Comment to Manuscript: The distribution pattern of desert riparian forests and its relationship with soil moisture and soil properties in the low reaches of Heihe River Basin, China

Abstract. Desert riparian forests are critical habitats that provide a variety of ecosystem services in arid environments. They are also endangered ecosystem types that are sensitive to disturbance and threatened by desertification. Despite of previous studies stressed on the interactions between desert riparian forests and water availability, the lack of comprehensive information on the forests distribution range and their relationship with soil properties constraints further conservation efforts of this community under a changing climate. In this study, vegetation community characteristics, soil moisture and soil properties were investigated within a 3000 m radius around the river channel in the low reaches of Heihe River Basin, northwest China to determine the distribution pattern of desert riparian forests and their relationship with environmental factors. We found that desert riparian forests mainly distributed within the range of 2500 m from the river channel and the first 1000 m was regarded as the optimum range. Five types of vegetation communities were identified based on Two-way Indicator Species Analysis (TWINSPAN) and they gradually shifted from the riparian tree-shrub-herb communities to riparian-desert shrubs with increasing distance from the river channel. Vegetation community coverage and diversity indices formed bimodal patterns while community height and density declined significantly as the distance from the river increased. Soil moisture, soil physical properties, and soil nutrition explained 53.6 % of the variance in community characteristics and different environment variables influenced different community characteristics. Soil moisture, accounting for 62.7 % of the total explanation, mainly influenced the community coverage and density. Soil physical properties (e.g., bulk density, soil particle composition) exerted influence on shrub layer, while soil nutrition mainly affected community richness. With surface (0–30 cm) and deep (100–200 cm) soil moisture, bulk density and total phosphorus regarded as major determining factors in the community structure and diversity, conservation measures that protect the soil structure and prevent soil moisture deficiency (e.g., artificial soil cover and water conveyance channel) were suggested to better protect the desert riparian forests under climate change and intensive human disturbance.

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Evaluation of a satellite-derived model parameterized by three soil moisture constraints to estimate terrestrial latent heat flux in the Heihe River basin of Northwest China

The Science of The Total Environment ◽

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.133787 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 695 ◽

pp. 133787 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Yunjun Yao ◽

Yuhu Zhang ◽

Qiang Liu ◽

Shaomin Liu ◽

Kun Jia ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Heat Flux ◽

Soil Moisture ◽

Latent Heat ◽

River Basin ◽

Latent Heat Flux ◽

Northwest China ◽

Heihe River Basin ◽

Heihe River ◽

The Heihe River Basin

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Eco-hydrological effects of stream-aquifer water interaction: A case study of the Heihe River Basin, northwestern China

10.5194/hess-2016-8 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Yujin Zeng ◽

Zhenghui Xie ◽

Yan Yu ◽

Shuang Liu ◽

Linying Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Soil Moisture ◽

Water Level ◽

River Water ◽

River Basin ◽

Water Table ◽

Riparian Vegetation ◽

Stream Water ◽

Growing Season ◽

Heihe River Basin ◽

Heihe River

Abstract. A scheme describing the process of stream-aquifer interaction was incorporated into the land model CLM4.5 to investigate the effects of stream water conveyance over riparian banks on ecological and hydrological processes. Two groups of simulations for five typical river cross-sections in the middle reaches of the arid zone Heihe River Basin were conducted. The simulated riparian ground water table at a propagation distance of less than 1 km followed the intra-annual flu ctuation of the river water level, and the correlation was excellent (R2 = 0.9) between the river water level and the groundwater table at the distance 60 m from the river. The correlation rapidly decreased as distance increased. In response to the variability of the water table, soil moisture at deep layers also followed the variation of river water level all year, while soil moisture at the surface layer was more sensitive to the river water level in the drought season than in the wet season. With increased soil moisture, the average gross primary productivity and respiration of riparian vegetation within 300 m from the river at a typical section of the river increased by approximately 0.03 mg C m−2 s−1 and 0.02 mg C m −2 s−1, respectively, in the growing season. Consequently, the net ecosystem exchange increased by approximately 0.01 mg C m−2 s−1, and the evapotranspiration increased by approximately 3 mm d−1. Furthermore, the length of the growing season of riparian vegetation also increased by 2–3 months due to the sustaining water recharge from the river.

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