Topography-Controlled Soil Water Content and the Coexistence of Forest and Steppe in Northern China

Liu, Hongyan; He, Shuangshuang; Anenkhonov, Oleg A.; Hu, Guozheng; Санданов, Д. В.; Badmaeva, N. K.

doi:10.2747/0272-3646.33.6.561

Cited by 46 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…In addition to the MAP gradient, the amount of available water for plants has been shown to strongly depend on topography‐controlled evaporation as well as on the infiltration ability of soil (Dulamsuren & Hauck ; Liu et al. ). Despite the MAP gradient, available water for plants strongly depended on topography‐controlled evaporation as well as the infiltration ability of soil (Dulamsuren & Hauck ; Liu et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite the MAP gradient, available water for plants strongly depended on topography‐controlled evaporation as well as the infiltration ability of soil (Dulamsuren & Hauck ; Liu et al. ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Soil moisture is crucial to the differentiation of forest and steppe at the local scale due to their different water demand (Liu et al. , ; Stohlgren et al. ; Dulamsuren et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Climatic effects on plant species distribution within the forest–steppe ecotone in northern China

Liu

Yin

Wang

et al. 2014

Applied Vegetation Science

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Questions As a narrow belt extending from the northern to the southern edges of the temperate forest zone, there is not only a strong temperature gradient and a long geographic distance but also a very sharp precipitation gradient in the temperate forest–steppe in northern China at a regional scale. Patches of forest are scattered in the steppe matrix. At the local scale, each forest patch shows a climatic gradient from patch centre to its edge and to the open steppe. How do these climatic gradients determine plant species distribution for the forest and steppe within this ecotone? Location The temperate forest–steppe ecotone in northern China. Methods Species were recorded in paired plots of forest and steppe at 68 sites. t‐tests were conducted to show differences in floristic composition among forest types. Mantel tests were applied to correlate site‐level floristic distances with geographic and climatic distances for forest and steppe separately as well as for their combination. Floristic differences between paired plots of forest and steppe at each site were correlated to MAT, MAP and geographic factors at that site. Results There was no significant floristic difference in the understorey of forests dominated by Betula platyphylla, B. dahurica or Populus davidiana. Quercus mongolica forests, however, were floristically dissimilar to the other forest types. Floristic distance of both forests and steppes were significantly correlated with ΔMAT and geographic distance, while there was a significant correlation with ΔMAP for forests only, but not for steppes. The floristic difference between forest understorey and steppe plots within each site showed no significant correlations with climatic or geographic factors. Conclusions The plant species distribution of both forest and steppe was more dependent on temperature than on precipitation gradients. The floristic distance between the forest understorey and steppe plots within sites seemed to depend on factors other than climate.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Climatic effects on plant species distribution within the forest–steppe ecotone in northern China

Liu

Yin

Wang

et al. 2014

Applied Vegetation Science

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In weathering, surface area is a fundamental determinant of process (e.g., Pope, 1995). In water resources, areal extent will affect quantities such as raindrop impacts per unit area, evaporation, surface interaction and infiltration rates, flow concentration, and channel density (e.g., Liu et al, 2012). The volume of soil for water storage and plant roots also is affected, but negligibly over long slopes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Terrestrial surface-area increment: the effects of topography, DEM resolution, and algorithm

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The area increment of land surface compared with its projected area is an effect of topographic relief and is also a source of environmental variations. To examine the effects of topography and data resolution on surface area calculation, we calculated incremental area coefficients (IACs), based on two different algorithms, for a DEM of China at a series of spatial resolutions. Sampling the DEM with a regional network of 50 km × 50 km cell size, we explored the relationships among the two IACs and topographic features. Both IACs studied were exponential functions of resolution. At 30-m resolution, the IACs were 4.31 and 4.89% over China, respectively. The largest increment for a 50 km × 50 km cell was >45%. Between the IACs there was a linear relationship that varied with DEM resolution. Hierarchical variation partitioning revealed that the factors included contributed in a very similar percentage composition to the two IACs, mean slope (37.5 or 38.7%) and standard deviation of slope (22.3 or 19.6%) at local scale dominated the area increment, followed by regional elevation range. Data resolution contributed about 10%, while the deviation of slope exposure only had minimal (1.4 or 1.7%) impact on surface-area increment. For a specific type of geomorphology, a threshold resolution of DEM can be determined, below which the surface-area increment (i.e., IAC) is negligible. Our results provided the first comprehensive estimate of the contributions of the topographic features, DEM resolution, and algorithms for the surface-area increment, and indicated the scale-related properties and potential environmental consequences of topographic heterogeneity in various estimates of natural resources and ecosystem functions when area needs to be taken into account.

show abstract

“…The East Asia steppe (covering between roughly 36 • 7 N-50 • 48 N and 104 • 18 E-124 • 21 E), which spans Northern China, Eastern Mongolia, and Southern Siberia of Russia (Figure 1), is dominated by semi-arid grasslands with embedded forest and scrub patches [26]. It has a total area of approximately 805,000 km 2 with complex geomorphic types (e.g., treeless flatlands, gently rolling hills, wetlands, and mountains).…”

Section: The Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

An Improved Estimation of Regional Fractional Woody/Herbaceous Cover Using Combined Satellite Data and High-Quality Training Samples

Liu

Qiu

et al. 2017

Remote Sensing

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:Mapping vegetation cover is critical for understanding and monitoring ecosystem functions in semi-arid biomes. As existing estimates tend to underestimate the woody cover in areas with dry deciduous shrubland and woodland, we present an approach to improve the regional estimation of woody and herbaceous fractional cover in the East Asia steppe. This developed approach uses Random Forest models by combining multiple remote sensing data-training samples derived from high-resolution image in a tailored spatial sampling and model inputs composed of specific metrics from MODIS sensor and ancillary variables including topographic, bioclimatic, and land surface information. We emphasize that effective spatial sampling, high-quality classification, and adequate geospatial information are important prerequisites of establishing appropriate model inputs and achieving high-quality training samples. This study suggests that the optimal models improve estimation accuracy (NMSE 0.47 for woody and 0.64 for herbaceous plants) and show a consistent agreement with field observations. Compared with existing woody estimate product, the proposed woody cover estimation can delineate regions with subshrubs and shrubs, showing an improved capability of capturing spatialized detail of vegetation signals. This approach can be applicable over sizable semi-arid areas such as temperate steppes, savannas, and prairies.

show abstract

Topography-Controlled Soil Water Content and the Coexistence of Forest and Steppe in Northern China

Cited by 46 publications

References 20 publications

Climatic effects on plant species distribution within the forest–steppe ecotone in northern China

Climatic effects on plant species distribution within the forest–steppe ecotone in northern China

Terrestrial surface-area increment: the effects of topography, DEM resolution, and algorithm

An Improved Estimation of Regional Fractional Woody/Herbaceous Cover Using Combined Satellite Data and High-Quality Training Samples

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About