Temporal areal changes of wetlands in the lower reaches of the Tarim River and their responses to ecological water conveyance

doi:10.17521/cjpe.2019.0267

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims Ecological water conveyance is of great importance for desert riparian wetland ecosystem. However, few studies have been focused on the quantitative evaluation of water conveyance to wetland restoration due to a lack of continous observation data. This paper analyzed the temporal wetland area changes between Yengisu and Alagan in the lower reach of Tarim River based on time series remote sensing data during 2000-2018, and evaluated the effects of ecological water conveyance on wetland restoration, so as to guide the ecological water conveyance and maintain the stability of the desert wetland ecosystem.
Methods About 354 Landsat ETM+/TM/OLI, Sentinel 2 images during 2000-2018 were used to map the monthly wetland area changes in the lower reach of Tarim River, then their annual, seasonal and spaital areal changes were analyzed. The correlation between wetland area changes and ecological water conveyance, underground water levels were also evaluated based on Pearson correlation and cross-correlation methods.
Important findings The wetland area has steadly increased in the last 19 years. The areal change rate was minor before 2011 while rapidly increased after 2011. The wetland expanded at a high rate during 2011-2013 and 2017-2018. Different ecological water volumes and water conveyance patterns (single channel or dual channel) can explain different areal changing rates at different stages. The correlation analysis between wetland area changes and ecological water volumes showed that the accumulative ecological water volume is the primary reason causing wetland expansion in recent years. In order to maintain a steady improvement of wetland vegetation, more than 350 million square meters of ecological water are conveyed to the downstream of the Tarim River through dual channel. When the groundwater depth is maintained between -5.0- -3.5 m, the wetland vegetation can sustain a good growth condition.

Key words: desert riparian wetlands, time series, ecological water conveyance effect, temporal delay analysis, lower reaches of Tarim River

YU Liang, LI Jun-Li, BAO An-Ming, BAI Jie, HUANG Yue, LIU Tie, SHEN Zhan-Feng. Temporal areal changes of wetlands in the lower reaches of the Tarim River and their responses to ecological water conveyance[J]. Chin J Plant Ecol, 2020, 44(6): 616-627.

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URL: https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/10.17521/cjpe.2019.0267

https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/Y2020/V44/I6/616

Figures/Tables 11

Fig. 1 Map of study area of the lower reaches of the Tarim River.

Fig. 2 Temporal distribution of multi-source remote sensing data in the study area of the lower reaches of the Tarim River during 2000-2018. DOY, day of year.

Fig. 3 Remote sensing maps of wetland dynamic in the study area of the lower reaches of the Tarim River during 2000-2018.

Fig. 4 Time series areal curves of total (A) and regional (B) wetland area of the lower reaches of the Tarim River during 2000-2018.

Fig. 5 Annual curve (A), monthly curve (B) and seasonal index (C) of the wetland areas of the lower reaches of the Tarim River.

Fig. 6 Annual coverage frequency map of wetlands of the lower reaches of the Tarim River during 2000-2018.

Fig. 7 Relations between wetland areas and ecological water conveyance volumes of the lower reaches of the Tarim River. *, p < 0.05; **, p < 0.01; ***, p < 0.001.

Fig. 8 Annual curve (A) and correlation curves (B) between annual maximum wetland area and accumulated ecological water volumes in the lower reaches of the Tarim River.

Table 1 Relationships between ecological water volumes, conveyance pattern and wetland changing rates in the lower reaches of the Tarim River

年份 Year	单通道输水次数 Water conveyance times by single channel	单通道输水量 Water conveyance volume by single channel (× 10⁸ m³)	双通道输水次数 Water conveyance times by dual channel	双通道输水量 Water conveyance volume by dual channel (× 10⁸ m³)	博孜库勒湿地增长速率 Growth rate of Bozkul wetland area (km²·a^-1)	喀尔达依湿地增长速率 Growth rate of Kardayi wetland area (km²·a^-1)
2001-2009	6	11.66	3	11.04	0.28	1.15
2010-2013	1	0.14	4	23.57	11.58	6.45
2014-2014	1	0.07	1	0	-3.88	2.75
2015-2018	0	0	4	30.58	11.56	6.54

Fig. 9 Monthly curves between groundwater levels and accumulated water volumes (A), water areas (B), vegetation areas (C) and wetland areas (D) in the lower reaches of the Tarim River.

Table 2 Changes of time lag between wetland changes and groundwater depths in the lower reaches of the Tarim River

年份 Year	滞后时间(月) Time lag (month)
年份 Year	湿地水体 Wetland water	湿地植被 Wetland vegetation	湿地 Total wetland
2011	-2	不显著 Not obvious	-2
2012	-1	8	-1
2013	-1	8	8
2014	不显著 Not obvious	8	8
2015	-2	7	7
2016	-4	7	7
2017	0	6	8

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