2014 Vol. 0, No. 3

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Articles
Valuation of Lake and Marsh Wetlands Ecosystem Services in China
ZHANG Yiran, ZHOU Demin, NIU Zhenguo, XU Fengjiao
2014, 0(3): 269-278. doi: 10.1007/s11769-013-0648-z
Abstract:
Wetlands are highly productive natural ecosystems, providing valuable goods and services. There is growing interest in transferring ecosystem service value from the existing wetlands studied to other wetlands ecosystems at a large geographic scale. The benefit transfer method uses the known values from wetlands to predict the value of other wetland sites. This methodology requires only limited time and resources. The present study calculated the value of the ecological services provided by lake and marsh wetlands in China in terms of biodiversity indices, water quality indices and economic indices. Basic data on wetlands were obtained through remote sensing images. The results show that: 1) The total ecosystem service value of the lake and marsh wetlands in 2008 was calculated to be 8.1841×1010 United States Dollars (USD), with the marsh and lake wetlands contributing 5.6329×1010 and 2.5512×1010 USD, respectively. Values of marsh ecosystem service were concentrated in Heilongjiang Province (2.5516×1010 USD), Qinghai Province (1.2014×1010 USD), and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (1.1884×1010 USD). The value of the lakes were concentrated in Tibet Autonomous Region (6.223×109 USD), Heilongjiang (5.810×109 USD), and Qinghai (5.500×109 USD). 2) Waste treatment and climate regulation services contributed to 26.29% and 24.74% respectively, of the total ecosystem service value of the marsh wetlands. Hydrological regulation and waste treatment contributed to 41.39% and 32.75%, respectively, of the total ecosystem service value of the lake wetlands. 3) The total ecological service value of the lake and marsh wetlands was 54.64% of the total service value of natural grassland ecosystems and 30.34% of the total service value of forests ecosystems in China.
Denitrification Potential of Marsh Soils in Two Natural Saline-alkaline Wetlands
BAI Junhong, ZHAO Qingqing, WANG Junjing, LU Qiongqiong, YE Xiaofei, GAO Zhaoqin
2014, 0(3): 279-286. doi: 10.1007/s11769-014-0669-2
Abstract:
Little information is available on denitrification potential of marsh soils in natural saline-alkaline wetlands. The denitrification potentials of an open wetland in the floodplain (Erbaifangzi wetland) and a closed wetland (Fulaowenpao wetland) in backwater areas in Jilin Province of Northeast China were monitored by an anaerobic incubation at 30℃ for 25 days. Our results showed that the relative denitrification index (RDI) increased gradually with incubation time, and showed a rapid increase in the first 5 days of incubation. The RDI values declined quickly from surface soils to subsurface soils and then kept a small change in deeper soils along soil profiles over the incubation time. Denitrification proceeded much faster in the top 20 cm soils of open wetland than in the closed wetland, whereas no significant differences in RDI values were observed in deeper soils between both wetlands. The RDIs were significantly negatively correlated with bulk density and sand content, while a significantly positive correlation with clay content, soil organic matter, total nitrogen and phosphorous. The maximum net NO3--N loss through denitrification in 1 m depth were higher in the open wetland than the closed wetland with higher soil pH values. Future research should be focused on understanding the influencing mechanisms of soil alkalinity.
Diurnal and Seasonal Dynamics of Soil Respiration at Temperate Leymus Chinensis Meadow Steppes in Western Songnen Plain, China
WANG Ming, LIU Xingtu, ZHANG Jitao, LI Xiujun, WANG Guodong, LI Xiaoyu, LU Xinrui
2014, 0(3): 287-296. doi: 10.1007/s11769-014-0682-5
Abstract:
To evaluate the diurnal and seasonal variations in soil respiration (Rs) and understand the controlling factors, we measured carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes and their environmental variables using a LI-6400 soil CO2 flux system at a temperate Leymus chinensis meadow steppe in the western Songnen Plain of China in the growing season (May-October) in 2011 and 2012. The diurnal patterns of soil respiration could be expressed as single peak curves, reaching to the maximum at 11:00-15:00 and falling to the minimum at 21:00-23:00 (or before dawn). The time-window between 7:00 and 9:00 could be used as the optimal measuring time to represent the daily mean soil CO2 efflux. In the growing season, the daily value of soil CO2 efflux was moderate in late spring (1.06-2.51 μmol/(m2·s) in May), increased sharply and presented a peak in summer (2.95-3.94 μmol/(m2·s) in July), and then decreased in autumn (0.74-0.97 μmol/(m2·s) in October). Soil temperature (Ts) exerted dominant control on the diurnal and seasonal variations of soil respiration. The temperature sensitivity of soil respiration (Q10) exhibited a large seasonal variation, ranging from 1.35 to 3.32, and decreased with an increasing soil temperature. Rs gradually increased with increasing soil water content (Ws) and tended to decrease when Ws exceeded the optimum water content (27%) of Rs. The Ts and Ws had a confounding effect on Rs, and the two-variable equations could account for 72% of the variation in soil respiration (p < 0.01).
