No abstract

The land cover fractions (LCFs) and spectral reflectance of photosynthetic vegetation (PV), nonphotosynthetic vegetation (NPV), and bare soil were measured at 58 sites in semi-arid and arid regions of Mongolia in the summers of 2005 and 2006. These data sets allowed a detailed assessment of the impact of measurement geometry as represented by the solar zenith angle s  , sensor view zenith angle , and azimuth view angle in the estimation of LCF values by means of the spectral unmixing model (SUM). The bidirectional distribution function (BRDF) was fitted to the reflectance data and then used to produce reflectance at various measurement geometry. LCFs from these reflectance data for a given combination of , , and were compared with visually determined LCFs. It was found that in the range of 30-45° produced a better agreement of LCFs. For , the agreement is not very sensitive to the choice of angle for the range 30-70°, although = 50° showed a slightly better performance. The azimuth view angle does not have strong influences to the LCF estimation, except for the case of = 180° (view toward the sun), which does not allow precise fitting of BRDF function over a tall vegetation site. Overall, this study verified the results of earlier studies obtained mostly for the American continents that SUM is capable of producing LCF estimates accurately and also found that its accuracy was, in general, much better than that by the more traditional approach of the supervised classification method (SCM) applied to images of a digital camera.

In this study, limiting factors for continuing nomadic pastoralism in steppe areas were studied based on a hydrologic perspective. Two small watersheds in central Mongolia were selected for an assessment of water balance and hydrologic processes. We determined that the majority of annual precipitation, ~88-96 mm, was lost by evaporation (82%) while only a small proportion went to groundwater discharge, surface runoff, and groundwater consumption by nomadic activities. The soil column was found to absorb large fluctuations in precipitation although its connection to groundwater was very weak. Groundwater recharge was, therefore, very small and occurred only rarely during heavy rainfall events in valley bottoms. However, current water storage in shallow groundwater was determined to be quite sufficient for continuing nomadic pastoralism when compared to the drinking water requirements of livestock. The main limiting factors identified were a temporal lack of feed to animals due to a loss of aboveground biomass resulting from soil moisture shortages during drought conditions, and a decline in the number and maintenance level of the traditional well network that, due to access to shallow groundwater, has allowed herders to migrate to areas with better conditions in remote Mongolian steppe.

We examined the effects of grazing on aboveground biomass (AGB), vegetation constitution, and gross primary productivity (GPP) at midday in midsummer on a Mongolian steppe with mixed vegetation consisting of C3 and C4 plants. A grazed area (GA) and a nongrazed area (NGA) created by an exclosure were established in 2002 on land with a history of conventional grazing management. AGB of the mixed C3-C4 vegetation was determined in the GA and NGA from 2003 to 2006. Nongrazing resulted in increased AGB and a decreased ratio of C4 AGB to total AGB. In 2003 and 2006 a dynamic closed-chamber method was used to measure midday GPP; there was no significant difference between the GA and NGA in either year. Partitioning analysis of midday GPP to C3 and C4 photosynthesis indicated that exclosure exerted little influence on the midday GPP in midsummer, because the enhancement of GPP by increased AGB was offset by the reduced AGB of C4 plants.