Spatial pattern of riparian vegetation in desert of the lower Tarim River basin

doi:10.17521/cjpe.2015.0102

Abstract

Abstract:

AimsRevealing the spatial pattern of riparian vegetation in hyper-arid regions can improve our understanding on the water relations of riparian vegetation in the desert watershed ecosystem, and also can provide valuable scientific guidance for desertification control and water resources management of watershed of the arid region in northwestern China. This research objective is to show the spatial distribution and structures of typical riparian vegetation in hyper-arid desert watershed from regional and overall perspective.Methods Based on Landsat-8 OLI remote sensing images and a large number of field vegetation surveys, the supervised classification method was used to distinguish three main vegetation categories in the lower Tarim River basin: Tamarix thicket, Populus euphratica woodland, and Phragmites australis grassland. The leaf area index (LAI) of Tamarix thickets and Populus euphratica woodlands were inverted by using the remote-sensed LAI inversion empirical model that we developed.Important findings Supervised classification supporting abundant information of ground objects by remote sensing was an effective method to determine desert riparian vegetation categories in arid desert regions. The area was 336.4 km² for the Populus euphratica woodlands and 405.3 km² for the Tamarix thickets, respectively. The Tamarix thickets had a wider distribution range while the Populus euphratica woodlands grew near the river channel. The overall LAI of the riparian vegetation was low. The average LAI value was 0.253 for the Tamarix thickets and 0.252 for the Populus euphratica woodlands. The areas of vegetation with the LAI value of less than 0.5 accounted for 92.4% and 90.1% of the total area of the Tamarix thickets and the Populus euphratica woodlands, respectively. The statistic results showed that large spatial variability of the riparian vegetation LAI existed. The spatial variability of the Populus euphratica woodlands was larger than that of the Tamarix thickets. The LAI values of the riparian vegetation had a significant negative exponential relationship with the distances away from the river channel. The LAI values declined rapidly within the distance of 1 km from the river channel and they were generally lower than 0.1 when the distances beyond 1 km, which indicated that the riparian vegetation was mainly distributed within 1 km from both side of the river. This research indicated three basic characteristics of the spatial pattern in riparian vegetation from hyper-arid desert regions, including overall sparse spatial distribution, high spatial variability and negative exponential relationship between LAI and distance away from the river channel.

Key words: hyper-arid region, riparian vegetations, leaf area index, spatial pattern, supervised classification, lower Tarim River basin

ZHU Xu-Chao, YUAN Guo-Fu, SHAO Ming-An, YI Xiao-Bo, DU Tao. Spatial pattern of riparian vegetation in desert of the lower Tarim River basin[J]. Chin J Plan Ecolo, 2015, 39(11): 1053-1061.

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https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/Y2015/V39/I11/1053

Figures/Tables 8

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类别 Classification	柽柳灌丛 Tamarix thickets	胡杨疏林 Populus euphratica woodlands	沙地 Sand lands	农田 Farmlands	水体 Water bodies	芦苇草地 Phragmites australis grasslands	总和 Total	制图精度(%) Mapping accuracy
柽柳灌丛 Tamarix thickets	9 982	3 121	1 375	102	48	160	14 788	67.5
胡杨疏林 Populus euphratica woodlands	6 403	23 758	413	30	91	523	31 218	76.1
沙地 Sand lands	1 424	228	38 380	0	21	1	40 054	95.8
农田 Farmlands	8	13	0	9 881	1	33	9 936	99.4
水体 Water bodies	0	0	0	0	58 371	14	58 385	99.9
芦苇草地 Phragmites australis grasslands	569	1 658	23	858	2 110	15 964	21 182	75.4
综合 Total	18 386	28 778	40 191	10 871	60 642	16 695	175 563	—
用户精度 User accuracy (%)	54.3	82.6	95.5	90.9	96.3	95.6	—	—
总精度 Total accuracy = 89.0%; Kappa系数 Kappa coefficient = 0.86

类别 Classification	柽柳灌丛 Tamarix thickets	胡杨疏林 Populus euphratica woodlands	沙地 Sand lands	农田 Farmlands	水体 Water bodies	芦苇草地 Phragmites australis grasslands	总和 Total	制图精度(%) Mapping accuracy
柽柳灌丛 Tamarix thickets	9 982	3 121	1 375	102	48	160	14 788	67.5
胡杨疏林 Populus euphratica woodlands	6 403	23 758	413	30	91	523	31 218	76.1
沙地 Sand lands	1 424	228	38 380	0	21	1	40 054	95.8
农田 Farmlands	8	13	0	9 881	1	33	9 936	99.4
水体 Water bodies	0	0	0	0	58 371	14	58 385	99.9
芦苇草地 Phragmites australis grasslands	569	1 658	23	858	2 110	15 964	21 182	75.4
综合 Total	18 386	28 778	40 191	10 871	60 642	16 695	175 563	—
用户精度 User accuracy (%)	54.3	82.6	95.5	90.9	96.3	95.6	—	—
总精度 Total accuracy = 89.0%; Kappa系数 Kappa coefficient = 0.86

类别 Classification	像元数 Number of pixels	面积 Area (km²)
柽柳灌丛 Tamarix thickets	450 293	405.3
胡杨疏林 Populus euphratica woodlands	373 813	336.4
芦苇草地 Phragmites australis grasslands	316 968	285.3
水体 Water bodies	159 345	143.4

类别 Classification	像元数 Number of pixels	面积 Area (km²)
柽柳灌丛 Tamarix thickets	450 293	405.3
胡杨疏林 Populus euphratica woodlands	373 813	336.4
芦苇草地 Phragmites australis grasslands	316 968	285.3
水体 Water bodies	159 345	143.4

	像元数 Number of pixels	最小值 Minimum	最大值 Maximum	众数 Mode	平均值 Average	标准偏差 Standard deviation	变异系数 Coefficient of variation (%)
柽柳灌丛 Tamarix thickets	450 293	0.005	1.653	0.182	0.253	0.158	62.3
胡杨疏林 Populus euphratica woodlands	373 813	0.007	1.849	0.102	0.252	0.178	70.5