Landscape pattern and eco-hydrological characteristics at the upstream of Minjiang River, China

Abstract

Based on three scenes of Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite images acquired on June 26, 1994, 12 land cover types were identified by the supervised classification techniques. The precipitation, runoff, and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data of six catchments were accumulated from April to September in 1992September in , 1993September in , and 1995. A new eco-hydrological index, expressed by the difference between precipitation and runoff divided by the product of precipitation and NDVI, was used in this study to represent the eco-hydrological functions of different catchments. The results were: (1) The selected six catchments at the upstream of Minjiang River, China were different in landscape patterns in terms of landscape type and cover. There were higher contagion, lower edge density and diversity index in the Shouxi catchments and lower contagion, higher edge density and diversity index in the Zagunao catchments. (2) Eco-hydrological indexes had remarkable differences among different catchments. The highest eco-hydrological index was found in the Shouxi catchments, which indicated higher precipitation holding capacity of vegetation therein. While the lower eco-hydrological index was found in the Zagunao catchments, which indicated its lower precipitation holding capacity of vegetation. (3) High correlation was detected between the landscape indexes and eco-hydrological indexes. Eco-hydrological index was positively correlated with landscape contagion in contrast with the negative correlation with landscape diversity and edge density.

Evapotranspiration in the Meso‐Scale Forested Watersheds in Minjiang Valley, West China1

“…However, concern has been expressed over water or streamflow reduction as a result of this large‐scale reforestation effort, particularly in the drier northern and western regions of China where water is an ultimate controlling factor for regional development (Zhou, 2001). In western China, coniferous trees are a major target species for reforestation, and large‐scale conversion from grassland and shrubland to coniferous forests may have the potential to increase ET and consequently decrease streamflow even in the meso‐scale watersheds (Li et al. , 2005).…”

Distribution patterns of shrubby N‐fixers and non‐N fixers in an arid valley in Southwest China: implications for ecological restoration

“…2). Until now, many restoration efforts have been implemented, but have had poor results in the study area Li et al 2005Li et al , 2006Xu et al 2008). Many introduced woody species have had difficulties becoming established and have become ''small old trees'' under the conditions of water and nutrition deficiency.…”

Managing planted forests for multiple uses under a changing environment in China

“…Liu et al, 2006) and that the annual mean runoff coefficient and evapotranspiration (ET) may be closely related to landscape structure of watersheds (Li et al, 2006;Jiang et al, 2004;Y. Liu et al, 2006Y.…”