Land Use Effects on Soil Organic Carbon, Microbial Biomass and Microbial Activity in Changbai Mountains of Northeast China
FANG Xiangmin, WANG Qingli, ZHOU Wangming, ZHAO Wei, WEI Yawei, NIU Lijun, DAI Limin
2014, 0(3): 297-306. doi: 10.1007/s11769-014-0670-9
Abstract:
Land use changes are known to alter soil organic carbon (SOC) and microbial properties, however, information about how conversion of natural forest to agricultural land use as well as plantations affects SOC and microbial properties in the Changbai Mountains of Northeast China is meager. Soil carbon content, microbial biomass carbon (MBC), basal respiration and soil carbon mineralization were studied in five selected types of land use: natural old-growth broad-leaved Korean pine mixed forest (NF); spruce plantation (SP) established following clear-cutting of NF; cropland (CL); ginseng farmland (GF) previously under NF; and a five-year Mongolian oak young forest (YF) reforested on an abandoned GF, in the Changbai Mountains of Northeast China in 2011. Results showed that SOC content was significantly lower in SP, CL, GF, and YF than in NF. MBC ranged from 304.4 mg/kg in CL to 1350.3 mg/kg in NF, which was significantly higher in the soil of NF than any soil of the other four land use types. The SOC and MBC contents were higher in SP soil than in CL, GF, and YF soils, yielding a significant difference between SP and CL. The value of basal respiration was also higher in NF than in SP, CL, GF, and YF. Simultaneously, higher values of the metabolic quotient were detected in CL, GF, and YF soils, indicating low substrate utilization of the soil microbial community compared with that in NF and SP soil. The values of cumulative mineralized carbon and potentially mineralized carbon (C0) in NF were significantly higher than those in CL and GF, while no significant difference was observed between NF and SP. In addition, YF had higher values of C0 and C mineralization rate compared with GF. The results indicate that conversion from NF into agricultural land (CL and GF) uses and plantation may lead to a reduction in soil nutrients (SOC and MBC) and substrate utilization efficiency of the microbial community. By contrast, soils below SP were more conducive to the preservation of soil organic matter, which was reflected in the comparison of microbial indicators among CL, GF, and YF land uses. This study can provide data for evaluating soils nutrients under different land use types, and serve as references for the rational land use of natural forest in the study area.
Quantitative Assessment of Remotely Sensed Global Surface Models Using Various Land Classes Produced from Landsat Data in Istanbul
Naci YASTIKLI, Umut G SEFERCIK, Fatih ESIRTGEN
2014, 0(3): 307-316. doi: 10.1007/s11769-014-0681-6
Abstract:
Digital elevation model (DEM) is the most popular product for three-dimensional (3D) digital representation of bare Earth surface and can be produced by many techniques with different characteristics and ground sampling distances (GSD). Space-borne optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging are two of the most preferred and modern techniques for DEM generation. Using them, global DEMs that cover almost entire Earth are produced with low cost and time saving processing. In this study, we aimed to assess the Satellite pour l'observation de la Terre-5 (SPOT-5), High Resolution Stereoscopic (HRS), the Advanced Space-borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), and the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) C-band global DEMs, produced with space-borne optical and SAR imaging. For the assessment, a reference DEM derived from 1:1000 scaled digital photogrammetric maps was used. The study is performed in 100 km2 study area in Istanbul including various land classes such as open land, forest, built-up land, scrub and rough terrain obtained from Landsat data. The analyses were realized considering three vertical accuracy types as fundamental, supplemental, and consolidated, defined by national digital elevation program (NDEP) of USA. The results showed that, vertical accuracy of SRTM C-band DEM is better than optical models in all three accuracy types despite having the largest grid spacing. The result of SPOT-5 HRS DEM is very close by SRTM and superior in comparison with ASTER models.
