The rapid and effective identification of the spatial distribution of rock deserts in ice–snow melting areas can provide useful information for the prevention of natural disasters. In this study, Landsat TM/OLI were used to track the evolution of snow lines in the snow melting areas of Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (hereinafter referred to as Yushu Prefecture) during the last 30 years. A total of seven extraction schemes were used to classify the rock desert in the ice–snow melting area by remote sensing. Our results show that: (1) The accuracy of the multi-index factor compound analysis and object-oriented classification compound method was the highest. This method can provide a rapid and efficient reference scheme for rock desert extraction in the plateau ice–snow melting area. (2) The combinations of two single methods with higher accuracy can further improve the total accuracy. If a single method with lower accuracy is involved in the multi-method fusion, the accuracy of the method with lower accuracy can be improved. (3) In the past 30 years, there has been a large amount of ice–snow melting in Yushu Prefecture. The ice–snow melting area accounts for 53.78% (1451.04 km2) of the ice–snow area, and the bare rock and bare stone in the rock desert account for 63.77% of the total area of the ice–snow melting area. Bare sand and bare soil area account for 30.27% of the total area of ice and snow melting area.
Global climate change, mainly characterized by warming, has resulted in significant migration of temperature-sensitive crops from traditional planting areas, making crops more vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters, increasing yield losses caused by disasters. Based on the MaxEnt model, combining Representative Concentration Pathways 4.5 and 8.5, the potential suitable areas for highland barley planting on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau were estimated, and the results showed that: (1) Over 30% of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is unsuitable for highland barley cultivation, the area of moderately suitable area for highland barley planting is close to 50%, and the marginally suitable and highly suitable area is less than 20%; (2) From the past distribution to the near and medium-term distributions, the unsuitable area for highland barley planting is gradually shrinking. In the moderately suitable area for highland barley planting, some of the area with relatively low suitability was transformed from unsuitable area, and some of the area with relatively high suitability was transformed into marginally suitable area, so that the total area remained basically unchanged. A small part of the marginally suitable area was converted into high-suitability area, which increased the highly suitable area; (3) From the perspective of different scenarios, in the near and medium term, the area with a slight decrease or no change in suitability under RCP 8.5 was smaller than under RCP 4.5, but the area with a significant increase was larger than under RCP 4.5. The areas with a small decrease or no change in suitability accounted for 23.66–33.77% of the total plateau area and were concentrated in the northwestern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Qaidam Basin. Areas with a large increase in suitability accounted for 3.47–15.64% of the total area and were located in the southern, central, and eastern parts of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, this area increased significantly with time; (4) Judging from the average altitude change in highland barley planting, the average altitude of the highly suitable area will rise from 3759 m to 3937 m (RCP 4.5) and 3959 m (RCP 8.5) in the near term. By the medium term, the average elevation of the highly suitable area will increase from 3759 m to 4017 m (RCP 4.5) and 4090 m (RCP 8.5). The trend of rising average altitude continues to strengthen.
In this paper, we use the extraction method of multi-factors fusion to extract the Highland barley cultivation area on Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. The study results indicate that: (1) the method (extracting through multi-factors fusion) is efficient during the extracting process and is highly accurate in extraction results. This extraction scheme allows for not only the spatial heterogeneity of different physical geographic units, but also the impact of multi-factors on crop cultivation; (2) according to our research, the total Highland barley cultivation area on Qinghai–Tibet Plateau is about 2.74 × 105 ha. Based on the statistics, we draw the first distribution map of the Highland barley cultivation area on Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, which upgrades its spatial distribution pattern from administrative unit to patch unit; (3) Highland barley in various divisions has a distinct spatial heterogeneity in elevation. On the whole, the Highland barley on the plateau is planted at an elevation of 2500–4500 m, up to 5200 m. Due to the impact of topography diversity, temperature, moisture, light, arable land and irrigation conditions, its cultivation area at the same elevation varies in different divisions.
Monitoring rock desert formation caused by two different origins (ice-snow melting and drying) in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of China by considering topographic and meteorological elements.
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