the groundwater level in the watershed in 1978, 1987 and 1998 is regressed by using the semivariogram model and Kriging interpolation. The LUCC classification maps derived from the aerial images in 1978, Landsat TM image in 1987 and Landsat ETM image in 1998 are used to superpose and analyze the conversion relationship of LUCC types in the regions with different isograms of the groundwater depth. The results show that the change of groundwater recharge was not so significant in the whole oasis, but the temporal and spatial LUCC was significant either in the normal flow periods or in the high flow periods during the 20-year period from 1978 to 1998, and there was a close correlation between them. There is generally a moderate spatial correlation of groundwater level (33.4%), and the spatial autocorrelation distance is 17.78 km. The regions where the groundwater level is sharply changed are also the regions where the land resources are increasingly exploited, which include mainly the exploitation of farmlands, woodlands, and building, industrial and mining lands. The study reveals that the LUCC affects strongly the temporal and spatial variability of the groundwater level in the arid oasis. The study results are of direct and practical significance for rationally utilizing shallow groundwater resources and maintaining the stability of the arid oasis.

A contrast of two typical LUCC processes and their driving forces in oases of arid areas: A case study of Sangong River Watershed at the northern foot of Tianshan Mountains

Aerial photographs taken in 1978 and 1987, Landsat TM images in 1998 as well as soil, hydrology and socio-economic data for the oases in Sangong River Watershed were processed by Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS). There are two typical agricultural land uses in oases, Farm-based Land Use with large-scale intensified agricultural activities (FLU) and Household Responsibility-based Land Use with small-scale activities (HRLU). The Index Model of Land Use/Land Cover Change (LUCC), Weighted Index Sum (WIS) and logistic stepwise regression model were established to contrast the two typical LUCC processes and their driving forces. The land use patterns were dominated by cropland and grassland for the entire region, and cropland, residential and industrial land were increasing stably. In the HRLU areas, woodland and grassland declined dramatically, but in the FLU areas, grassland decreased only by 12.0%, whereas woodland increased by 13.7%. LUCC was stronger in the earlier stage (1978–1987) than in the later stage (1987–1998) for the entire region. LUCC was more intense in the HRLU areas than in the FLU areas during the entire period (1978–1998). Policy was a key factor in the land use change, and water resources were a precondition in land use. Under the control of policy and water resources, the main human driving factors included population and economy, and the main natural restrictions were soil fertility and groundwater depth. Human driving factors controlled the land change in the HRLU areas, but natural restriction factors dominated in the FLU areas. In the mean time, intensification of LUCC in the region had some spatiotemporal implications with a fluctuation of impact factors.

Response of soil nutrients to different cropping systems in the oasis of arid land

In the process of transformation of tropic rain forest and semi-arid grassland to farmland, the soil degradation usually occurs. But the transformation of arid desert to oasis is likely to differ from that of tropic rain forest and semi-arid grassland. Taking an alluvial plain oasis as a study case, the oasis soil properties during the process of the transformation of different cropping systems have been investigated and evaluated. Selected cropping systems consist of saline tolerance crop (STC), food crop (FC), melon and vegetables (MV), Economic plants-cotton (EP-C), economic plants-grape (EP-G), Economic plants-Hop (EP-H). Surface soil (0–20 cm) samples were collected in 1982, 1999 and 2003. Soil organic matter (OM), and available N (AN), available P (AP) and available K (AK) were determined for each soil sample. SPSS statistical software was used to analyze the soil property data. The transformation of cropping systems in the Sangong River watershed was affected directly by the policy, law and market. The soil OM contents experienced a decline during 1982–1999, then a rise during 1999–2003. AN, AP and AK contents increased significantly with cultivated time. Soil OM tends to decrease during the conversion from STC and FC to cotton but increase during the conversion from the cotton to the grape. The soil OM was increased gradually with the cultivation time, so the oasis soil presented carbon sink, which indicates that human activities was reasonable and favorable for improvement of the oasis-ecosystem.

Oasis System and Its Reasonable Development in Sangong River Watershed in North of the Tianshan Mountains, Xinjiang, China

Under the guide of system theory, taking the oasis in the Sangong River watershed as a case study, this paper analyzes the oasis structure and function from 4 aspects including oasis spatial structure, water resources structure, vegetation structure, economic structure and their corresponding functions. The results indicate that as a typical small-scale watershed, Sangong River watershed has the relatively complete mountain-basin structure, and ecological and productive function. Because of human drastic activity the utilization rate of water resources was as high as 98.7%, and the utilization of groundwater was not reasonable, which resulted in an average annual decline of 0.353m in the water table of alluvial-diluvial-fan oasis, and an average annual increase of 0.047m in the alluvial-plain. The layout of crop and shelter forest benefits to the utilization of water and land resources. The development of oasis economy is at low level, and its eco-economic function is weak.

Process and Structure of Land Use/Land Cover Change in Oases: A Case Study of Tianshan Mountains Northern Slope, Xinjiang, China

Taking the Northern Slope of the Tianshan Mountains (NSTM) as the study area, we investigated into the oases LUCC and information entropy change by using RS, GIS and statistical model. The results showed that, (1) Establishing mathematical models of the range, speed and trend index of LUCC, especially the model of LUCC trend and state, the state and trend of oasis LUCC can be deeply researched. Meanwhile, land use system had changed from the quasi-equilibrium state into a equilibrium state. (2) Information entropy change models reflected the orderliness and structure of regional land use system. Land use information entropy has shown a steady downward trend in the past 50 years. Land-use system is increasingly orderly at the same time. However, the orderliness and structure of the land use system in NSTM was still below the national average. (3) LUCC had a great impact on regional land use information entropy change. This paper is a right example for it.