Forest Changes by Precipitation Zones in Northern China after the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program in China

China launched the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program (TNSFP) in 1978 in northern China to combat desertification and dust storms, but it is still controversial in ecologically fragile arid and semi-arid areas, which is partly due to the uncertainties of monitoring of the spatial-temporal changes of forest distribution. In this study, we aim to provide an overall retrospect of the forest changes (i.e., forest gain and forest loss) in northern China during 2007–2017, and to analyze the forest changes in different precipitation zones. We first generated annual forest maps at 30 m spatial resolution during 2007–2017 in northern China through integrating Landsat and PALSAR/PALSAR-2 data. We found the PALSAR/Landsat-based forest maps outperform other four existing products (i.e., JAXA F/NF, FROM-GLC, GlobeLand30, and NLCD-China) from either PALSAR or Landsat data, with a higher overall accuracy 96% ± 1%. The spatial-temporal analyses of forests showed a substantial forest expansion from 316,898 ± 34,537 km2 in 2007 to 384,568 ± 35,855 km2 in 2017 in the central and eastern areas. We found a higher forest loss rate (i.e., 35%) in the precipitation zones with the annual mean precipitation less than 400 mm (i.e., the arid and semi-arid areas) comparing to that (i.e., 25%) in the zones with more than 400 mm (i.e., the humid areas), which suggests the lower surviving rate in the drylands. This study provides satellite-based evidence for the forest changes in different precipitation zones, and suggests that the likely impacts of precipitation on afforestation effectiveness should be considered in future implementation of ecological restoration projects like TNSFP.

Download Full-text

Desertification Control Practices in China

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12083258 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (8) ◽

pp. 3258

Author(s):

Yanli Lyu ◽

Peijun Shi ◽

Guoyi Han ◽

Lianyou Liu ◽

Lanlan Guo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Water Conservation ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Northern China ◽

Global Scale ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Dust Storms ◽

Arid Ecosystems ◽

Desertification Control ◽

The Impact ◽

Semi Arid

Desertification is a form of land degradation principally in semi-arid and arid areas influenced by climatic and human factors. As a country plagued by extensive sandy desertification and frequent sandstorms and dust storms, China has been trying to find ways to achieve the sustainable management of desertified lands. This paper reviewed the impact of climate change and anthropogenic activities on desertified areas, and the effort, outcome, and lessons learned from desertification control in China. Although drying and warming trends and growing population pressures exist in those areas, the expanding trend of desertified land achieved an overall reversal. In the past six decades, many efforts, including government policies, forestry, and desertification control programs, combined with eco-industrialization development, have been integrated to control the desertification in northern China. Positive human intervention including afforestation, and the rehabilitation of mobile sandy land, and water conservation have facilitated the return of arid and semi-arid ecosystems to a more balanced state. China’s practices in desertification control could provide valuable knowledge for sustainable desertified land management on a global scale.

Download Full-text

Interannual characteristics of the surface hydrological variables over the arid and semi-arid areas of northern China

Global and Planetary Change ◽

10.1016/s0921-8181(02)00203-5 ◽

2003 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Z Ma

Keyword(s):

Northern China ◽

Arid Areas ◽

Semi Arid ◽

Hydrological Variables

Download Full-text

Deficit irrigation and fertilization strategies to improve soil quality and alfalfa yield in arid and semi-arid areas of northern China

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.4410 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

pp. e4410 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Qianmin Jia ◽

Muhammad Kamran ◽

Shahzad Ali ◽

Lefeng Sun ◽

Peng Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Alkaline Phosphatase ◽

Soil Quality ◽

Deficit Irrigation ◽

Biomass Yield ◽

Northern China ◽

Arid Areas ◽

Abandoned Farmland ◽

Irrigation Levels ◽

Semi Arid

Background In the arid and semi-arid areas of northern China, overexploitation of fertilizers and extensive irrigation with brackish groundwater have led to soil degradation and large areas of farmland have been abandoned. In order to improve the soil quality of abandoned farmland and make reasonable use of brackish groundwater, we conducted field trials in 2013 and 2014. Methods In our study, we used three fertilization modes (CF, chemical fertilizer; OM, organic manure and chemical fertilizer; NF, no fertilizer) and three deficit irrigation levels (I0: 0 mm; I75: 75 mm; I150: 150 mm). Results The results showed that the activities of soil urease, alkaline phosphatase, invertase, catalase, and dehydrogenase in the OM treatment were significantly improved compared with those in the CF and NF treatments under the three deficit irrigation levels. Compared with NF, the OM treatment significantly increased soil organic carbon (SOC), water-soluble carbon (WSC), total nitrogen, microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen (MBC and MBN), and soil respiration rate, and significantly decreased soil C:N and MBC:MBN ratios and the metabolic quotient, thus improving the soil quality of abandoned farmland. Furthermore, the OM treatment increased alfalfa plant height, leaf area index, leaf chlorophyll content, and biomass yield. Under the CF and OM fertilization modes, the activities of urease and catalase in I150 were significantly higher than those in I0, whereas irrigating without fertilizer did not significantly increase the activity of these two enzymes. Regardless of fertilization, alkaline phosphatase activity increased with an increase in irrigation amount, whereas invertase activity decreased. Discussion The results showed that deficit irrigation with brackish groundwater under the OM treatment can improve soil quality. Over the two years of the study, maximum SOC, total nitrogen, WSC, MBC, and MBN were observed under the OM-I150 treatment, and the alfalfa biomass yield of this treatment was also significantly higher than that of the OM-I0 treatment. Therefore, the OM-I150 treatment could be used as a suitable measure not only to improve the quality of abandoned farmland soil but also to increase the alfalfa biomass yield in arid and semi-arid areas of northern China.

