The Response of Vegetation Phenology and Productivity to Drought in Semi-Arid Regions of Northern China

The Xinanjiang model has been widely used in the humid regions in southern China as a basic tool for rainfall–runoff simulation, flood forecasting and water resources planning and management. However, its performance in the arid and semi-arid regions of northern China is usually not so good as in the humid regions. A modified Xinanjiang model, in which runoff generation in the watershed is based on both infiltration excess and saturation excess runoff mechanisms, is presented and discussed. Three different watersheds are selected for assessing and comparing the performance of the Xinanjiang model, the modified Xinanjiang model, the VIC model and the TOPMODEL in rainfall–runoff simulation. It is found that the modified Xinanjiang model performs better than the Xinanjiang model, and the models considering the Horton and Dunne runoff generation mechanisms are slightly better than those models considering the single runoff generation mechanism in semi-arid areas. It is suggested that the infiltration excess runoff mechanism should be included in rainfall–runoff models in arid and semi-arid regions.

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Reviewer comments on "New measures of deep soil water recharge during vegetation restoration process in semi-arid regions of northern China” by Cheng ed al.

10.5194/hess-2020-200-rc2 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Anonymous

Keyword(s):

Soil Water ◽

Arid Regions ◽

Northern China ◽

Vegetation Restoration ◽

Deep Soil ◽

Restoration Process ◽

Water Recharge ◽

Soil Water Recharge ◽

Semi Arid

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Quantifying Drought Resistance of Drylands in Northern China from 1982 to 2015: Regional Disparity in Drought Resistance

Forests ◽

10.3390/f13010100 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 100

Author(s):

Maohong Wei ◽

Hailing Li ◽

Muhammad Adnan Akram ◽

Longwei Dong ◽

Ying Sun ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drought Resistance ◽

Regional Differences ◽

Arid Regions ◽

Vegetation Index ◽

Temporal Trends ◽

Northern China ◽

Ecosystem Productivity ◽

Negative Effect ◽

Dryland Ecosystems ◽

Semi Arid

Drylands are expected to be affected by greater global drought variability in the future; consequently, how dryland ecosystems respond to drought events needs urgent attention. In this study, the Normalized Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Standardized Precipitation and Evaporation Index (SPEI) were employed to quantify the resistance of ecosystem productivity to drought events in drylands of northern China between 1982 and 2015. The relationships and temporal trends of resistance and drought characteristics, which included length, severity, and interval, were examined. The temporal trends of resistance responded greatest to those of drought length, and drought length was the most sensitive and had the strongest negative effect with respect to resistance. Resistance decreased with increasing drought length and did not recover with decreasing drought length in hyper-arid regions after 2004, but did recover in arid and semi-arid regions from 2004 and in dry sub-humid regions from 1997. We reason that the regional differences in resistance may result from the seed bank and compensatory effects of plant species under drought events. In particular, this study implies that the ecosystem productivity of hyper-arid regions is the most vulnerable to drought events, and the drought–resistance and drought–recovery interactions are likely to respond abnormally or even shift under ongoing drought change.

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Regionalization of coaxial correlation diagrams for the semi-humid and semi-arid catchments in Northern China

Proceedings of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences ◽

10.5194/piahs-368-317-2015 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 368 ◽

pp. 317-322 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Q. Li ◽

Z. Li ◽

L. Chen ◽

C. Yao

Keyword(s):

Land Cover ◽

Soil Type ◽

Euclidean Distance ◽

Arid Regions ◽

Northern China ◽

Correlation Diagram ◽

Ungauged Catchments ◽

Physical Similarity ◽

Runoff Prediction ◽

Semi Arid

Abstract. This study aims to identify both hydrologically and physically similar catchments which would be the best donors for runoff prediction in ungauged catchments. For this study, eight gauged catchments located in the semi-humid and semi-arid regions of Northern China were used. Hydrological similarity was defined based on the transferability of coaxial correlation diagrams. The physical similarity among catchments was determined by a weighted Euclidean distance based on 19 catchment descriptors including catchment topography, land cover, and soil type. The overlap between hydrologically similar catchments and physically similar catchments was then analysed to identify the best donors. The results suggest that six catchments were hydrologically similar, of which four catchments were both hydrologically and physically similar. It is argued that once a reliable coaxial correlation diagram has been established, the coaxial correlation diagram can be transferred from one catchment to another for runoff prediction, provided that these catchments are physical similar.

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