Characterizing Landscape Spatial Heterogeneity in Multisensor Images with Variogram Models
QIU Bingwen, ZENG Canying, CHENG Chongcheng, TANG Zhenghong, GAO Jianyang, SUI Yinpo
2014, 0(3): 317-327. doi: 10.1007/s11769-013-0649-y
Abstract:
Most evaluation of the consistency of multisensor images have focused on Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) products for natural landscapes, often neglecting less vegetated urban landscapes. This gap has been filled through quantifying and evaluating spatial heterogeneity of urban and natural landscapes from QuickBird, Satellite pour l'observation de la Terre (SPOT), Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) and Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) images with variogram analysis. Instead of a logarithmic relationship with pixel size observed in the corresponding aggregated images, the spatial variability decayed and the spatial structures decomposed more slowly and complexly with spatial resolution for real multisensor images. As the spatial resolution increased, the proportion of spatial variability of the smaller spatial structure decreased quickly and only a larger spatial structure was observed at very coarse scales. Compared with visible band, greater spatial variability was observed in near infrared band for both densely and less densely vegetated landscapes. The influence of image size on spatial heterogeneity was highly dependent on whether the empirical semivariogram reached its sill within the original image size. When the empirical semivariogram did not reach its sill at the original observation scale, spatial variability and mean characteristic length scale would increase with image size; otherwise they might decrease. This study could provide new insights into the knowledge of spatial heterogeneity in real multisensor images with consideration of their nominal spatial resolution, image size and spectral bands.
Extraction and Analysis of Gully Head of Loess Plateau in China Based on Digital Elevation Model
ZHU Hongchun, TANG Guoan, QIAN Kejian, LIU Haiying
2014, 0(3): 328-338. doi: 10.1007/s11769-014-0663-8
Abstract:
In China's Loess Plateau area, gully head is the most active zone of a drainage system in gully areas. The differentiation of loess gully head follows geospatial patterns and reflects the process of the loess landform development and evolution of its drainage system to some extent. In this study, the geomorphic meaning, basic characteristics, morphological structure and the basic types of loess gully heads were systematically analysed. Then, the loess gully head's conceptual model was established, and an extraction method based on Digital Elevation Model (DEM) for loess gully head features and elements was proposed. Through analysing the achieved statistics of loess gully head features, loess gully heads have apparently similar and different characteristics depending on the different loess landforms where they are found. The loess head characteristics reflect their growth period and evolution tendency to a certain degree, and they indirectly represent evolutionary mechanisms. In addition, the loess gully developmental stages and the evolutionary processes can be deduced by using loess gully head characteristics. This study is of great significance for development and improvement of the theoretical system for describing loess gully landforms.
Co-occurrence Patterns of Above-ground and Below-ground Mite Communities in Farmland of Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China
LIN Lin, GAO Meixiang, LIU Dong, ZHANG Xueping, WU Haitao, WU Donghui
2014, 0(3): 339-347. doi: 10.1007/s11769-014-0683-4
Abstract:
One of the fundamental questions in community ecology is whether communities are random or formed by deterministic mechanisms. Although many efforts have been made to verify non-randomness in community structure, little is known with regard to co-occurrence patterns in above-ground and below-ground communities. In this paper, we used a null model to test non-randomness in the structure of the above-ground and below-ground mite communities in farmland of the Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China. Then, we used four tests for non-randomness to recognize species pairs that would be demonstrated as significantly aggregated or segregated co-occurrences of the above-ground and below-ground mite communities. The co-occurrence pattern of the above-ground mite community was significantly non-random in October, suggesting species segregation and hence interspecific competition. Additionally, species co-occurrence patterns did not differ from randomness in the above-ground mite community in August or in below-ground mite communities in August and October. Only one significant species pair was detected in the above-ground mite community in August, while no significant species pairs were recognized in the above-ground mite community in October or in the below-ground mite communities in August and October. The results indicate that non-randomness and significant species pairs may not be the general rule in the above-ground and below-ground mite communities in farmland of the Sanjiang Plain at the fine scale.
An Open Source Toolkit for Identifying Comparative Space-time Research Questions
YE Xinyue, SHE Bing, WU Ling, ZHU Xinyan, CHENG Yeqing
2014, 0(3): 348-361. doi: 10.1007/s11769-014-0679-0
Abstract:
Comparative space-time thinking lies at the heart of spatiotemporally integrated social sciences. The multiple dimensions and scales of socioeconomic dynamics pose numerous challenges for the application and evaluation of public policies in the comparative context. At the same time, social scientists have been slow to adopt and implement new spatiotemporally explicit methods of data analysis due to the lack of extensible software packages, which becomes a major impediment to the promotion of spatiotemporal thinking. The proposed framework will address this need by developing a set of research questions based on space-time-distributional features of socioeconomic datasets. The authors aim to develop, evaluate, and implement this framework in an open source toolkit to comprehensively quantify the changes and level of hidden variation of space-time datasets across scales and dimensions. Free access to the source code allows a broader community to incorporate additional advances in perspectives and methods, thus facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration. Being written in Python, it is entirely cross-platform, lowering transmission costs in research and education.