Download Full-text

Stimulation on the impact of afforestation on the groundwater table in arid and semi-arid areas in northern China

Acta Ecologica Sinica ◽

10.5846/stxb201508271781 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 37 (3) ◽

Author(s):

鲁晨曦 LU Chenxi ◽

曹世雄 CAO Shixiong ◽

石小亮 SHI Xiaoliang

Keyword(s):

Northern China ◽

Groundwater Table ◽

Arid Areas ◽

The Impact ◽

Semi Arid

Download Full-text

Effects of Different Chemical Fertilizers Application Rates and Densities on the Whole Growth Period of Sorghum in Semi-Arid Areas of North China

Revista de Chimie ◽

10.37358/rc.20.6.8213 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 71 (6) ◽

pp. 473-481

Author(s):

Jinpeng Wei ◽

Wenjing Shao ◽

Kejun Yang ◽

Changjiang Zhao ◽

Xinyu Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Growth Period ◽

Northern China ◽

Fertilizer Application ◽

Application Rate ◽

Planting Density ◽

Arid Areas ◽

Chemical Fertilizers ◽

Composite Effect ◽

Fertilizer Application Rate ◽

Semi Arid

Sorghum is one of the most important economic crops in the semi-arid areas of northern China. However, its yield is still relatively low, and some factors, such as the amount of different chemical fertilizers application and planting density, limit the increase of yield. In order to study the effect of fertilizer application rate and planting density on the growth and yield of sorghum, Longza 16 was used as test variety material, and the experiment was conducted with the split plot design. The fertilizer application (375kg/hm2(N:P:K=1:0.7:0.4), 375kg/hm2(N:P:K=1:0.7:0.8), 375kg/hm2 (N:P:K=1:0.7:1.6), 750kg/hm2（N:P:K=1:0.7:0.8), 750kg/hm2（N:P:K=1:0.7:1.6)) was designed as main plot and planting density (96000 plants/hm2, 109000 plants/hm2, 128000 plants/hm2, 154000 plants/hm2）was arranged as subplot. The photosynthetic parameters and yield-related characters were determined during the whole growth period of sorghum. The results showed that the effect of fertilizer application on the yield of sorghum was significant. The yield increased with the increase of fertilizer application, and the yield of 750kg/hm2 (N:P:K=1:0.7:1.6) was significantly higher than that of other treatments. Different planting densities also had a significant effect on the yield, showing that the yield increased with the increase of density, and the yield was the highest under the density of 154000 plants/hm2. In addition, the result of composite effect of fertilizer application rate and density showed that the yield of the treatment of 750kg/hm2 (N:P:K=1:0.7:1.6) and 154000 plants/hm2 was the highest, which was considered to be more suitable for the production of sorghum in the semi-arid areas of northern China.

Download Full-text

Monitoring dust storm using Normalized difference dust index (NDDI) and brightness temperature variation in Simi arid areas over Iraq

Iraqi Journal of Physics (IJP) ◽

10.30723/ijp.v18i45.517 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 18 (45) ◽

pp. 68-75

Author(s):

Nawal K. Ghazal

Keyword(s):

Brightness Temperature ◽

Temperature Variation ◽

Dust Storm ◽

Satellite Images ◽

Dust Storms ◽

Natural Phenomenon ◽

Arid Areas ◽

Green Cover ◽

Desert Areas ◽

Semi Arid

Dust storms are a natural phenomenon occurring in most areas of Iraq. In recent years, the study of this phenomenon has become important because of the danger caused by increasing desertification at the expense of the green cover as well as its impact on human health. In this study is important to devote the remote sensing of dust storms and its detection.Through this research, the dust storms can be detected in semi-arid areas, which are difficult to distinguish between these storms and desert areas. For the distinction between the dust storm pixels in the image with those that do not contain dust storm can be applied the Normalized Difference Dust Index (NDDI) and Brightness Temperature variation (BTV). MODIS sensors that carried by theTerra and Equa satellite images have been used in different bands and different resolution and the cases studied in 1/9/2015,16/6/2016/20/2/2016.

Download Full-text