|
|
|
Driving mechanisms of desertification process
in the Horqin Sandy Land-a case study in Zhalute Banner, Inner Mongolia
of China |
| TANG Haiping1, CHEN Yufu2, LI Xinyu3 |
| 1.College of Resources Science and Technology, Key Laboratory of Environmental Change and Natural Disaster of the Ministry of Education, Beijing Normal University; 2.Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences; 3.Institute of Beijing Landscape Gardening |
|
|
|
|
Abstract Both natural and human factors contributing to desertification were examined to understand the driving mechanisms of the desertification process in Zhalute Banner, Inner Mongolia of China. The coefficient of variation (CV) and climate departure index (Z) were calculated to examine the fluctuations and trends of inter-annual variations of temperature and precipitation; TM remote sensing data was extracted to obtain the sandy land area; linear regression analysis was used to analyze climate changes and the socio-economic evolution over the years, and it was also used to standardize the variables, which included annual temperature, annual precipitation, human population, and livestock number, in order to measure the difference in the rate of change between climate and anthropogenic factors. The results showed that there was a rise of about 1.6°C in temperature but no significant change in precipitation from 1961 to 2000, which indicated a short-term climatic trend toward aridity in this area, a condition necessary for desertification. The fraction of precipitation in spring tended to increase whilst the fraction in autumn and winter decreased. Both the human population and livestock population had tripled and the cultivated area had doubled from 1961 to 2000, suggesting that socio-economic factors might have contributed more significantly to the desertification. Between 1988 and 1997, the sandy land area increased by 12.5%, nearly 2.4 times in the farming section. It could be concluded that the driving mechanisms of the desertification processes in Zhalute banner are mainly the policy of cropland expansion and the rising populations of humans and their livestock, which has affected the land use pattern in the past decades.
|
|
Issue Date: 05 December 2008
|
|
| 1 |
Zhu Z, Wu Z, Liu S . General Introduction to China's Deserts. Beijing: Science Press, 1980 (in Chinese)
|
| 2 |
Zhu Z, Chen G . Sandy Desertification inChina. Beijing: Science Press, 1994 (in Chinese)
|
| 3 |
Ren G Y . Influence of human activities on the Late Holocene vegetation changesat Maili, Northeast China. Scientia GeographicaSinica, 1999, 19: 42–48 (in Chinese)
|
| 4 |
Man Z M, Ge Q S, Zhang P Y . Case studies on the impact of climatic changes on thefarming-pastoral transitional zone in historical period. Geographical Research, 2000, 19: 141–147 (in Chinese)
|
| 5 |
Wulan T . Landreclamation and land-use changes during last 50 years in Ke'erqindeserts, Inner Mongolia. Progress in Geography, 2000, 19: 273–278 (in Chinese)
|
| 6 |
Wulan T, Lei J, Yu S . An advance on studies of formation and environmentalevolution of Horqin desert. Journal ofArid Land Resources and Environment, 2002, 16: 28–31 (in Chinese)
|
| 7 |
Inner Mongolia AutonomousRegion Bureau of Statistics, People's Republic of China. . InnerMongolia Statistical Yearbook 2001. Beijing: China Statistics Press, 2001 (in Chinese)
|
| 8 |
Kang M Y, Liu X C, Dong S K, Xiong H B, Liu S . Impacts of land use change and intensity on the grasslandin Zhalute Banner, Inner Mongolia. Advancein Earth Sciences, 2002, 17: 229–234 (in Chinese)
|
| 9 |
Sutherland R A, Bryan R B, Wijendes D O . Analysis of the monthly and annual rainfall climate ina semi-arid environment, Kenya. Journalof Arid Environments, 1991, 20: 257–275
|
| 10 |
Zhu Z . Concept,cause and control of desertification in China. Quaternary Sciences, 1998, (2): 145–55 (in Chinese)
|
| 11 |
Wu B, Ci L . Landscape change and desertificationdevelopment in the Mu Us Sandland, Northern China. Journal of Arid Environments, 2002, 50: 429–444.
doi:10.1006/jare.2001.0847
|
| 12 |
Le Houérou H N, Popov G F, See L . Agrobioclimatic classification of Africa. AgrometeorologySeries Working Paper No. 6. Rome, Italy: Food and AgricultureOrganization, 1993
|
| 13 |
Le Houérou H N . Climate change, drought and desertification. Journal of Arid. Environments, 1996, 34(2): 133–185
|
| 14 |
Nicholson S E, Tucker C J, Ba M B . Desertification, drought, and surface vegetation: Anexample from the west African Sahel. Bulletinof the American Meteorological Society, 1998, 79: 815–829.
doi:10.1175/1520-0477(1998)079<0815:DDASVA>2.0.CO;2
|
| 15 |
Luk S H . Recent trends of desertification in the Maowusu Desert, China. Environmental Conservation, 1983, 10: 213–224
|
| 16 |
Du W S . Records of Zhalute Banner. Beijing: Chorography Press, 2001 (in Chinese)
|
| 17 |
Aoren Q . Changesand innovations of the property right system of grassland. Inner Mongolia Social Sciences, 2003, 24: 116–120 (in Chinese)
|
| 18 |
Enkhee J, Erden B . A summary of the China-Japansymposium on grassland desertification in Inner Mongolia and its countermeasures. Journal of Inner Mongolia University (Humanitiesand Social Sciences), 2002, 34: 113–116 (in Chinese)
|
| 19 |
Wang T, Wu W, Xue X, Sun Q W, Zhang W M, Han Z W . Spatial-temporal changes of sandy desertified land during last 5decades in northern China. Acta GeographicaSinica, 2004, 59: 203–212 (in Chinese)
|
| 20 |
Wu W . Dynamicmonitor to evolvement of sandy desertified land in Horqin region forthe last 5 decades. China Journal of DesertResearch, 2003, 23: 646–651 (in Chinese)
|
|
Viewed |
|
|
|
Full text
|
|
|
|
|
Abstract
|
|
|
|
|
Cited |
|
|
|
|
| |
Shared |
|
|
|
|
| |
Discussed |
|
|
|
|