World Cities and International Organizations:Political Global-city Status of Chinese Cities
SU Nian, XUE Desheng, John AGNEW
2014, 0(3): 362-374. doi: 10.1007/s11769-014-0677-2
Abstract:
In this study, the authors use a political perspective to explore the relative global status of cities in China. Two questions are addressed. Firstly, by using international organizations as the subjects and quantitative analysis of the spatial distribution of their offices, the overall position of Chinese cities in the global distribution of international organizations is estimated. The results show that 22 Chinese cities are involved in international political affairs. Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou dominate these activities and have high political global-city status. Secondly, through qualitative analysis of Guangzhou City, the authors explore how its status as a center for international organizations has been shaped in recent years. The locational decision-making process is analyzed and the factors are demonstrated at both national and city scales. The definition of international organizations as used in this study refers not only to those supranational bodies that have the ability to manage relations across states (such as the European Union), but also those inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) and diplomatic representatives and delegations that today also manage and regulate relations between and among states.
Spatial Structure of Central Places in Jilin Central Urban Agglomeration, Jilin Province, China
WANG Shijun, WANG Yongchao, WANG Dan
2014, 0(3): 375-383. doi: 10.1007/s11769-014-0684-3
Abstract:
Using the radius of gyration from fractal theory, this paper describes the calculation of fractal dimensions for the four tiers of central places in the Jilin Central Urban Agglomeration (JCUA), Jilin Province, China and the structural characteristics of each tier: 1) the 1st tier central place, Changchun Proper (not including Shuangyang District), provides the most service functions and has the most stable primate position; 2) the 2nd tier central places, Jilin Proper, Siping Proper, Liaoyuan Proper and Songyuan Proper have unclear statuses and do not provide certain functions; 3) the 3rd tier central places comprise 23 county-level cities, counties and urban districts (including Shuangyang District of Changchun), exhibiting a dense spatial structure that agrees with theory; 4) the 4th tier contains the largest number of central places (248 designated towns), but they are loosely distributed. In this study, a spatial image of the JCUA was created, based on vectorized data of the urban settlement distribution, which was then modified and abstracted to create a hexagonal network covering the JCUA. Compared to the traditional central place model, the modified spatial image conforms to the K = 3 principle. In reality, however, the growth of some 3rd tier central places should be increased with the cities being upgraded to the 2nd tier so as to overcome that tier's functional deficiency. The loose distribution in the 4th tier should also be changed. This apparent anomaly can be explained by the fact that the classic hexagon model used to describe the way market areas layout does not exist in the real world. However, this should not be viewed as an obstacle to using central place theory. If its assumptions are properly applied, it can still assist research into the spatial structure of regions.
Empirical Analysis of City Contact in Zhujiang (Pearl) River Delta, China
TONG De, LIU Tao, LI Guicai, YU Lei
2014, 0(3): 384-392. doi: 10.1007/s11769-014-0667-4
Abstract:
In traditional urban geography, city contact research is a classic study element in city research. In general, researchers use the traditional gravity model to characterize the contacts that exist between two cities. The traditional gravity model assumes ideal conditions, but these preconditions and their results often do not exist in realistic conditions. Thus, we used a modified gravity model to characterize the city contacts within a specific region. This model considers factors such as intercity complementarities, government intervention, and the diversity of the transportation infrastructure which is characterized as the transportation distance instead of the traditional Euclidean distance. We applied this model to an empirical study of city contact in the Zhujiang (Pearl) River Delta (PRD) of China. The regression results indicated that the modified gravity model could measure city contact more accurately and comprehensively than the traditional gravity model, i.e., it yielded a higher adjusted R2 value (0.379) than the traditional gravity model result (0.259). Our study also suggests that, in addition to urban-regional and metropolitan development, the complementarities of the basic functions of cities at the administrative and market levels, as well as the corporeal and immaterial levels, play very significant roles in the characterization of city contact. Given the complexity of city contact, it will be necessary to consider more relevant influential factors in the modified gravity model to characterize the features of city contact in the future.