Vegetation coverage, species richness, and dune stability in the southern part of Gurbantünggüt Desert

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between vegetation coverage, species richness, and environmental factors, and also analyzed the relationship between vegetation coverage, species richness, and dune stability in different terrains, in the southern part of Gurbantu¨nggu¨t Desert in China. The results showed that the order of vegetation coverage and species richness was greatest in middle areas, followed by the eastern areas, with the western areas being sparse. On a large scale, precipitation from April to June determined the amount of vegetation coverage. On a small scale, vegetation coverage was influenced by the type of terrain and the water and salt content in soils. Species richness of vegetation was determined by soil water and salt content on both the large and small scales. There were also remarkable differences in relative wind erosion among the different terrains and their order was: crest, slope, and inter-dune in descending order. The correlations between wind erosion and vegetation coverage and species richness were influenced by the type of terrain. Furthermore, there were significant correlations between wind erosion and vegetation coverage and species richness in dune slopes and crests. There was, however, no significant correlation between wind erosion and vegetation coverage and species richness in inter-dune sites. Vegetation coverage was the dominant factor influencing wind erosion in both slopes and crests. Species richness may have an impact on wind erosion through vegetation coverage in both slopes and crests. These results suggest that the effect of terrain type should be fully considered during the establishment of vegetation cover in the desert.

Relationships between Artemisia ordosica communities and environmental factors following sand-dune stabilization in the Mu Us desert, northwest China

“…1). Many studies have found vegetation coverage increases following sand-dune stabilization in arid and Relationships between Artemisia ordosica communities and environmental factors following… 119 Table 3 Pearson's correlation among vegetation characteristics, soil factors, and topographical factors semi-arid regions (Li 2005;Song et al 2011;Li et al 2014). With sand fixation, Liu et al (2004) observed plant species richness would first increase and then decrease or would simply remain unchanged, whereas Baniya et al (2009) reported that species richness gradually increases.…”

“…In the F dunes, there were moderate soil moisture and nutrient conditions, and soil heterogeneity following sand fixation, which were similar to intermediate disturbance habitats (Connell 1978;Catford et al 2012). This kind of habitat could provide adequate opportunities and suitable environmental conditions for the colonization and survival of plants with different types and life forms (Bever 2003;Li 2005;Zuo et al 2009;Song et al 2011).…”

“…In addition, vegetation coverage and species diversity are two important features of plant communities. Many studies have shown that the impact of environmental factors on these two features is rather complex (Kerley et al 2004;Song et al 2011). In-depth analysis of the relationships between the vegetation characteristics (including vegetation distribution, vegetation coverage, and plant-species diversity) and environmental factors during sand stabilization can provide important information related to the management of desert vegetation communities, and protection and restoration of arid and semi-arid sand dune ecosystems.…”

Dynamic Monitoring of Vegetation Coverage by Remote Sensing in Longnan City of Gansu Province based on VBSI

“…However, the regression model method has certain limitations in that it is only applicable to specific areas and vegetation types, and relies heavily on the measured data to establish the model. Many studies have demonstrated that the models set up by vegetation index method to estimate vegetation coverage can form a general calculation method [7,8]. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) [9], ratio vegetation index (RVI) [10], modified vegetation index (MVI) [11], and soil regulated vegetation index (SAVI) [12] are commonly used.…”

Distribution of plant species and species-soil relationship in the east central Gurbantunggut Desert, China

“…The vegetation of Gurbantunggut Desert has been widely studied in recent 10 years with respect to vegetation distribution and vegetation-environment relationships, vegetation patterns and species-environment relationships (Qian et al, 2007;Qian and Wu, 2008;Song et al, 2011;Fan et al, 2013;Zhang et al, 2013), relationships between vegetation pattern and topography (Xie and Liu, 2010), response of herbaceous species to snow variability (Fan et al, 2012), diversity of plant community (Zhao et al, 2010), plant diversity and spatial pattern of dominant population (Zhang et al, 2003;Tang et al, 2010), soil chemical properties supporting dominant species (Li et al, 2010;Li et al, 2011), environmental limitations on the recruitment of the plant species (Zhang et al, 2011), response of ephermal plants to water and heat (Wang et al, 2006;Chen et al, 2008) and grassland-environment relationship (Xu, 1998). However, the areas investigated in previous studies were all within the southern part of the desert which is close to the oasis zone where several millions of people reside.…”